Final showdown for Shrule/Glencorrib and Lahardane

THE American country singer Brad Paisley has a song called ‘Last Time for Everything’.

There’ll be plenty of players competing in Sunday’s Junior ‘A’ championship final that have never heard that song, but none of them would heed the sentiment.

For the likes of David ‘Roundy’ Geraghty, Ronan Walsh and Barry Leonard’, every year seems like the last hurrah. Still no sign of it though.

If they do decide to call it off (with nothing left to prove), there’d be few better ways to do it than by taking the McDonnell Cup with them next weekend.

Shrule/Glencorrib still remember those not-too-distant days when they took lumps out of the best senior teams in the county.

But a Junior title title – which would be the club’s first – would still be special.

Just ask Lahardane.

They dropped down from Intermediate last year, but still talk fondly of 2017, when John Maughan marched them up to the top of Connacht and marched them down again.

On Sunday, Eddie Conroy will follow General Humbert and General Maughan’s footsteps by marching his men to MacHale Park with one thing on his mind.

Exactly what he did 20 years ago when he won a county junior medal as a player with Breaffy.

“I’d be so delighted for the lads and the community of Lahardane and Bofeenaun. They are crying out for something like that,” the Charlestown native told The Mayo News.

There’ll be nothing else spoken about under the shadow of Nephin for this entire week.

“If we were to do it again it’d be huge. The excitement around the place will just be crazy,” says Lahardane captain Aaron Murphy.

“It’ll bring great joy to everyone, family, friends, supporters, and even some neutrals I’m sure are following us. So hopefully now we’ll do the business and have a good night from it.”

Shrule/Glencorrib manager Tom Burke well remembers the days when the Mortimers and the Ronaldsons were among the deadliest footballers in South Mayo.

He makes no bones about the fact that emigration has contributed to their fall from senior to junior – they are down six players from last year already.

But Shrule/Glencorrib is anything but declining.

He points to the development of new facilities in both villages — and their recent underage successes — in making the case for the proud South Mayo club.

It’s that same pride that’s kept Burke, a Salthill native, and players like ‘Roundy’ Geraghty, Noel Sheridan and Ronan Walsh involved alongside younger stars like Evan Cawley (who has 2-21 kicked in this year’s championship) TJ Canavan, Adrian Moran and Kevin Ryan.

“There’s great characters in the squad. I suppose it’s the character of the club that they just want to drive on and get to a higher level, and hopefully he can do that in the final next week. “It’d be great to get up to intermediate and bring the club forward.”

Expect the evergreen Barry Leonard to deliver for Lahardane, while younger brother Adrian, the Finnertys and the Maughans won’t be found wanting either.

“There’s a last time for everything.”

Brad Paisley sang it. Deep down somewhere, many of these players know it.