Can captain courageous Cooney lead Longford to Leinster minor glory?

Longford captain Mark Cooney was a happy man as the dust settled on the gutsy win over Louth in the Leinster MFC semi-final at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park last week.

Cooney is another graduate of the successful Clonguish underage academy. He won a minor championship medal in 2023.

With the club winning all the underage county titles last year, county teams are beginning to reap the benefit of the talent coming through in Allen Park.

Cooney is one of five starters on this Longford team from Clonguish.

In the second half, when Longford turned the screw on Louth, Cooney was in the thick of the action. 

He led a defiant Longford defence who were determined to cut down the scoring opportunities that were afforded to Louth in the first half.

Longford won more and more turnovers in the second half with the defensive workrate key to that.

“We had difficulties in the first half with Louth cutting in on the wing. But at half-time, we settled things down,” he commented.

So what did captain Cooney say to his forces during the break?

“I just tried to settle things down and told the lads to keep working. I told them that we needed runners off the shoulder,” he stated.

“We had to believe in each other. We had to improve our communication with the man beside us,” he added.

The evidence of increased communication was there to see in the second half, particularly in the defence. If it wasn’t Alan Mimnagh throwing himself at balls, it was Conor Doherty growing in stature.

 And then there was Cooney himself. He showed great composure and as the coaching parlance would put it, ‘went looking for work.’

In the end, it came down to a Cian O’Donnell free to seal a famous victory.

“I had no doubt that Cian would score that free,” Mark commented.

He also praised the contribution of substitute Luke Donnelly. “Luke has been out of football for the past two months. He came on in the second half and made a great impact,” he remarked.

Mark is a Transition Year student in St Mel’s College and he lined out for the school in the Leinster Senior Championship this season. 

Needless to say, the main subject for him for the remainder of the school year is leading a Longford team into a Leinster final.

And Mark Cooney will be in the thick of it once more in the title decider against Dublin in Tullamore this Monday evening with the belief that he can lead Longford to Leinster glory!