Today 40 years ago, local GAA history was made

On Sunday, March 1, 1981, Garrycastle GAA played their first game.

The club, officially founded in January of that year, lined up in a Division 4 League game against Ballinagore, on that day.

Since that low-key start, the club has racked up eight senior county titles, as well as reaching the 2012 All Ireland senior club final, before losing out to Crossmaglen Rangers after a replay.

Here's the Westmeath Independent report of the club's first game, in the edition of Friday, March 6, 1981

Historic victory by Garrycastle

Garrycastle 1-4, Ballinagore 0-3

History was created at Ballinagore on Sunday when the newly-formed Garrycastle club travelled for their first junior football league game against the local team.

It was a dream debut with Garrycastle enjoying a four-point victory. Conditions were far from ideal with a vicious cross wind and driving sleet and rain at times during the game. Garrycastle showed early promise when they went into attack and had the advantage of control of midfield, where Dan Murphy and Tony Hogan were playing well. However, inexperience and poor finishing by the forwards saw both sides scoreless until the 15th minute, when Tony Hogan got a great solo point after a thirty yard run. Five minutes later his partner Dan Murphy increased the lead to two points for Garrycastle. Sensing they had a fight on their hands Ballinagore tried hard to get into the game. They hit the upright in the 24th minute and a searing shot from Donal Grehan was brilliantly saved by the Garrycastle goalkeeper Liam Connor. Good defensive work by Jim King, Anton Berry and Jim McCallum combined with the inaccurate marksmanship by the Ballinagore forwards, kept the score at 0-2 to 0-0 until three minutes before the interval when Tony Hogan added another Garrycastle point after a fine movement.

Pius Johnston opened the second half scoring with a pointed free before Ballinagore began to gain the upper hand and mount attack after attack. With their half-back line of Connor, Robinson and Mahon assisting their attack they pounded the Garrycastle goal for twenty minutes.

It took some heroic defending from veterans Jim King and Fred Hewitt ably assisted by their four youthful team mates, who made up for lack of experience with a spirit of resilience and enthusiasm that kept the Ballinagore scoreline to just three points.

Replacements Paul Killion Noel Rushe and P. Moran added new life to Garry castle and sparked off a comeback in the 27th minute when Killion ran through onto a high ball from Rody Hogan, caught the defence flat-footed before flicking the ball past keeper J. Leonard to seal in a fine victory.

It would be unfair to single out any individual for mention on the Garrycastle This was a fine display by the entire team. The mixture of youth and experience if harnessed properly should yield dividends in the future.

Although the match report did not give the lineout, the club notes the previous week announced a panel for the game, stating that the following players were requested to assemble at Nugent's Shop at 1.30pm sharp for the league game.

The panel was: M. McCormack, S. McCormack, K. McCallum, N. Sharkey, G O'Neill, R. Hogan, A. Beirne, J. Francis, G. McCormack, J. Flynn, J. Nally, F. Finnegan, J. O'Rourke, D. Murphy, J. Meade, N. Ledwith, S. McDermott, P. Dully, Peter Killion, Paul Killion, M. Costello, J. Moran, L. O'Connor, S. Killion, J. King, F. Hewitt, P. Johnson, N. Rush, D. McCormack, T. Hogan, J. Monaghan, N. Breen, K. McCormack, S. McCormack and C. O'Neill.