Harte relishing ‘huge task’ 20 years on from first final

Doron Harte is the only member of Garrycastle’s breakthrough team of 2001 still going strong with this year’s senior squad.

Garrycastle will contest the 2021 Westmeath SFC final against St Loman’s Mullingar today (Sunday), at TEG Cusack Park (2.30pm). And to win another senior medal 20 years on from that maiden Flanagan Cup success would be a remarkable achievement.

“It’s hard to believe it’s 20 years (since the first title), time has flown by,” Harte reflected, when speaking to the Westmeath Independent last Sunday.

“It would be nice for our supporters and all our families (to add another title). But we’ll need to have maximum focus during the week to try and get that performance out of ourselves next Sunday,” he continued.

In the county final against Loman’s two years ago, Garrycastle managed to overturn an eight-point deficit with a dramatic revival.

“If we let them get eight points ahead again, I don’t think we’d pull them back this time,” Harte warned.

“Certainly, it’s a huge task for us. They have a set of forwards that the county team would probably be happy to have. That’s the challenge for us to try and overcome,” he continued.

“We will be focusing on trying to get a good start as teams always do, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. In the last couple of games, it clicked for us at the start. It’s important that we try and get a foothold in the game early on.”

Asked about the threat posed by John Heslin, Doron said: “I was lucky enough to play with John with Westmeath”. He then turned to some of the other key figures in the St Loman’s side.

“I know from marking Sam McCartan that he’s a real powerhouse. Loman’s are blessed to have players like that. Then you have the likes of Shane Dempsey coming back from Dubai, that will give them an added impetus. Young Jack Geoghegan is playing very well at wing-back and, by all accounts, Jack Cooney will be having a look at him.

“It’s a massive task to curtail their forwards and their midfielders can get a lot of scores. Peter Foy also gave us a lot of hassle in the league part of the championship.

“It is a huge task ahead of us, but it’s great to be looking forward to a county final at this stage of the year. We would have taken your hand off for that in the middle of the summer.”

Doron felt Garrycastle were “very flat” during some of the group games, adding that they were turning over the ball too easily. “The last two game are a confidence boost for us all,” he said.

Looking back on that 2001 final, an abiding memory for Doran was getting a belt from wily Tyrrellspass campaigner John Corcoran in the closing moments.

“I was marking John Corcoran in the 2001 final. I went to go past him with the ball in my hand and it was the last thing I remembered for a while! But we managed to win by a point. The 20 years seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye,” he recalled.

“Martin McCabe (Garrycastle manager in 2001) used to say to us ‘anything that you really want is always hard won’. Every single one of them (the county titles) were difficult, they all had their challenges.

“I’ve certainly enjoyed my time (playing with Garrycastle). I try to keep myself in good shape. I had an injury earlier in the year. I went over on my ankle in the league game against St Loman’s. I struggled to get back from that. It was the first time I noticed that the body was a small bit slower to heal.”

Covid-19 restrictions meant players had to do a lot of training on their own over the last two years, and Doron has enjoyed the “great sense of camaraderie” when group training resumed.

While Harte and the likes of John Gaffey provide a wealth of big game experience, Doron points to young players like Eoin Mulvihill, Jason Nugent and Bill Kelly and says “we have a good blend of players throughout the team”.

He added that young players breaking through has reinvigorated the team in the last few years. No doubt, that has helped stalwarts like Harte to keep plugging away at the coalface.