The Tangerine Dream Comes True

A delighted Brosna manager, Jimmy Keane posing with a team member after Saturday’s game in Croke Park. Photograph: Erika Cronin

The Tangerine Dream Comes true as Brosna captain, Don McAuliffe lifts the cup after the game. Photograph: Erika Cronin

The poster sets the scene for this evening’s homecoming.

Salutes all round as the Brosna men celebrate their historic win in Croke Park. Photograph: Erika Cronin

Brosna Captain, Don McAuliffe making his acceptance speech in Croke Park on Saturday. Photograph: Erika Cronin 14-2-2015

All-Ireland Junior Club Football Championship Final, Croke Park, 14-2-2015  Brosna 0-8 – John Mitchels 0-5

There wasn’t a saint or a sinner left in Brosna on Saturday as their team prepared to step onto the sacred sod of Croke Park and stride into the history books. They won the All-Ireland junior football championship final by defeating John Mitchels of Lancashire on a relatively low score-line of eight points to five. 

The Tangerine Dream looked well on for most of the game in spite of the lack of scores but the Brosna boys held the upper hand in all quarters throughout the game. 

It was a game their supporters relished. Relished to the point that none of them could comment afterwards for hoarseness of one degree or another.  

Though there was a period late in the game when the UK  based  side had one last cut off the big occasion. The Brosna defence held firm and its nerve to cap a year like no other in its 40-year history. 

Now the names of team members: Eamon Prendiville, Shane Fitzmaurice, Micheal Murphy, Aaron Cahill, Thomas Fitzgerald, Eamon Kiely, Flor McAuliffe,  Dave Curtin, Shane Curtin, Don McAuliffe, Tom McGoldrick, Peter Curtin, Timmy Finnegan, Mike Finnegan, Adam Barry, Patrick O’Keeffe,  Jonathan O’Donnell and Gerard Nash are forever enshrined in the history and folklore of the village and people will look back on the 2014/15 season through tangerine coloured glasses – and with good reason. 

In time too the Brosna supporters might spare a thought for their John Mitchels counterparts. For them it is the second pure black St. Valentine’s Day in under a decade.  

In the 2009  final they lost out to Skellig Rangers and in Croke Park too. 

Meanwhile in Brosna, the supporters are almost all home by now and the word from most parts around here is that ‘Brosna will be the place to be on Sunday evening,’  as the All-Ireland Junior Club Football Champions bring home the goods at an expected 5-30pm. to 6pm. There are talks of a pipe band leading the celebrations from The Cross to The Square and that will be some homecoming – that will be some week.