Bernard Feeney of Easkey, Sligo, pictured ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Hurling Junior Club Championship Final, which takes place this Saturday, January 14th at Croke Park at 5pm. The AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships features some of #TheToughest players from communities all across Ireland. It is these very communities that the players represent that make the AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships unique. Now in its 32nd year supporting the GAA Club Championships, AIB is extremely proud to once again celebrate the communities that play such a role in sustaining our national games.
By Cian O’Connell
On the eve of an AIB All-Ireland Club JHC Final for Easkey, Bernard Feeney is well and truly aware of the significant work carried out at underage level in the club.
Hurlers have been produced by the progressive Sligo outfit, who make the trip to Croke Park on Saturday evening for a national decider against Ballygiblin.
Something has been stirring in Easkey for a while. “It is hugely key to this,” Feeney, a secondary school teacher says about the juvenile set-up in Easkey.
“I'm one of the older crop of players and I'm only 26. Back when the lads were U12, 14, and 16 they were travelling all around the country - the lads gave them so much scope out there. If you wanted to be the best you had to play the best.
"It is what the lads did, going to Féile's in Limerick, going to Kilkenny playing Pilltown, weekends away, getting talks from Joe Canning. These players that they looked up to.
“That set a footprint, the love for hurling was always there. It was tricky with football between the football and hurling, but the lads kept doing it. They weren't giving up, the love that was built into it.”
Hurling in Sligo has improved dramatically during the past decade. That has been illustrated on the inter-county stage with Feeney relishing the fact that the standard is constantly increasing.
“There has been huge improvements, back in the development systems from Declan Loughnane and Benny Kenny,” he responds. “These lads have gone on to other things, but they put a lot of effort into the development of hurling in Sligo, along with people that went before.
“Hurling has only gone one way in Sligo in the last 10 years winning Lory Meaghers to Nickey Rackards. It has benefitted the clubs too, no more than our own, the amount of lads involved nowadays with Sligo is brilliant. It is key to where we are today.”
Different ideas have been implemented with new competitions affording greater exposure to matches. “The Táin Óg competitions for underage is developing young fellas big time,” Feeney adds.
The Easkey panel before the 2019 AIB All-Ireland Club JFC Final at Croke Park.
“The Cúchulainn league we were involved in this year was a big help to us. When we weren't getting hurling games at the beginning of the year, it gave us an opportunity to play the likes of Tooreen.
“We were in the final with them, we played them in a brilliant game in Easkey, a very tight encounter. We learned an awful lot from that game, it helped us to develop along ourselves. That was a great addition for us this year.”
Having gleaned three Sligo titles on the spin, Easkey were eager to make a further impact. “Last year's Connacht final when we lost to Salthill, we were a year younger, and people say you need to lose one to win one so you could look at it by saying that is what helped us this year,” he replies.
“We did take an awful lot of learning from last year. Winning three in a row and the way in which we won them - that first year playing against Naomh Eoin. The year after started the three in a row for us, it has been brilliant for us the way we are going at the moment.”
A string of the Easkey panel, including Feeney, were involved in the 2019 AIB All-Ireland Club JFC Final for Easkey at GAA headquarters.
“There is a huge buzz, Fee. A number of these lads were involved with the football in 2019 - four years ago now, the likes of Niall Kilcullen, Fionn Moylan, and Owen Roe, they were minor, but still involved in the set-up training with us.
“Put four years on to you then you are more mature, the lads here it is not the novelty of a big game. You just have to treat it as another game, that is the way we are looking at it.”
In school Feeney enjoys the GAA chat with the students. “It is unique being a teacher and playing in Sligo, I'm only 26,” he says. “You are teaching Leaving Certs and in football you could be marking them or playing in the same game as you, even past students.
“So it is a nice environment, they are always coming up asking when is your next game and what is going on? They know more about me than many people in Easkey nearly, they are looking into it, but it is a nice environment to be in as a young teacher definitely.”
There will be a few stories scripted at the Jones Road venue on Saturday evening.
