News: Greencastle reign in Croke
Date: 12th March 2007

THE hills around the small village of Greencastle in the Sperrin range were alive to the sound of music at the weekend and the recurring refrain that rang out was ‘We are the champions.’

Most of the one thousand inhabitants of this small parish between Draperstown and Omagh must have been standing on the Croke Park pitch on Saturday evening as team captain Martin Conway held the cup aloft into the night sky.

They had become the first club from the O’Neill county to win an All-Ireland club title and there was no prouder man than team manager and former Tyrone Ulster Championship-winning captain Sean Teague, who stood on the periphery of the green-and-white-clad throng of Greencastle supporters and drank in the scenes of utter jubilation, his young son Tiernan nestling happily in his arms.

“How can you describe that? That’s our parish out there, there are very few left at home. It’s unreal, words cannot describe it, most of Greencastle are here, it will not sink in for a while yet,” he said.

While Greencastle had a great team ethic, flagged up by the manager when he said, “All over the field every player did his job”, there were a number of individual whose displays played decisive roles in the victory.

None more so that the tigerish corner- back Damian O’Hagan, described by Teague as having had “an exceptional game”.

Of top scorer, and probably man of the match for his 0-6 tally, Terry McDermott he commented: “He can kick a ball, he knows how to kick it”. He certainly did as he picked off some fabulous points from distance.

And then there was the work-rate of midfielder Enda Clarke, described by Teague as “a big strong physical player but such a good footballer as well”, who gave Greencastle such a commanding presence, especially in the final quarter when Duagh mounted a serious challenge.

The Tyrone and Ulster champions made a perfect start with a brace of points from Terry McDermott, the second from a free, inside two minutes, taking a 0-3 to 0-1 lead with a
Barry Tracey pointed free after 11minutes.

Duagh captain Aiden Kelly started to make inroads through the centre and his side took a 0-5 to 0-3 lead by the 20th minute, with centre-back Tom Dillon converting two frees. Declan Griffin and Anthony Maher were also on target after Denis Lane had fisted the first point in the seventh minute. 

Teague moved quickly to close off the centre, bringing on Gerard McCullagh at centre-back and rearranging the defensive formation to try and blunt the growing effectiveness of Kelly.

Two superb scores from McDermott tied the scores but the accurate Dillon landed two more frees, the second to give Duagh a 0-7 to 0-5 lead after Martin Conway had levelled the scores in the last minute of the half. 

Dillon extended the Duagh lead with his fifth pointed free on the restart, but the Green and Whites then hit a purple patch as Enda Clarke, Barry Tracey, Terry McDermott, Barry McNulty and Tracey from a free pointed between the 35th and 43rd minute to open up a 0-11 to 0-8 advantage.

Twice in the final quarter, Duagh closed the gap to the minimum but Greencastle held on, although the Kerry side were furious when the referee blew the final whistle just as Peter Sheerin was about to shoot from 30 metres in front of the posts.

When asked to compare the victory with his achievements with the county team, Sean Teague said: “Ah, way past it. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed every minute with Tyrone, and was greatly honoured to play and captain them, but this beats it’s all. When you come back to your own it’s something special.”