The Ashbourne Community School football team that will contest the Masita Post Primary Schools All-Ireland 'B' Football Final.
By John Harrington
Dublin and Meath might be great footballing rivals, but Ashbourne Community School are proof they can work well together too.
Their team that contests Saturday’s Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools ‘B’ Paddy Drummond Cup Final is a powerful alliance of both counties.
Seven of the starting XV hail from Dublin club Fingal Ravens, seven of them from Meath club Donaghmore Ashbourne, and there’s a sole representative from another Meath club, St. Vincent’s Ardcath.
What’s been most impressive about this Ashbourne CS team on the way to Saturday’s Final has been their ability to think on their feet.
They’ve been able to adapt within games to the challenge posed by the opposition, and find a way to win a match when the original game-plan hasn’t worked from the off.
This on-pitch intelligence has seen them come from behind in three matches including the All-Ireland semi-final win over Mitchelstown CBS.
Most impressively, this is something they’ve worked on rather than just happens by happy accident.
Team manager, Joe Gibney, made it a priority at the start of the year to develop a group of self-sufficient players with the leadership skills to make decisions for themselves on the pitch rather than look to the sideline for instruction.
“We've worked on that big-time,” he says. “The message through the whole year has been that good footballers know how to win matches.
“Ye are telling me that ye are good footballers, so go out and show me ye are good footballers. That's the message.
“I don't like restricting teams that I'm involved with. You can get too involved with tactics and instructions to players and then they go out on the field and they're lost. That's a big thing and you see it even at inter-county level.
“Lads are lost because they haven't got that freedom to express themselves so they don't know how to go and fix something when they see it's not working.
“Instead of being able to fix something themselves they're looking to the line for instructions on what they should do.
“So that's a big thing we've worked on since last September. At our first meeting of the year we told the lads that they had to be able to express themselves and if they consider themselves to be good footballers, then show me and go out and win. It's very simple, you want them to take ownership and we've worked on that.”
Ashbourne Community School team manager, Joe Gibney, pictured centre.
Gibney hasn’t just taken this approach for short-term gains. He wants them to develop these leadership skills so when they leave school they have a better chance of developing into the sort of footballers who can drive their clubs forward for years to come.
“I've seen down through the years so many players coming through the school and then not taking responsibility in their clubs,” he says.
“I'd like these lads to take responsibility in their clubs so I would have encouraged a lot of the work to come from them so we can try to make them into leaders that go on and lead their clubs.
“You'd like to see them doing well in club football, that's what I'd be looking at.
“The Ashbourne lads should have the ambition to go and win a senior title for Donaghmore Ashbourne.
“They've been so close in Meath in the past but haven't got there yet. And when you see the quality of footballers you've worked with through the school over the years, you'd be questioning why haven't they won a Meath senior championship. Because the quality is there.
“And I’m telling the Fingal Ravens lads that they need to go on after school and lead that club into the Senior 1 Dublin football championship.
“They're currently in the Senior 2 championship but I'd love to see these lads go and help bring their club into Senior 1.
“I’m encouraging these lads to take responsibility and they’ve really bought into that. There's a confidence about them now.”
In attendance at the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Captains Call at Croke Park in Dublin are, from left, Callum McCrea and Senan Kerr, Abbey Vocational School, and Evan O'Kane Ashbourne CS, Meath. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
A striking characteristic of this Ashbourne CS team is their sheer physicality. Typified by towering captain Evan O’Kane, they’re a big team who know how to make their size count.
It’ll be interesting to see though how they cope with the challenge of Ulster champions Abbey Vocational School in Saturday’s Final.
The Donegal town side are a very well organised counter-attacking team blessed with serious pace all over the pitch so expect them to try to get Ashbourne’s big men turning to negate that size advantage.
“Their numbers three, six, nine, 10, 11, and 13 are all serious carriers of a football,” says Gibney. “They're a seriously fast team and well able to work a ball up the field and have good scorers as well. Yes, we'll be up against it, but if you want to go out and win something you have to play well and have things go right for you.
“The lads need to want it. That's it. And if they go out and play to the best of their ability and want it and aren't afraid to win, then they'll have a great chance.
“I always tell them that good footballers know how to win matches. So if you consider yourself to be a good footballer, get out and win the match. Don't be coming back cribbing to me!”
Saturday, March 9
Masita GAA Post Primary Schools Paddy Drummond Cup Final
Ashbourne Community School v Abbey Vocational School, St Tiernach’s Park, Clones, 2pm