Templeport: ‘Everything has to go 100% right for us to beat Lacken’

Damian McCarney

Chatting to Shane Maguire on a wet Friday afternoon is a real tonic.

The Ballymac publican radiates a heady cocktail of optimism for the future of Templeport, and an insistence they are viewed by neutrals as Lacken’s latest victims in waiting.

Maguire, who manages Templeport alongside Manus McManus, likens their junior final opponents to monsters, aroused from their slumber by a semi-final near miss. That’s not to say the St Aidan’s troops will await their seeming fate like jittery extras on the set of a King Kong movie. The youthful exuberance of their talented minors, who have swollen the senior ranks for the championship, certainly gives them at the very least a fighting chance.

Maguire cheerfully reports that Templeport and Corlough are buzzing over their extended summer adventure.

“It is a great achievement, but we’re so young and in our heads we’re probably a bit ahead of schedule,” says Maguire.

This echoes the sentiments of captain James Murphy who told the Celt ahead of the semi-final match with Kill, that they were in bonus territory. The Shamrocks were clear favourites to progress to the final, but after a nervy, low scoring affair Templeport deservedly won out by three.

And while the challenge of Lacken currently dominates the Templeport skyline, when Maguire does cast an eye towards the horizon, it’s brings with it a cause for optimism.

He views this championship as an early stop on a path that ultimately leads to football’s top table, volunteering that he and co-manager McManus want to propel Templeport into Division One football.

“That is the dream is for us.”

When Maguire and McManus started out as joint managers last year they were expecting around 22-23 players at their disposal.

“Last Wednesday night we had 40 senior players training,” reports Maguire. “So we have two senior teams. We’ve had that all year, and then we have another six or seven Division 1 minors to come in next year as well.”

He notes with a wry laugh a recent opinion piece published in the Celt encouraging West Cavan teams to amalgamate for the championship.

“We’re in Division 1 in Minor, Division 2 in U17, and we’re producing multiple county players at underage,” he says.

Chatting on Friday, Templeport’s U17s had yet to play Cuchulainns in Cup Division 2 semi-final. They won with five points to spare and now face Butlersbridge in the final which will provide a curtain raiser for the Intermediate final.

Massive

All that however is for another day; Sunday’s JFC final is the more pressing issue.

“The job that’s ahead of us is massive with Lacken, everyone knows that. They’re a senior team really, playing junior football.

“I suppose we’re young and we’re making loads of mistakes but that’s the joy of being young I suppose. You never know on a day what they’ll do - they could shoot the lights out or they could turn up and everything go wrong.”

The Celt observes how that description fits their Division 4 League campaign, rather than their extended championship adventure. He explains: “We were down our minors for all of our league, because we were trying to win the Division One minors so we didn’t play them at all, and plus then we have the likes of Oran Duffy back, Liam Galligan, Liam McAweeney back.”

While the likes of Maguire’s “own gasúns” Sam and Danny, Dylan Edwards, the Fahy brothers Conor and Mark, and Rory Dolan, have all caught the eye, the manager is eager to note the contributions of the whole panel, noting the likes of Ciaran McManus, keeper Donal Maguire, and captain James Murphy - a “great leader”.

“There are two Corlough men there Ryan Prior and Fionnán McGovern all playing good football, so there’s a lot more to the team too than the young lads.”

He suggests that everything must go right for Templeport to stand a chance. Even still, the management team hold a “simple philosophy”.

“We have them fit, you work hard and any ball we want can be fifty-fifty, there’s nothing going to be perfect, so we’re not allowing any lad to complain about a fifty-fifty ball - if it’s kicked to you it’s your job to win it and then if you don’t win it, you turn into a defender and you turn it over, it’s just as simple as that.”

Opportunities

That’s the possession side of the game; when it comes to scoring they adopt a shoot on sight approach.

“We’ll give out to you more for not having the shot than if you kick the wides,” he cajoles.

“We’re all the time saying, ‘I want you shooting’. If you’re not shooting, you’re no good to where we are going. And there’ll be no giving out, so if you kick 10 wides, the next day hope that there’ll be five, but at least if you’re shooting you can score, and we still haven’t enough men shooting in our eyes.”

What does he think deters a player from shooting?

“Systems I’d say, over the years. Whereas we’ve come in now in the last two years and have turned that completely.”

He laments the orthdoxy that sees clubs play “just horrible football” moving around the scoring arc.

“It’s not going to last, it can’t last because Mayo proved that you just go out and you have a go. And if you’re fit and a ball drops short, it’s not a negative - you put the pressure on it.

“We are saying everything has to go 100% right for us to beat Lacken, but if it did we have a shot. We’re not going to beat them by sitting back, probably.”

To say Maguire has embraced the underdogs tag would be an understatement.

“Lacken has been favourites for Cavan from word go, and favourites for Ulster, so we’re not silly here, we know the job that’s ahead of us,” he observes.

He admires the pivotal role Raymond Galligan plays from goals, and of course Lacken’s other All Star Thomas Galligan in midfield, describing their forwards as “great players, great shooters”.

“They have a lot of positives and they probably play football like ourselves too - they go at it,” he praises.

Awake

Last time out Lacken had their toughest challenge in an otherwise easy stroll to Kingspan Breffni. Would Maguire take heart from how Belturbet were only three off them at the end?

“It was a good achievement from Belturbet, but I would take it the other way, it was a wake up call for Lacken. Maybe if they had beaten Belturbet well, they wouldn’t have got woken up.

“They’re woke up now.

“They woke up the monster, so they’re ready for action now I’d say, they’ll take nothing for granted.”

So how do Templeport aim to get their Davids within sling-shot range of the sky blue’s Goliaths?

“It’s being fit to stay with them,” Maguire suggests. “If we are fit to stay with them, and that is the big problem - they are putting up enormous scores in that first half.

“The work rate. If we can get to the second half and be in a game - be within four or five points down, and then [our] young lads can do anything.

“The younger members don’t have any fear, like Dylan Edwards, and there’s loads of them young, even my other lad Danny he’s only 21, Sam’s 18, any of these lads, boys like Rory Dolan, Conor Fahy, and we have a bench now to come in, and we have a lot of experienced men with junior Championships too,” he says.

Whether those factors are enough to get them over the line, we’ll have to see, but it won’t be for the lack of trying.