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CBS SENIOR FOOTBALLERS 00/01 The footballers this year won their group easily only to be narrowly defeated in the South Leinster Final by FCJ Bunclody. Senior Football Review 2001 “Sport is all about taking part”, somebody once said. In the light of this years Senior Football campaign we would have to disagree with this. Sport today is about winning. Enjoyment is winning and defeat is always painful. No more was this ever true than following our South Leinster defeat to FCT Bunclody in the second week in February. Up to that date we had made significant progress. Starting back to train in September, we had a panel with a mixture of young and experienced players. The league games came and went. They were good practice. The now annual meeting with Ballyfin arrived at the end of November. Difficult conditions, hard challenges and after ten minutes of the second half down by five points. Our pride at stake, two long range points, one from a ‘45’ by Shawn Tobin and a second from the right boot of Alan Kingsley turned the game in our favour. Colm Kelly iced with a penalty in the 25th minute. Wins followed against Heywood, in Abbeyleix and Athy in the Heath and we set ourselves up for a South Leinster Quarter Final-place against Naas CBS. This was our best preformance of the year. Played in Stradbally it was game where our forwards excelled and it seemed everytime they had the ball they could score. Our half back line shone in the second half but Naas although defeated were a very determined and relentless outfit. After a slow start in the Semi-Final against a Carlow CBS side that included former pupil Peter O’Sullivan, we took the game to them in the final quarter. William Lawlor, just 5 minutes on, took his chance well and slotted the ball into the net from close range. We won by five points. With confidence high, work rates good and team spirit strong we agreed at the team meeting this final was going to be ours. It was, until ten minutes into the second half. Two goals within minutes of each other were cruel blows and Buncludy found the momentum which they lacked in the first half. We couldn’t recover. We rallied but they held firm. They went on to retain their title, their third in a row. Portlaoise CBS made the long walk. The players deserved more. We can and will come back after this. |
