Memory of Yeats greats invoked as Sligo face Galway

JUST two provincial title successes in over 100 years and a mere three victories over Galway in the same period highlight the challenge that faces Sligo in their Connacht SFC opener against the Tribesmen in Pearse Stadium tomorrow. Jim O’Sullivan reports.

MICKEY KEARINS, Barnes Murphy and Eamon O’Hara are a select bunch. Only O’Hara would be known to younger followers, widely acclaimed for his skill and powers of leadership in Sligo’s extended run in the 2002 championship.

Kearins is recognised as one of the Yeats County’s all-time great players, while Murphy also belongs to the older generation. The latter were members of the team that won Sligo’s last Connacht title, in 1975, before running up against the emerging Kerry combination ruled the championship for the greater part of a decade.

The one thing the three players have in common is that they won All-stars — Sligo’s only award-winners. Kearins was on the inaugural All-star team in 1971, Murphy three years later and O’Hara, predictably, in 2002 — following Sligo’s last appearance in Croke Park.

There are those who would argue that the excellent campaign of four years ago was almost entirely down to O’Hara’s individual class, and that it highlighted what a player of his class could do for a team.

Sligo’s long-time county secretary Tommy Kilcoyne, recently appointed assistant tour manager with the Irish squad for the international rules series, doesn’t agree with that view.

While acknowledging that O’Hara has proved himself ‘an exceptional’ footballer, he says it would be unfair to players like Dessie Sloyan (who got 14 points in the two games against Armagh in 2002), Noel McGuire and Paul Durcan to suggest that it was a one-man team.

Kilcoyne’s assessment is that Sligo operate from a limited base and that it’s a struggle most years to come to terms with Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

“Our problem really is that we don’t have the base of under-age success that other counties would have,” he comments. The records make for upsetting reading. Sligo haven’t won a Connacht minor championship since 1968 (when they made it to the All-Ireland final but lost to Cork), while Galway (last year) and Mayo (a fortnight ago) have claimed the last two All-Ireland U21 titles.

“That is always the big problem we face. Even when we have a good team, we are coming up against a Mayo or Galway team that is even better. And, we are now at a transition stage. Quite a number of the 2002 team are gone.”

Mickey Moran is credited with playing a key role in raising the county’s standard, having been with the team for four years, followed by Peter Ford. Now, they are the respective Mayo and Galway managers. These two appointments were made after the board decided, in 1994, to go for ‘an outside manager,’ (PJ Carroll was the first).

In the 2002, Connacht championship, they reached the final for only the third time since 1975 by beating New York and Leitrim. And, the team went agonisingly close in the decider, losing by just a goal (1-11 to 0-11) to Galway. Interestingly, they were to fare slightly better than Galway in the All-Ireland series. After shocking Tyrone in the fourth round of the qualifier competition, they held (eventual champions) Armagh to a draw in the quarter-final and lost the replay by two points. Galway were well beaten by Kerry at the same stage.

Results in the 2003 and 2004 campaigns weren’t good. And, the 2004 campaign ended controversially when the then manager James Kearins opted out of the Tommy Murphy Cup.

However, despite suffering a shock defeat at the hands of Leitrim last year, Sligo bounced back with wins over Longford, Kildare and Clare before going under to Cork.

Kilcoyne points out that Sligo operates from a fairly limited club base — in effect about 25 clubs — sixteen of which are taking part in this year’s county championship. In the meantime, the job of promoting and developing the game continues with renewed vigour. Two football coaches were recently appointed, and Liam Óg Gormley, from the Bunninaden club, last month started as Sligo’s coaching & games administrator — in conjunction with the Connacht council. Schools of excellence, meanwhile, are in place at under-age level.

The exploits of the 2002 team, especially notable for their win over Tyrone and marvellous recovery against Armagh in the first game (from being seven points down early in the second half), are still fresh in Sligo followers’ collective memory. Sligo, and dedicated people like Tommy Kilcoyne hope and pray for more days like them in Croke Park.