Derry's championship sponsor
August 09, 2010The 2010 NMF Properties Foreglen Derry senior football championship is expected to be one of the most open in years with at least five teams harbouring genuine hopes of taking defending champions Loup's crown.
Foreglen and Derry GAA stalwart Noel McFeely is entering his second year as sponsor of the Oak Leaf County's premier football competition and is looking forward to some cracking encounters between now and the county final in October.
"Club football in Derry has always been very strong and extremely competitive, and we were delighted to be in a position to continue our sponsorship of the senior football championship this year," he says.
"We got great publicity from our association with the championship last year, in particular from the county board vice-chairman Anthony McSwiggan and the former chairman Seamus McCloy. Likewise, the new chairman John Keenan has been very helpful to us. It promises to be a great championship and may the best team win!"
Loup's victory last year came as a surprise to many people and Noel isn't ruling out the prospect of another surprise winner in 2010.
"While the usual suspects like Ballinderry, Glenullin, Bellaghy, Lavey and Dungiven are sure to be in the mix, I'd regard Coleraine as the dark horses. They've made great strides since beating us (Foreglen) in the 2007 intermediate final and I think they are ready to challenge for the big prize now. Sean McGoldrick - who is father of county player Sean Leo - has turned them into a serious outfit and I'm expecting them to be the surprise packet.
"There were at least five teams ahead of Loup in the pecking order last year, yet John Brennan's men made light of this by winning the championship and going on to contest the Ulster club final against the eventual All-Ireland champions St. Gall's."
A successful building contractor who heads up the McFeely Group (of which NMF Properties is a part of), Noel is an avid GAA supporter who has had a lifelong involvement with the O'Briens club in Foreglen. He was one of seven brothers who played for the club and was responsible for starting the club's underage policy which has produced many of the current intermediate side.
In addition, he was the club's representative on the North Derry divisional board for many years and his company was one of the first to sponsor the North Derry leagues in the mid-1990s. He also represented Derry at minor, under 21 and senior (briefly) level and also played for the London under 21s. More recently, he was a selector with the talented Derry minor team which suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Galway in the 2007 All-Ireland final.
"We lost the All-Ireland final to a last-minute Galway goal. It was a terrible way to lose it because we didn't have time to recover," remembers Noel, whose eldest son Ciaran came on as a substitute in the final and was a member of this year's county under 21 team which suffered a surprise Ulster semi-final loss to Donegal.
"We had beaten very strong Cork and Laois teams along the way and it was bitterly disappointing to lose the final in those circumstances. But it was great to be involved with a team at that level and to work alongside a young manager like Niall Conway who has since gone on to achieve great things with Liam Bradley in Antrim."
Married to Brigid, Noel played for O'Brien's for the best part of 30 years, lining out alongside his brothers Tom (now in Dublin), Gabriel (Manchester), Dessie (Donegal), Pascal (Foreglen), Ronald (Foreglen) and Derek (Faughanvale, Derry city) at different stages. His father and grandfather were deeply involved with the club before him and now his sons Ciaran (20), Eunan (18), Odhran (14) and Ruairi (13) are keeping up the proud family tradition.
Along with John Mitchell's in Claudy, O'Brien's shares the distinction of being Derry's oldest GAA club (founded in 1888). Deriving its name from a former Cork TD, the club won the inaugural All-County League Division 1 title in 1965 before slipping back into Division 2.
In 1985, Noel captained O'Brien's to their first county intermediate football championship and he was player-manager when they captured the junior crown five years later. About 15 years ago, he became the club's Youth Officer and immediately set about putting underage structures in place. Foreglen have since become a force to be reckoned with at juvenile level in the Oak Leaf County, winning leagues and championships at under 12, 14, 16 and minor level. And last year, they achieved their finest victory to date when they defeated Desertmartin to claim the county under 21 'A' championship for the first time.
"It was a major breakthrough for us and reflects the huge amount of work that has gone in to our underage set-up over the past 10 or 15 years. When I started working with the young players in the village all those years ago, my great hope was that it would yield a senior championship some day.
"We are still trying to get up to senior, having lost two league playoffs in 2006 and 2007, but the average age of the current intermediate squad is only 22 and those lads are still developing as footballers. My nephew Damien O'Connor is managing the team and he has high hopes for this year," he explains.
Noel, who has also been instrumental in the development of O'Brien's impressive playing facilities, was disappointed to see his beloved Derry lose their Division 1 status in the recent National League, but remains hopeful that they will still have a successful championship.
"It is my fervent hope that Derry wins the Ulster championship this year. We haven't won it in 12 years and it is far too long of a gap for a county like Derry. I'm not sure if there is enough quality in the county to challenge for an All-Ireland at the moment, but we have some very good under 21s coming through and when they get a bit of experience, the team will be all the stronger," he concludes. Tweet
