Cootehill Celtic before the league game against Shannon Gaels in Hugh O’Reilly Memorial Park, front l/r: Ryan O’Reilly, Gerard Argue, Joshua Hayes, Mark Mullen, Dean Connolly, Stevie O’Connor, Colm Smith, Tom Hayes, Enda Hessin, Aidan McCabe, Brian Sherlock. Back: Seán Fitzpatrick, Kieran Fox, Neil McCluskey, Ryan McCluskey, Barry McGahan, Niall McMullen, Glen Nulty, Cathal McCAbe, John McCutcheon, Damien Sherlock, Ciaran Boyle, John Grogan, Kieran Ryan, Christopher Keenan. Mascots: Finn Sherlock, Darren McCarville, Eli Argue
commitment and the quality of football they played." Farrelly is fulsome in his praise for Cootehill's parent committee, saying that they couldn't have been more helpful or supportive to the club's senior team-management. Apparently no stone was left unturned. No excuses for the championship 'failure' are proffered. Even on mature reflection? "No, I don't think we'd have done anything different along the sideline. They say you make your own luck but I don't think we got that much luck in the run up to the final and then we had a man sent off at an important
time in the final itself (against IFC opponents Lacken). "We knew we were always going to be up against it though in playing Lacken in the county final. They were a division one team and had beaten the senior finalists, Kingscourt and Mullahoran, in the league and it was easy to see why they were the oddson favourites to win the championship final and why they were everyone's favourites from the start of the year. As far as most people were concerned, it was basically a case of who was going to finish runners-up to them in the championship."
On duty in the U16 county championships
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Johnny was a selector also in 2010 and says that the past year was a step forward on that year because "we didn't get out of the group in the championship and lost out to Drumalee in the league semi-final." 2012, he says, saw the club make progress in strengthening the senior squad by the introduction of "some new, young, fresh blood who have pace and good ball skills. We also probably ended up with having the best half-back line at intermediate level." His first impressions of the 2012 championship group Cootehill found themselves in made him cautiously