What a year it has been for the Lacken squad, front l/r: Bryan Gaffney, Terry Hyland, Kevin Shanaughy, Declan Brady, Philip Moynagh, Raymond Galligan, Nevin McKiernan, Martin Brady, Joseph Sorohan, Karl O’Reilly. Back: Shane O’Reilly, Pauric Leddy, Conor Finnegan, Martin Brady, James Galligan, Niall McKiernan, Michael Shanaughy, Colin Comerford, Shane Finnegan, Stephen Brady, James Moynagh, Craig Lanauze, Daniel Brady
improve with each game from the very start of the league, with winning the intermediate championship in the back of our minds.” Lacken’s rigorous training sessions commenced in early January and the team were well primed by the end of February when the ACFL Division One rolled around. Victory over O’Reilly’s native Belturbet (0-13 to 17) saw his team off to a flying start with four more consecutive wins to come, leaving them sitting pretty at the summit of Division One heading into Round Six. “We won our first five matches in the league, so you could say that we hit the ground running alright,” the
Lacken boss stated. “A lot of those wins came down to the belief in the players and we were working hard in games. We’d been training since the start of January and I think those few weeks we had on the other teams we’d been playing really stood to us.” While the team’s form would take a slight dip in the middle of the league campaign, things picked up towards the end of June with their championship opener fast approaching. Wins over Ramor United (1-8 to 0-7) and Gowna (1-13 to 1-9) saw Lacken head into the intermediate championship with the favourites’ tag and their senior status for 2013 all but consolidated.
Killinkere, Shercock and Knockbride would all fall on Lacken’s sword in the group stages, with O’Reilly’s team showcasing their physicality and combined talent by putting up big scores to cruise into the last eight of the competition. “Our form heading towards the championship was good. I think we won our last two matches before going into the Killinkere game,” said the Belturbet man. “We never underestimated any team we played this year and I knew that the likes of Killinkere and Shercock were going to be tough games for us. Thankfully we got through them and that put us into the
On league duty, front l/r: Martin Brady, Philip Moynagh, Finbar O’Reilly, Michael Shanaughy, Raymond Galligan, Craig Lanauze, Terry Hyland, Martin Brady Joseph Sorohan, Nevin McKiernan, Karl Reilly, Daniel Brady. Back: Pauric Leddy, James Moynagh, Kevin Shanaughy, Stephen Brady, Shane O’Reilly, Joseph Crowe, Colin Comerford, James Galligan, Conor Finnegan, Damien McKiernan, Shane Finnegan, Declan Brady, Bryan Gaffney, Niall McKiernan
119