Capataggle celebrate great victory

Date Published: 13-Nov-2008

IN the hurling wilderness for the greater part of its near 130 year existence, the Cappataggle GAA Club enjoyed a rare landmark day at Duggan Park, Ballinasloe on Sunday. The fact that nobody in the parish saw this intermediate title success coming earlier in the campaign makes their achievement all the more laudable.

Beaten off the park by Abbeyknockmoy (15 point winners) in the team’s second group outing of the championship, Cappataggle have somehow managed to turn themselves inside out in the interim as Killimordaly became their latest opponents to discover the hard way.

Not alone did the new Galway intermediate champions last the pace better in the hostile conditions, Cappataggle also had an edge in commitment and passion.

Their players fought like terriers all over the field with the strong individual contributions of team captain Michael Broderick, county player Damien Joyce and young reserve Emmet Malone also critical to a memorable triumph.

These are the type of daysthat define the GAA. A big crowd defied the cold (and the hailstones!) to view a showdown between two neighbouring parishes with, unusually, no great history of antipathy towards each other. Quite a few neutrals turned up too and they weren’t left disappointed by the honest fare provided.

Not surprisingly, the Cappataggle supporters were the more vocal. They are not used to being in finals and their match-winning points from Joyce and midfielder Padraic Dolan were celebrated with such unbridled emotion that one felt the archaic roof on the Duggan Park stand was in danger of lifting off.

This was a …