McFadden charts Abbey VS’ rise to the biggest day in Ulster Schools football

ABBEY VS manager Stuart McFadden believes it was by no means predestined that they would make their mark at the very highest level of Ulster Schools football.

They stand on the cusp of what would be a truly historic MacRory Cup title when they come up against St Patrick’s, Maghera this Sunday at Celtic Park – it’s their maiden final appearance and a Donegal school has never come up trumps in the competition.

Abbey VS are blazing a trail, however, having won last year’s MacLarnon Cup title before following suit with the All-Ireland ‘B’ title.

Asked if there was a sense from their early days at the school that this was a potential golden generation, their manager McFadden, a Gaoth Dobhair man, said: “I would never have said there was MacRory Cup football. You could tell there was talented boys there and they’ve progressed well with their clubs, who have helped them along the way to get them to this level.

“Look, you’re always just happy to help a team progress and when they look back on their school days, they’ll probably not remember any of the Irish stuff I taught them but they’ll definitely remember the trips they had, that MacLarnon win last year, and making a historic MacRory Cup final in our first year.”

They’re coming up against a school with a storied tradition at this level, St Patrick’s, Maghera, who sit second on the all-time roll of honour list with 16 titles to their name. Abbey VS come armed with a winning mentality, however, as they’ve backboned by members of the Four Masters team who recently retained their Ulster Minor Championship title at St Paul’s.

“Between the MacLarnon and the Four Masters minors winning two St Paul’s tournaments. People will say our lads are well known within Ulster already. The boys were chatting about the St Pat’s players, they kind of know each other from playing underage football.

“They meet each other when playing county minor or county u-16s. There’s a lot to be said about playing at MacRory level and the boys are really happy to be playing top-end football.”

This time last year Four Masters featured on the undercard as they came up trumps in the MacLarnon Cup final before making way for MacRory Cup finalists Omagh CBS and St Patrick’s Academy. Now they’re on the main billing and McFadden says that winning a piece of school’s silverware was massively important to their overall trajectory.

“I think it was huge for the school and for the team, it definitely was something. I hark back to when our head sports teacher came to me last year to take the senior team, and I said I don’t know, mocks are coming up and I’m working for the SEC. But the thought was that it would be wrapped up by Christmas, but we were still going.

“The MacLarnon was massive in showing that we could compete in Ulster and then we topped it up with the All-Ireland B title. People say we have a slightly different team this year, we lost probably eight of the starting 15 last year. The boys have been unbelievable.”