*Sean Neylon speaking to Seamus Hayes. Photograph: John Mangan
DESPITE BEING fiercest of rivals the bond between players from St Joseph’s Miltown and Kilmurry Ibrickane is “unreal” when it comes to St Joseph’s Spanish Point.
Joint captain of the secondary school’s senior football side, Sean Neylon said the rivalry between the neighbouring clubs helps to create a strong bond among the panel when they line out side by side. “It’s unreal how we have bonded. This has brought us so close, you don’t think of the rivalry. We just want to put in a performance in Saturday’s final and hopefully it will get us over the line”.
Neylon noted that Saturday’s All-Ireland colleges football final serves as “the biggest game of our careers to date. Getting to play in an All-Ireland final is a great opportunity and there is great excitement around the place. It was back in the eighties when the school last won Munster”.
Wing forward on the St Joseph’s Miltown senior football side last season, Sean observed, “A lot of the players who are representing Clare now came through Spanish Point. Football in Clare is going in the right direction, the seniors have retained division 2 status for a number of years, the minors were in the Munster final a few years ago, this is a great opportunity to represent the county at an All-Ireland level”.
“We played Offaly in the under 20’s a few weeks ago and there was only a few points between us, they won the All-Ireland under 20 title a few years ago, they are definitely on the up as well”, he pointed out.
He explained that the Clare and Munster competitions are separate championships. “We beat Rathkeale in the Munster final and then we overcame Ennistymon in the Clare final”, he said.
Sean stressed, “we are totally focussed on next Saturday, we have players on the Clare under 20 and minor squads. We are training flat out. We haven’t seen Clara but they are supposed to be well organised, they have a few guys on the Offaly under 20 side. The excitement is building, the flags are going up, we have done the training”.
