By Shaun Casey

SETTING the MacLarnon Cup at the front of the school for everyone to see is what makes all the sacrifices worthwhile, said Aquinas Diocesan Grammar boss John McAteer following their maiden MacLarnon Cup triumph.

They defeated St Eunan’s, Letterkenny by 13 points last Thursday evening, and with parent-teacher meetings taking place the morning after, the school proudly presented the trophy.

Goals from JJ Higgins and Jacko Watson, who both rattled off 1-3 apiece, were key to victory as the Belfast school ran out 2-12 to 0-5 winners.

“The boys were actually off on Friday for the parent-teacher meetings, so we took the cup and had it at the front of the school. It was lovely for the third years and the fifth years to come in and see the trophy sitting at the front of the school,” explained McAteer.

“It’s there for them to try and match that and try to get to that level now. The seventh years are going to move on now, but the school keeps going.

“The message has always been the same, it’s about the younger teams coming behind and giving them something to aspire to and trying to get them to reach the top level. Aquinas will hopefully stand in MacRory on their own two feet, and we’ll see how we go.”

Doing it for the future so students in Aquinas Grammar see what can be done is the best bit says Down man McAteer.

“That’s the way we’ve always approached it,” added the Newry Shamrocks clubman.

“In 2018 we had a team in the Corn na Óg and Omagh gave us a pasting in the first game, and we learned from that and tried to figure out what Omagh did well and what all the top schools do well.

“When we met Omagh in fourth year, the gap had narrowed. You’re maybe not going to beat them but you can be more competitive each time. We’ve taken some serious kickings, but we’ve never been hard on ourselves.

“That happened this year with St Eunan’s, they beat us by 13 points in the group, and we really picked that apart and figured out why they were so much better than us. We tried to close the gap and that’s all we could do.

“That’s the joy of schools football is that you can beat in fourth year and do a lot of work until fifth year and close that gap and that’s the joys of the job.

“We had been on the go for 33 years of entering Ulster Colleges football and I’m sure there’s been plenty of heartbreaks along the way. I know in the last couple of years we have been beaten in quarter-finals and semi-finals but we saw how see how close you can get.”