Clogher Éire Óg relishing All-Ireland Final buzz
Clogher Éire Óg players and supporters celebrate after winning the AIB Ulster Junior Club Football Championship.
By John Harrington
If the key to playing well on the biggest occasions is to embrace them rather than be overawed by them, then Clogher Éire Óg’s Ciarán Bogue is in the right frame of mind ahead of their AIB All-Ireland Junior Club Final against Ballymacelligott on Sunday.
The 2022 Tyrone U20 All-Ireland winner has been outstanding all season, and he’s relishing the experience of everything that goes with what will be the greatest day yet in his club’s history.
“It's just a dream week,” says Bogue. “It can't come quick enough, but at the same time you don't want it to go too fast because then it's all over. No, just unbelievable, dream week is right.
“The buzz in Clogher is just unbelievable, it's not something you could ever sort of imagine or picture.
“Everywhere you go, every shop you go to, the amount of messages coming through, everyone wishing you luck, everone just on cloud nine, it's just brought unbelievable buzz and brightness to the community.
“There's busses organised for the final, there's loads of people coming down on Saturday night to stay and make the weekend out of it.
“There's people coming home from America, Canada, Australia all over. So that sort of just gives us maybe players a bit of a kick to show how much it means to the community.”
Clogher Éire Óg are the second smallest club in Tyrone based on membership, so reaching an All-Ireland Final in Croke Park is a sensational achievement and means an awful lot to everyone in the parish.
“It's a really close-knit community, everybody sort of knows each other and the main thing that holds the whole place together is the football,” says Bogue.
“So, bringing success this year has just brought more and more people involved and people that maybe sort of sat on the fence for maybe a few years and weren't really involved or didn't really know much about it have definitely really come on board this year especially.
“It's a small, close, tight wee community where everybody knows everybody and football's the only really thing to do.”
Pictured is AIB ambassador Ciaran Bogue (Clogher Éire Óg) ahead of the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Junior Club Championship Final between Clogher Éire Óg and Ballymacelligott. A historic club championship season, defined by thrilling encounters and unprecedented journeys, culminates in eagerly anticipated AIB GAA Football Intermediate and Junior club finals taking centre stage on Sunday January 11th. Photo credit: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Clogher have been competitive for some time in the Tyrone junior championship but a few jigsaw pieces have fallen into place this year that have made them a more complete outfit.
“Leo Meenan and Mark Donnelly, two men that have played football at the highest level, they've played for Tyrone or years, they've come in and helped us this year,” says Bogue.
“They've took a lot of training and upped the standards from the training perspective.
“Our two managers, Stephen McKenna and Kevin McConnell, have focused a lot more on video work analysis, focused on the players, and put everything in place for the team to thrive.
“As well as that there's more of a camaraderie between all the players. We all have grown up together anyway but just this year it seems to have come together that wee bit more and that's probably a lot to do with why we are where we are.
“There’s a good mix of experience and youth in the team as well now as well.
“The older lads keep the calm experience where the younger lads can maybe bring the energy and maybe a wee bit of rawness which can be good at times.”
Kerry clubs have dominated the AIB All-Ireland Junior Club Championship, winning it 11 times out of 23, so Clogher are well away that Ballymacelligott will be a tough nut to crack.
It’s a challenge they’ll relish.
“Yeah, a lot of the talk is that Kerry teams are renowned for being very good come this time of year but we know we're here on merit and we're not just going to make up the numbers, we’re very confident,” says Bogue.
“We're confident in our bench we have to come in and kick us and get us over the line hopefully. We'll definitely respect the Kerry team, they've got a lot of very very good players that we'll need to watch. But in terms of are we afraid of them? No, definitely not.
“You have to cherish the opportunity, not hide. It's a fight or flight sort of moment. We're going to have to make sure we don't sort of lay down on the big day. There's no point doing all the hard work and then stopping before the last step.”
