McSorley signs off in style as Ireland complete memorable double

IF you had asked Kevin McSorley how he would have wanted to sign off his near 20-year Australian Rules Football playing career he would have scarcely been able to dream up a conclusion like the one that was delivered in Croatia on Saturday.

The Newtownstewart native, who lives in Cookstown, was captain of the men’s team who last won the European Championships in 2013, but who went into this year’s tournament in Zagreb more than quietly confident of reclaiming the coveted trophy.

They started their campaign slowly, drawing 9-9 with reigning champions GB, but they were into their groove immediately afterwards with a 73-1 win over hosts, Croatia.

On day two they defeated Germany, who ended their 9-a-side Euro Cup bid, 30-7 and then accounted for France 36-19 to set up a semi-final on the Friday against Croatia, who they eased past by 88-13.

In the final, Ireland beat France again on Saturday, which just so happened to be captain Kevin’s 38th birthday which gave him the send off of all send offs from the entire European AFL community.

“It doesn’t get any better, but it was surreal,” beamed the father of two, who is looking forward to some family time after his long career.

He continued: “It was so special because I can understand the Irish ones getting around me because they know me well but listening back to the commentary, two Aussie guys, some of the things they were saying were lovely and I got the walk off the field at the end of the final and there were guys from Croatia and Germany congratulating me on a good career.

“The whole football community in Europe were there, so it was such a special thing and because it’s been almost 10 years without a trophy, for me, you always want to make things better and we have a group of lads there now who know how to win and I think they will go on to do brilliant things!

“I’m going to miss it surely but I’ll never leave it, I’ll be about, I’ll watch games and maybe some point down the line I might coach.

“But I’m going to enjoy some time with the family now because it’s a lot of time spent running up and down the road to Belfast, Cork, Galway and Dublin, it’s a tough ask. It’s been worth it but the time is right.”

The Irish men’s team wasn’t short of quality performances, particularly from the west of the Province with McSorley, Strabane’s Kyle Devine, Galbally’s Caoimhin O’Donnell, Clonoe’s Conor Hughes and Fermanagh pair, James McMahon and Sean Paul Henry all playing their parts in victory, which was achieved upon good management as well as individual performances.

“When it was the full four quarters of 20 minutes, true football on the full pitch, with the fitness work we had done and the strength and depth of our squad, we were confident of winning,” McSorley added.

“One of our lads got ‘best in ground’ in the semi-final but didn’t make the squad for the final – there were tough conversations and tough calls, but our management got absolutely everything right the whole way through.”

It wasn’t only the Irish men who were celebrating on Saturday, though, as the women’s team, captained by Glenelly’s Siobhan Sheerin, who was joined in the squad by Kildress native, Shannon Stevenson, retained their title and in style, winning every game they played, including setting a new European record win of 300-0 in their semi-final triumph over Croatia. They also beat GB 61-0, Germany 126-0, European Crusaders 87-0 and Croatia in an earlier game 152-0 before outclassing the GB Swans again in the decider.

“They are exceptional and the night before their semi-final they were discussing how to approach it to keep themselves motivated and they actually set themselves a target of 300 points,” McSorley added.

“The previous European record was 260-something and they wanted to beat it and they did it well but they are just phenomenal.”