History beckons but Nicholas and St Mary's keep focus on the here and now

They may be considered the hottest of hot favourites for this year’s Connacht Gold Leitrim Senior Championship but St Mary’s Kiltoghert are firmly keeping both feet planted on the ground as they seek to win back to back Fenagh Cups for the first time in the illustrious history.

The defending champions have tasted ultimate glory six times in their history but have never successfully defended their title, a statistic that joint captain Nicholas McWeeney is very much aware of but insists the Carrick based team will be concentrating purely on the here and now rather than looking too far ahead.

“Never been done in the club yet, hopefully this year,” is Nicholas’ reaction when asked about defending the title but revealing “That doesn’t really come into it, it is a new championship - I think we were underdogs last year and there wasn’t that much known about us and this year just adds to that. 

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“People focus on teams that win championships and they are going to be coming at us - I think it just shows the progress we’ve made from last year, whether it is that we are playing well as a group, that we’ve got our team and panel up and going again and we seem to have gotten stronger.”

The long serving St Mary’s stalwart may be downplaying the significance of defending the title but there is no mistaking the message coming from the champions that they want to push on so that 2022 is not regarded as a flash in the pan: “That's the main thing - we didn’t want to rest on what we’ve done from last year - we want to push on and see what happens then.

“We know there are lots of teams that can win it on any day, there are three or four teams that can win on any day. We just want to look after ourselves, get our team out onto the pitch and work on the performance and what happens after that, happens.”

Performing is again the key message: “If we’re happy with our performance and know we’ve put our best performance out, we know that we’ll either win the game or the other team deserves to beat us,” says Nicholas.

Yet Nicholas has played long enough to know that luck plays it parts too, pointing to a penalty shootout win over Fenagh St Caillins in the semi-final as an example of the thin margin between glory and failure!

“There are lots of what ifs that could have gone against us. We’re lucky that Sean Reynolds stepped up in the penalty shootout and we got that save there at the end. It was unfortunate for Fenagh and I would say they’re using that as motivation for this year - technically, we didn’t beat them in the championship last year, losing out on a penalty shootout so that is huge motivation for them.

“But every team had a bit of luck every year, that was our bit of luck and we pushed on from it. Thankfully, it hasn’t stopped, we have kept going and we’re built on it - that’s the main thing, that we’ve built on from last year and brought some new lads in and developing as a team and as a panel.”

Nicholas McWeeney in action against Fenagh St Caillins in the Masonite Division 1 Final Picture: Willie Donnellan

St Mary’s enjoyed one of those almost unbelievable years in 2022 as they swept the boards but Nicholas points to their second string team, who repeated this year as Reserve Division 1 champions, as the catalyst for a remarkable run of success: “The reserve team started it last year - they won the League title and then we had the League the following week, unfortunately we didn’t win it but I think that was the stepping stone.

“Lads were like ‘ok, we’ve won with the second team, we can push on harder’ and everyone knows that there is great talent there. We’ve had young lads coming through for the last five or six years but they are just starting to settle into themselves now, they know they are the main lads now, they can lead this team and it is great when we have the likes of the U17s coming up.

“They’re seeing lads they would have been playing well progressing and playing well, giving them that motivation to play well and get a good championship under them and push on when they come up onto the Senior panel. The likes of Ben Guckian has had a great introduction to the Senior team this year but he is just one of many players that is coming through the ranks, which is great to have.”

Another remarkable feature of their run last year was the sheer youth of the team - the old heads were there in the Farrell brothers, James McGrail and Nicholas himself but the vast majority of the team were 22 years old or younger - with more starting to come through.

“They’re a year older now - you saw that with the young lads when it was their first year down in Ballinamore against Melvin Gaels, there was a big gulf in their ability to play at that level. The following year, 2020 we had that great run to the County Final and it was more or less that has pushed us on. 

“Last year, and thankfully, it was a winning year last year, will have pushed on those young lads, given them that little bit extra experience and knowledge and what is expected of them and what is expected of the team.”

St Mary’s lost last Saturday’s Masonite Division 1 Final against Fenagh St Caillins but for Nicholas, the focus has been on the championship: “It has been a bit of a mixed bag with the league because you’ve had a few games without county players, teams are probably only coming around to themselves, getting all their players back.

“It has probably only been the last two or three weeks they’ve had their full panels - on any day, anybody can beat anyone so there are pros and cons to who you might be playing. So we focus on ourselves and let Alan and the lads focus on how we’re going to set up and all that sort of stuff.”

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As for all the hype and expectations around St Mary’s, Nicholas and his teammates are leaving all to Alan Flynn and his management team: “We haven’t really registered that, we’re just focusing on ourselves - we let Alan and the management focus on who we’re playing and what kind of tactics we’re going to be using in the game. We’re just focusing on getting the best out of ourselves at training and getting ready for match day, we’re not thinking of anything else.”

So are St Mary’s confident of retaining the title for the first time ever? “Yeah, quietly confident - straight out, you have to say yes. We’re going in as champions, we’re moving along nicely and slowly getting there but there is a difference between being cocky and being confident. We know that there are teams waiting who want to beat us but again we’re just going to have to take that, it is all part of it.”