Guest post on InsideView.ie by sports management student Fiachra Cotter.
My proudest moment and my personal best was when we won the treble with Abbeyfeale United. In what was a long and arduous season for each member of the squad, each player can proudly say we dominated the league and we went from Christmas onwards without losing.
The season kicked off on the 21st of April. A much anticipated game between the two top teams for the previous year. Abbeyfeale United vs Rathkeale fc. In an extremely physical game with many hard challenges and physical confrontations Abbeyfeale ran out with a 3-1 win. It was a great start to a historic season for Abbeyfeale. Within the coming nine months Abbeyfeale would complete a triple winning the league and two cups in the premier division. While also reaching the semi-final in the Munster Cup and the quarter-finals in the FAI cup which includes teams from all over the country.
At Christmas the league was developing into a two horse race with Abbeyfeale and Newcastle Rovers dominating at the forefront. With a gap of 9 points between second and third it was ours to loose. Ironically our next game was against Newcastle Rovers. The only other team besides our selfs to be unbeaten and the in form team going into the fixture. It kicked off in the harsh winter cold with a strong wind so our tactic was to play the ball on the ground and release the striker. Within the opening fifteen minutes we fell to a 2-0 lead with Newcastle dominating every aspect of the game. By halftime we were 3-0 down and the team was extremely discouraged, however we managed to group together and at the final whistle we had won the game 5-3.
Our next game was the semi-final in the Munster cup against janesboro, one of the tops side in not only Munster but in all of Ireland. We got a lucky break when we got the draw at home but it would still be a monumental task to overcome this obstacle. In an extremely close game we ended up loosing by a goal. It was a bitterly disappointing outcome but a pivotal point in our season which i believe brought the team closer together an strengthened the bond that before the game was weakening as a result of a lack of competition in the league. In other words it gave us the kick we needed to realize we weren't unbeatable.
In the coming months we won the league, the Desmond cup and the Jack Reidy cup. the first time in 17 years Abbeyfeale won the treble.
[Fiachra Cotter is completing a Business Degree with Sports Management in the Limerick Institute of Technology. This blog post is part of a Digital Media & e-Commerce module.]
