Bucks fizzes as Newcestown walking in double dreamland

Newcestown win county title, secure promotion, clinch double and take home the bragging rights

Newcestown 0-13

Dohenys 0-8

KIERAN McCARTHY REPORTS

PÁIRC UÍ Chaoimh had almost emptied on Saturday evening, as Luke Meade and James Kelleher left the celebrations in the Newcestown dressing-room to meet a man who helped make the dream possible.

Twenty minutes earlier captain fantastic Meade punched the cold November air holding the Kevin McTernan Cup after Newcestown’s latest triumph – they had beaten neighbours Dohenys to win the Bon Secours Senior A Football Championship title.

Now, Meade, gripping the cup, and Kelleher strode to the corner of the ground between the South Stand and the City End to meet Dan Cahalane – the man from Coolenaugh is one of the surviving founding members of Newcestown GAA Club.

In 1958, when the club was formed, Cahalane was elected on the committee and now 65 years later, he was there again for another milestone moment in this incredible club, as Newcestown completed a unique double. Two weeks earlier at the same venue, they had won the county senior A hurling title, and now they snaffled up the football crown, too. Promotion guaranteed back to the top tier in both codes, as well. The perfect season. No wonder Dan Cahalane was smiling.

Newcestown GAA Club founding member celebrates with James Kelleher and captain Luke Meade.

The three men posed for a photo with the cup, as past and present celebrated together, and perhaps it’s fitting that it was the present and future of the club – 22-year-old David Buckley – who lit up this derby final.

Bucks fizzed on the big stage, to the extent this was The David Buckley Final. He kicked nine points; that’s more than the entire Dohenys team. Seven of those were in the second half alone, with veteran Tadhg Twomey, 18 years older than Buckley, the only other Newcestown scorer in the second period. Newcestown, as an entity, are built on the collective, but on Saturday night Buckley showed they have players with magic in their boots, too.

‘He is some man. Unbelievable. He has had a few tough years with injuries, but you saw tonight he is top class,’ captain Luke Meade gushed.

‘Bucks and the boys did the job for us up front. In the first half we didn’t come out at all, but we pulled away in the second half.’

While the Newcestown juggernaut took over in the second period, it took its time to move up through the gears in the opening half. Instead, it was Dohenys, an uncoiled spring after no competitive game since their semi-final win on October 7th, who moved with intent and and purpose in the opening quarter. The men in green lashed over three points in the first four minutes – two from Keith White followed by a beauty from Colm O’Shea.

Dohenys' Sean Daly is held back by Newcestown's Jack Meade during the derby final.

A Buckley close-in free in the sixth minute briefly stopped the green waves that attacked the City End, but further points from Colm O’Shea and midfielder Johnny Kelly saw Dohenys lead 0-5 to 0-1 after 14 minutes. But this experienced Newcestown group, in their 13th championship game of the campaign, didn’t reach for the panic button.

‘We weren’t playing well, but we didn’t panic,’ Luke Meade explained. ‘It was five weeks since we last played a game of football so it was always going to be a shakey start. They had a strong wind in the first half so we did well to stem the tide.’

Newcestown settled. Jack Meade hit a quick-fire brace, the first from a mark and the second from close-range after dancing his way into space. Niall Kelly then added a third in a three-minute spell to pull the double-chasers to within one, 0-5 to 0-4, by the 17th minute. Eight minutes later, Buckley levelled. The Dohenys attack wasn’t finding the space they had in the opening exchanges, as the full-forward line of White, Fionn Herlihy and Mark Buckley was being blunted. The Dohenys kick-out was suffering too; perfect in the semi-final against Knocknagree, they lost five of their eight kick-outs in the opening half. White’s third point of the evening did give Dohenys a slender lead at half time, 0-6 to 0-5, but Newcestown, with the wind in the second half, had the air of a team in total control.

The second half belonged to Tim Buckley’s men. His son David bossed the second period. The in-form Newcestown full-forward hit a brace to push his side in front for the first time after 33 minutes. Colm O’Shea, from a free, levelled for Dohenys – but they had to wait 26 minutes for their next score, a 63rd-minute effort from Gavin Farr.

The Newcestown team celebrates after defeating Dohenys in the Bon Secours SAFC final. (Photo: Paddy Feen)

In the interim Newcestown reeled off six points in a row to take total control – Buckley kicked five of these six points as the winners surged 0-13 to 0-7 ahead. This all-Carbery derby was going all one-way. As Dohenys struggled to punch holes in the Newcestown rearguard, up the other end Buckley was having the game of his life; no wonder Luke Meade named the Newcestown star in his dream seven-a-side football team in the match programme.

‘I was sitting at the back most of the time, and the boys up front were unbelievable. We had been forcing the ball in the first half, but we were more patient in the second half, worked the ball and worked the scores,’ Luke Meade said, and the end result is he was the Newcestown man to lift the cup after this famous win that will shorten the winter for a group of players who have put their club on the map. And founding member Dan Cahalane was there to soak it all in.

Scorers

Newcestown: David Buckley 0-9 (3f); Jack Meade 0-2 (1m); Niall Kelly, Tadhg Twomey 0-1 each.

Dohenys: Keith White, Colm O’Shea (2f) 0-3 each; Johnny Kelly, Gavin Farr 0-1 each.

Newcestown: Christopher White; Niall Murray, Cian Twomey, Gearoid O’Donovan; James Kelleher, Micheál McSweeney, Luke Meade; Trevor Horgan, Conor Goggin; Richard O’Sullivan, Tadhg Twomey, Sean O’Donovan; Jack Meade, David Buckley, Niall Kelly.

Subs: Carthach Keane for N Murray (51), Seamus O’Sullivan for N Kelly (51), Colm Dinneen for J Kelleher (58), Joe Kenneally for C Goggin (60), Eoghan Collins for J Meade (60).

Dohenys: Stephen Daly; Jerry Farrell, Sean Daly, Donal Rice; Cullan Barry, Eoin Lavers, Barry O’Donovan; Johnny Kelly, Rhys Coakley; Adam O’Donovan, Colm O’Shea, Cathal Daly; Keith White, Fionn Herlihy, Mark Buckley.

Subs: Billy Murphy for B O’Donovan (42), Aaron Mannix for A O’Donovan (51), Gavin Farr for C O’Shea (58), Paudie Crowley for M Buckley (58), Declan Collins for J Farrell (60).

Referee: John Ryan (Macroom).