From The Avondhu 26/11/2021
Last week we looked back at the club’s first ever McSwiney Cup victory from 2003. In 2004 the club managed to retain the title winning it this week 16 years ago (the final was played on Sunday 28th of November 2004). There was an uncanny similarity to the 2003 victory in that the 2003 title saw us beat St Vincents (quarter-final), Passage (semi-final) and Mayfield (final) while the 2004 campaign saw us open against St Vincents in the quarter finals, qualify for a semi-final against Passage and, following the victory there, we had a showdown with Mayfield in the final. Though the teams we played were the same, the manner in which we beat them in 04 was very different to a year prior.
The opening game took place on September 15th with St Vincents visiting out grounds in Ballinvriskig. White’s Cross won the corresponding fixture in 2003 by eleven points to four. We added a goal to our tally in the 04 bout while our opponents added two goals to their tally. So while the game was closer this year, White’s Cross were still reasonably comfortable and certainly deserving 1-11 to 2-04 winners. However, as we would discover, the Vincents game proved to be the toughest test this time around. The semi-final was another home game against Passage; a team we had a very strong rivalry with since the early 90s. The 2003 semi-final lived up to that rivalry as the sides were only separated by one point after 90 minutes of football. This game was anything but tight as White’s Cross thoroughly routed their opponents. It was all one-way traffic as White’s Cross won on a scoreline of 5-12 to 1-06. We were therefore in another final. Once again it was Mayfield that would provide the opposition.
As mentioned last week, we went into our final in 03 as very much the underdogs against Mayfield. This year we would have been favourites as now we were actually facing the northside outfit’s second team. Their first side was one of a number of clubs, including the likes of Ballydesmond and Kinsale, to get automatically promoted to the intermediate ranks without winning a junior county title in this era. Nonetheless, they were still a serious outfit that contained experienced campaigners such as Pat Peate, Kevin Hyland, Brian Duggan and Richie Lee among their ranks. They had also beaten their arch-rivals, and then league champions, Brian Dillons in the semi-final. They were not going to be weak opposition. But, looking back now, we can see that White’s Cross were beginning to establish themselves at this point as a team that would go on to dominate the division for a number of years. They certainly gave a dominant performance in the final and there certainly was never going to be any need for extra time as there had been in 03. Showing the depth of talent in the squad there were only seven players that started in 2004 that had started the year before. One of those players was Conor Kelleher and, in another similarity between the finals, he would again end up as top scorer. He even landed the proverbial ‘match-ball’ as he ended up netting a hat-trick of goals. He rose unchallenged in the box to palm his opening goal after less than one minute. Three minutes later he gladly accepted a gift of a kick-out and lobbed the goalkeeper for goal number two; a goal that was sandwiched between two fine points by the same player. So after five minutes Conor Kelleher and White’s Cross had an eight point lead and Mayfield were stunned. Conor did not get his final goal until late in the second half. In between, it was his team mates that got in on the scoring act. Micky O’Callaghan (who hurled with Mayfield ironically) got White’s Cross third goal just before half time to leave the score 3-05 to 0-02. In the second half, White’s Cross young forwards Conor Buckley, Donncha Murnane and Damien Kenneally were all on the scoreboard with points while as mentioned Conor Kelleher put the gloss on the win with a late goal. White’s Cross ran out emphatic winners on a score-line of 4-10 to 1-04 to retain the title.
Team: Billy Sheehan, Padraig Murnane, Paul Cashman, Martin Kelleher, Sean Murnane, John O’Connell, John Meade, Ricky Burke, Murt Kelleher, Conor Buckley, Micky O’Callaghan, Donncha Murnane, Conor Kelleher, Pat Hennessy, Damien Kenneally. Sub used: Donal Kelly, Jonathan Kenneally