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Hey, this is the archive section. Pick a year, pick a month, have a nosey.Shortie
Up Down
20-09-2010Now that is a paradox of a team cheer is I ever heard of one. Still a glorious cheer none the less. My home county competed in the All Ireland Final this weekend. It had been 16 years since we made it to a final in Croke Park. The county has been waiting with baited breath since 1994.
We watched as our team of champions grew older and passed on the baton to their successors. We watched as that team fell at the early hurdle. We never lost faith although we grew weary.
Then in 2005 we watched as a young minor team took home the All Ireland Minor Cup and the flickers of our faith burned a little brighter. Many of these young lads progressed to the Senior Squad where under the watchful reign of Carr and now McCartan they were molded into a team with a chance, a dream and a belief in themselves.
All this culminated in a very young Down squad succeeding were so many Mourne men before them had failed, they reached the final. They surpassed many expectations, for a side so young many believed them to still need a few more seasons to come into their stride. They surged through the qualifiers with a renewed hope of bringing Sam home.
They played their hearts out and although I cannot be the bearer of better news, they lost. But not without a fight and not to a team that did not deserve to win.
Fair play to the lads from Cork, who have known the pain to lose an All Ireland Final not once but twice in a row, fair play to these lads who came back from this to take what was rightfully theirs on Sunday, painfully for us as it was the lowest of margins in the end. A mere point sealed our fate.
But as a Co Down woman I say fair play to the young lads who went out there and gave it their all. There are plenty more finals to come for this team, I don't doubt for a second that Croker has not seen the last of us. I know that those players can look into themselves and find the same spirit that Cork did, that spirit to pick themselves up, hold their heads high and come back again next year with the same hunger for the title.
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