ABBEY Vocational Schools are hoping to achieve what most people thought was unthinkable and lift the Danske Bank MacRory Cup just 12 months after winning the MacLarnon Cup and if they are to do that their team captain Oisin Doherty will have a big role to play.
They went all the way to All-Ireland glory last year and on top of that Doherty’s club Four Masters recently retained the Ulster Club Minor Football Tournament title at St Paul’s.
The Abbey side is backboned by 13 players from Four Masters and Doherty admits it is more like a club side with the other players on the side living in close proximately as well.
“It’s great to have so many team-mates on the team but the other boys are so close as well,’’ says Doherty.
‘‘St Naul’s is only five minutes out the road and Brid is 10 minutes the other way so we have been friends with them boys for a long time as well. It is really like playing on a club team as we are all so close.
“The fact that there is only three club teams making up the team and there are so many Four Masters players it means that we really gel well together and that works very well for us.
“Honestly, I’m blessed to be in the position that I’m in with both the club and school winning games. You couldn’t ask it to be going any better and we are just delighted to be in a MacRory final.
“Getting to a MacRory final is probably my biggest achievement in my career so far and it would be unreal to win it.”
The Donegal lads were in a very tough group that contained big schools when it comes to MacRory Cup football, including last season’s beaten finalists Dungannon, but they went on to finish top and they haven’t really looked back since.
“We were saying at the start of the year should we have stayed in the MacLarnon or go for the MacRory,” adds Doherty.
“We decided to give it a shot to see how we would get on and to be honest we were hoping to just get out of the group and we ended up topping the group.
‘‘That was a great achievement given the fact that there were some big names there such as Abbey CBS and Dungannon. We began with a good win over Dungannon and we began to get belief during the group games and it has carried on since then.
“Against Cathair Dhoire in the first game and Colman’s in the second one they were just two dogfights and we had to dig deep to win.
“We then had a derby game with Southwest Donegal in the semi-final and that was always going to be very tough.
“We knew all their players and they knew all of us and it was really a tactical game with them trying to stop us and us trying to stop them.
“We were just happy to get over the line against them and I suppose secure bragging rights.’’
Abbey now stand just 60 minutes from what would be an unbelievable year in their debut season in MacRory Cup football but standing in their way is perhaps the ultimate test of them all.
“Maghera are one of the big schools when it comes to MacRory football,” he says.
“We were watching all of those sides last year and now we are playing against them. They are one of the most successful sides in the history of the competition and they are a big school.
“But we are just cherishing the fact that we have got this far and we are determined to give it our best shot. We believe that we haven’t got out of fifth gear yet so hopefully we are saving it for the big day.”
