United front works a treat for Ahán Gaels

In 2008, a lack of resources brought the underage players of St Mary’s and Diarmuid Ó Mathúnas together under the Ahán Gaels banner.

Both hailing from the parish of Enniskeane, they once operated together at adult level — and may do so again in the near future — and the amalgamated juvenile setup has proven a tremendous success.

This year’s minors have only ever played for Ahán Gaels and that cohesion came to the fore as the county MAHC title was claimed with victory over Courcey Rovers.

That saw them honoured as the final Rebel Óg monthly winners of the year, with manager Pat Lucey aware of the magnitude of the achievement.

“The amalgamated club had won an U15B football championship, but this would be the biggest one by a distance,” he said.

“Coming from West Cork, to win an A-grade hurling title is a huge thing, there aren’t many clubs from back that way that have won it. To beat the likes of Courcey Rovers, a team of that calibre, was outstanding.

“I know we only just got over the line, but we got there.”

Joining together was essential, Lucey maintained.

“It was a necessity, numbers were very scarce. We couldn’t field, neither club could, it was as simple as that. Something had to be done and it has proved to be a fierce success.

“Everything went very smoothly. The right people were got in at the start and it has worked very well. The way we did it was that there are four involved, two from each club and everything was spot on.

“You mightn’t have four for every team but, by and large, it has gone very well.

“This year, we did most of our hurling in Enniskeane and Castletown for the football, it’s probably a better hurling pitch in Enniskeane!”

Lucey does concede, though, that county glory wasn’t at the forefront of their minds setting out.

“Being honest, no, not the county.

“We had high hopes alright of winning the West regional championship. When we got to the final against Ibane Gaels — a combination of Argideen Rangers and Barryroe, two intermediate hurling clubs — we were confident enough going into it.

“Fellas were going well and, as it turned out, we went seven or eight points up after 10 minutes and we never looked back, really.

“As went on then, every game was a bonus. Fellas were getting better. We had a few lads who might have been barely making the team early on but they all upped their game, which was a big plus. They gained momentum, without a doubt.

“There’s 10 of the 15 gone for next year, but the five left are five good lads.

“We’ll be very young, realistically we’d be struggling to win the West championship. Then again, this might bring ladeens on. When we played the league semi-final, we had a few players who mightn’t have been playing in the championship but they stepped up well.”