Program Notes from Feile Final

Today is St.Joseph’s Miltown Malbay’s 6th appearance in the Feile na nOg Final. Miltown’s last appeared in the final in 2008 when they were defeated by today’s opponents Wolfe Tones. The St. Joseph’s Team was managed by John O’Sullivan, Pat Keane and Gerry Curtin, captained by Luke Reidy and also had important displays from Donal Keane, Conor and Eoin Cleary. In 2007 Miltown had defeated Wolfe Tones na Sionna to captured the club’s second feile title. In a comprehensive 5-5 to 0-6 win, the West Clare side qualified for the national stages held in Sligo/Leitrim. John O’Sullivan was manager with Pat Keane and Gerry Curtin, and Darragh McDonagh, Martin Rynne, Cathal Hogan & Ciaran O’Malley were prominent members of the team. St.Joseph’s had also competed in the 2006 decider where they went down to Doora/Barefield. The team was managed by Michael Hehir, John Malone & John Talty and was captained by Niall McGuane. Seanie Malone, who went on the represent the county at minor level, was one of the pivotal performers in the campaign along with Eoin O’Brien, Eoin Corbett, Sean O’Malley & Tommy Flynn. In 2004, the Michael Hehir managed Miltown side went down by the narrowest of margins to neighbours Ennistymon, 3-7 to 3-6. Joe Curtin was captain and top scorer, while important displays were also given by Micheal Malone, David Talty & Gearoid Curtin. However, you have to go back to 1998 for the 1^st Feile na nOg win by a Miltown Malbay team, Michael Murray managed the team at that time and players of the calibre of Kevin Keavey (captain), Cathal Lafferty and current county senior Graham Kelly were foremost throughout the competition.

Despite the success in the Feile na nOg competition Miltown have never captured the Under 14 championship, perhaps the boys in Maroon and Amber out there today can rectify this anomaly.

The fact that this team has qualified for this final today is a huge feat in itself, as 2 years ago this side only won 2 games in the under 12 championship. Great credit is due to the management team of Michael Howe, Martin Hehir and Chris Crowe for the immense progress made by this group, but the work done at underage by the club and particularly by John O’Sullivan and Tommy Byrne must also be noted.

Everyone in Miltown wishes the lads the best of luck today!