Avondale United set a benchmark for all Cork soccer clubs

TEN years ago, Avondale United were deep into one of the greatest-ever seasons by a team in the Munster Senior League.

Not only did they win the Premier Division and the FAI Intermediate Cup, they also lifted four other pieces of silverware and got to two other finals.

By the end of the year, just two trophies had eluded John Cotter’s all-conquering squad; the O’Connell Cup and the Munster Senior Cup.

But, clean sweeps are very rare in football, at any level, and Avondale flirted very close to absolute perfection.

They navigated a season that lasted 11 months and finished with an unprecedented sextuple, which still stands as one of the greatest ever runs by an amateur team.

The season began with a simple question; how does a club top winning the league and Intermediate Cup?

They first answered that by beating Junior Cup champions Sheriff YC in the inaugural edition of the Tom Hand Memorial Cup.

This isn’t to say that Avondale had it easy from the very start; they lost to Bohemians in the FAI Cup and they drew two league games at the start of the season.

Manager John Cotter didn’t let this early season disappointment have any bearing on their ambitions.

“The goal would always be the league and Intermediate Cup. Those would be the two big ones that you would want to do well in. But, obviously, we want to do well in every single competition,” he said.

“Every game we play, we go out to win. It just got to the stage were we kept winning games and getting to finals. Once you get to finals you want to win them.”

Avondale were sweeping teams aside, Crofton Celtic were beaten 8-0 in the Intermediate Cup and Mayfield United were hammered 8-0 in the quarter-finals of the Donie Forde Trophy.

They recorded their 13th straight victory the beginning of January and that kept momentum ticking over into the business end of the season.

The velocity brought on by such results only increased by winning the Keane Cup and the Donie Forde Trophy.

Avondale were cruising and Cotter was dealing with the extra fixtures effortlessly.

“We had a good squad and that was a squad that was an accumulation of three years’ worth of work,” he said.

“We had a good group together and I managed the group. I managed the boys. It was just me putting responsibility on the players. They drove it.

We trained well, we trained properly. We had good competition for places and everyone respected each other.

“We just had really good players who wanted to do well and win. It snowballed from there.”

The team kept finding new levels to their game, which showed in victories over Limerick FC and Cork City in the Munster Senior Cup.

Success locally translated nationally as they qualified for their fourth consecutive FAI Intermediate Cup final.

The team made it three in a row at Richmond Park by beating Bluebell United and that started a congested period of playing three games a week.

“We still had about eight or nine league games to play and we were playing three games a week for the rest of the season,” Cotter remembered.

“At that stage of the season, you have fatigue and injuries to deal with. Lads were working as well. I would have demanded a lot from them but their commitment levels were incredible.”

MOMENTUM

Avondale fed off the momentum and won the Beamish Stout Senior Cup. They also clinched the Munster Senior League Premier Division title, and that completed the sextuple.

They did reach two other finals; in the O’Connell Cup and Munster Senior Cup, but they lost both games to Rockmount and Waterford United.

While this was a heartbreaking end to such a successful season, the club focused on what was won instead of what was lost.

They picked themselves up and went on to win another Intermediate Cup in 2014 and they reached the quarter-finals of the FAI Cup, which was seen as a historic achievement by an amateur team.

2012-13 is still seen as the standard, as the team flirted close to absolute perfection.