'And Jason's still turning his man'

This week's Cavanman's Diary

Last Sunday week, an email dropped into my inbox from Mark O’Reilly, who was covering the Belturbet v Arva All-County Football League Division 2 match for us.

Immediately, my eye was drawn to the teams and scorers at the bottom – and there it was, in black and white: Jason O’Reilly, 1-4 (2f).

Football supporters have a tendency towards nostalgia and I have to admit, when I saw that Jason had scored a goal again, it brought me back to my teenage years, watching him find the net what seemed like every time he took the field, for club and county.

There have been some good and some great goalscorers in Cavan down through the years. Charlie Gallagher, Joe Stafford – who scored a dozen championship goals, including one in the Polo Grounds – and the “Babe Ruth of Gaelic football”, Peter Donohoe were among the greatest practitioners of the art but, with apologies to those legends, I would doubt that anyone could come near Jason O’Reilly.

In his early days playing with Cavan, he was described by one writer as “a goalsmith”, a beautiful description which summed him up. Because within the game, different players can do different jobs and the best ones can excel in many – but scoring goals is almost a trade, and an art, in itself and Jayo is a master craftsman.

In an interview with Gaelic Life in June last, he was asked where he developed this uncanny knack.

“I always had an eye for goal,” he said, showing a gift for understatement given that the newspaper archives are full of reports of underage matches in which he scored bagfuls. As far back as 1990, he scored a hat-trick in a Corn na nÓg match for St Pat’s, for example.

“When I was a youngster, I was always played in corner-forward or full-forward so I stayed close to the goals. My height was a factor as well, I was a small fella at underage level.

“I remember playing for the U4s and I was about 10 at the time, and a commentator said ‘this wee fella’s only four balls high’.

“Also growing up, I couldn’t really kick points where we lived. I’d broken too many windows down through the years. My poor mother. I’d say she needed a bank loan, I’d that many windows broken. I’d say everyone knew it was me. That’s why I had to keep it low more than anything else!”

And that was what he did, keeping them “on the carpet” as he said in an interview after the 1997 Ulster final.

Here was a generational talent and one who arrived on the scene at a good time. Cavan were improving. Belturbet, after decades in the doldrums, were too. The club had been in existence since 1887 and, on its own, had one Junior Championship to show for their efforts, way back in 1937. Both club and county desperately yearned for a breakthrough; the arrival of a forward with a cheeky grin and an assassin’s temperament with the size five in his hands must have felt like a dream.

To document all of the goals he scored would take a book, not a column. He hit the net in almost every big game he played; two Ulster SFC finals and an All-Ireland U21 semi-final and final as well as a National League Division 1 semi-final, an Intermediate Championship final and Junior Championship final.

As a snapshot, here’s a brief outline of a few of his early seasons. In late 1993, just gone 17, he scored a hat-trick in an ACFL Division 3 semi-final against Munterconnaught. In the final, they played Arva.

The match report described it best. “Belturbet’s Jason Reilly grabbed possession and, in an instant, turned his man to bury a left-foot shot to the roof of the Arva net.” Belturbet won. Jayo had arrived.

In the 1994 Junior Championship, he scored a goal in the semi-final against Munterconnaught, the quarter-final against Butlersbridge, two against Shercock in the previous round and one, again versus the Munchies, in the game before that.

Belturbet lost that final but the following year, Jason got a hat-trick against Drumgoon in the quarter-finals and two goals in the final against Knockbride.

The following year, the run continued. A goal in the All-Ireland U21 semi-final replay against Meath and another in the final against Kerry. Between those games, he played a league game for Belturbet against Killygarry, hitting 2-6, as you do.

In his first match back with Belturbet, then, he grabbed 1-1 in the Intermediate quarter-final against Cootehill, 3-4 in the semi against Drumgoon and the crucial goal in a 1-5 to 0-5 final win over Denn.

Of course, the following year there was the small matter of the winning goal in the Ulster final against Derry. Belturbet were now senior; he fired them to the quarter-final where he found the net again to sink Cavan Gaels.

And on and on it went. No defence was safe. Switch off for an instant and the umpire was reaching for the green flag. In all, O’Reilly finished with 48 competitive goals at senior level for Cavan. For Belturbet? Who knows. We’d put his tally around the 300-mark, all in, at adult level alone.

After the 1996 intermediate success, the great Sean McElgunn put pen to paper. The tradition was that a milestone win would be commemorated by the local bard and McElgunn’s poem was a classic of the genre. I read it as a child and the last stanza stuck with me.

“Now all Breffni is humming, the Rorys are coming… And Jason still turning his man.”

Twenty-eight years after his debut and this once-in-a-lifetime goal king is still turning him. Long may he keep them on the carpet.