Omagh CBS Lose Out

Saturday 20.03.2010

Club

Omagh CBS went into Wednesday’s Mac Rory Cup final as many people’s favourites following an impressive run in the league section and the McCormick Cup. I had mentioned earlier that I thought they may have peaked too early and that Colmans could come back to bite them. So it proved as the Newry side ran out convincing six point winners and were worthy champions on the day.

As for Omagh CBS they must reflect on what really was a very significant failure considering the quality of the squad. This team had been almost unbeatable for the best part of five years and were further strengthened by recent additions to the panel as several new students came into sixth form. On paper it looked like a very strong side but while the players listed are very talented individually too many of them were played in the wrong positions and with a bit of tweaking they could have coped much better with the threat from St. Colmans.

The Omagh lads looked very heavy legged throughout the game and were second to the ball on far too many occasions. Several players struggled with their man to man duties and a few switches could have made a significant difference. The team struggled to cope with the Newry midfielders and the entire set of forwards had a field day against a defence that looked fatigued and unsure from early on.

In my view Omagh were over trained and under prepared for the game on Wednesday and lost heavily to a side that were hungrier, sharper and better prepared. It was not a great day at the office for the Omagh management and one that they will look back on with considerable regret for quite a while.

On a personal note as Principal of Our lady of Lourdes Primary School and former teacher of Sean Warnock, John and Cahir Mc Cullagh, it was a great honour to see these three lads involved in a MacRory Cup final, especially as Sean was also team Captain.