The Westmeath senior football championship showpiece fixture will grace the vast green swathe of TEG Cusack Park Mullingar on Sunday afternoon, Garrycastle hoping to replicate the scenes of 2019 when they defeated final opponents, St Lomans, to raise aloft the prized Flanagan Cup for the eighth occasion in the club’s fabled history.
One player who will don the green and red on Sunday afternoon is perennial stalwart, Doron Harte, who featured as a corner back for Garrycastle when the club won their inaugural senior football county final in 2001, a one point victory over Tyrrellspass.
Twenty years on from that momentous occasion, Harte still retains the hunger and desire which ensures he remains a vital player in the Garrycastle squad, not just on the field, but affording a wealth of experience to the next generation of player aiming to achieve a similar senior football county medal haul.
Harte is hoping to win his ninth senior football county medal on Sunday and his voice is laden with enthusiasm as he reflects on his playing achievements to date and looks towards the final this weekend.
“It has been a rewarding twenty years of senior championship football. To think that I played in the club’s first Flanagan Cup success and now I am hoping to win my ninth medal on Sunday ensures great memories will remain,” Doron asserted.
Now aged 38, the former Westmeath footballer notes that the senior football county final experience is one which will elevate or deflate and is grateful to have emerged victorious with his club on eight occasions.
“You will always remember your first senior football county final success. I recall taking my place at corner back for our quarter final win over Castledaly in 2001 and retaining my position for the final victory, a historic day for Garrycastle.
“Raising the Flanagan Cup aloft in 2019 was also a momentous moment on a personal level as it was the first final in which I played following a cruciate ligament injury sustained in 2014,” Doron enthused.
The on field memories created are complemented by friendships which continue to endure, a recent reunion of the 2001 playing squad giving due cause for such an amicable bond to be enhanced.
To matters Sunday and Doron is of the view that a close encounter will ensue.
“St Lomans are familiar foes at this stage and they have been improving with each championship game and although they defeated us by the minimum scoreline in the group phase of this year’s competition I would be hopeful that if we play as a unit for the duration we will be contending for the Flanagan Cup come the shrill of the final whistle - a massive challenge awaits but one which, on a personal level, I am truly relishing,” Doron concluded.
