MacRory story puts Omagh in spotlight

When it comes to schools sport of any kind this column had traditionally operated with a sneer fixed firmly across its cynical face.

All that fuss and all that slavering media coverage for games of rugby or hockey that often amounted to little more than glorified school-yard encounters. How misguided. How foolish. It has become apparent in the past few days that these under-age meetings of worthy educational establishments could well be the jewel in our sporting crown. As you might reasonably expect, there is a wholly self-serving and utterly biased reason for this radical conversion. In the March sunshine of Monday afternoon Omagh CBS moved imperiously into the final of the MacRory Cup, Ulster's premier colleges gaelic football competition, for the first time since 1973. The eight-point win over St Colman's, Newry, traditionally one of the great nurseries for prospective inter-county footballers, sparked scenes of joy and jubilation in the town unseen since the time Daniel O'Donnell came to turn on the Christmas lights.

This was no ordinary semi-final because it marked the end of Omagh's long journey from schools obscurity into the big time. And this is no ordinary school because for a seven-year period in the 1980s it nurtured this particular fragile GAA talent. That this same talent registered absolutely zero return during those years and quickly faded away to nothing after that is no fault of anyone involved. Any fault or blame lies squarely at my door.

We have waited a long time for this. Yesterday morning we devoured every piece of newspaper coverage with the frenzied intensity usually reserved for all the mummies and the daddies in the posh suburbs as they scour rugby schools cup reports for the smallest mentions of their offspring. The headline composed with no little skill in this paper yesterday for the match report from Casement Park will resonate for years to come. "OMAGH EASILY". What more could be said? Three decades we have waited for affirmation like that and it arrived in two beautifully succinct words.

Already squads of first and second years at the school have been locked in the art room and given the task of producing huge banners for next month's Dr MacRory final with nothing but those two words emblazoned across them. The wider benefits to the school are obvious. Omagh CBS has been an important driving factor as Tyrone's underage sides have flourished in recent years. There was never any particular problem providing talent for a succession of minor and under-21 county teams but the difficulty has been harnessing that talent for sides representing the school. By seeing off St Colman's on Monday the team of 2001 has clearly bridged that gap.

And they did so with a heartening flair and invention. On the anecdotal evidence of Omagh's game against St Colman's and the St Michael's, Enniskillen-Abbey CBS semi-final that preceded it, schools gaelic football has so far survived the obsession with bulked-up muscle men that has gripped the game at colleges level and beyond.

First impressions as Omagh and St Colman's took the field were not overly optimistic, with the Omagh boys looking man for man just a little smaller in most positions. But that is something which Tyrone football has become readily accustomed to in recent years and after the nerves of the first five minutes it proved to be of little consequence. With few exceptions the Omagh players looked comfortable with the ball in their hands and there was an obvious determination on their part to move it at pace at every available opportunity. This game-plan was never aimless or impetuous and was executed with a fair degree of poise and thought. A signature of the way Omagh played was the willingness of those not in possession to support the ball carrier. This meant that if a move or a run broke down there was always someone on the shoulder to pick things up again. It was never like this in my day. Or at least not the way I played.

In Aidan McCarron, the brightest talent on display, Omagh CBS had that rarest of football commodities, the player who by his very presence can make things happen. His goal near half-time effectively killed St Colman's off as he finished off a flowing move of simplicity and directness. When Gaelic football is played with this kind of joyful, youthful abandon few things even come close.

And now St Michael's, Enniskillen await in the final. On the evidence of their semi-final they will be warm favourites because of the way they effortlessly dismissed Abbey CBS as if it was little more than a start of season challenge game. Fermanagh football at this level is on a determined upward curve. Every year a new crop of gifted footballers rolls off the St Michael's production line and that talent has provided a bedrock for the county's rapidly improving fortunes.

But all of that is for a few weeks time. Between now and then Omagh will enjoy the attention and the build-up. For those of us who now look on with interest there will be a strange, indefinable pride about the whole thing. Until last Monday the entire "old boy" experience had passed me by but it is now starting to make just a little more sense.

There is something in it that appeals to those age-old GAA staples of being part of something and enjoying that sense of a shared tradition and history. News of the final will enliven a whole generation of past pupils for whom the MacRory was little more than a spring taster for the summer main course that was to follow. It is a different competition now and anyone who cares to listen will hear learned and informed opinions on its value and worth to the GAA as a whole. Forget what we used to think or say. For the next few weeks the MacRory Cup is all that matters.