After losing out to its eventual winners for the past three years in-a-row now, the intermediate football championship may seem like an unachievable task for Ballyhaise. Ballinagh, Redhills and Lavey have all denied Gerry O'Rourke and Mickey Graham's charges on separate occasions since 2007, but time and youth are on the club's side and the belief, as ever, is still there that they can deliver a crown which has managed to escape them since 1968.

As a former player with the Ramor United and Killinkere clubs himself, Fr Michael Router is all too familiar with the ups and downs of the game. In 1985, he was part of the Ramor squad which captured the county senior football championship, but six years later he experienced the bitter taste of defeat in the county junior decider after transferring to Killinkere, who lost out to Castlerahan.
It's fair to say that Father Michael's rollercoaster experience in the game has continued since becoming involved with the Ballyhaise club in 2004. Since then he has been a selector with the club's minor and senior teams and taken up the public relations officer role, which he still holds today. Maintaining such positions has helped him to become a firm follower of the club.

"The objectives would have been to get promotion from Division Two and put in a strong bid to try and get back to the intermediate final and hopefully win it," he said of the club's aims for 2009.
An IFC final defeat to rivals Redhills, demotion from Division One and an Under 21 final defeat to Lavey was to be the dreadful end that Balyhaise endured to their 2008 season and Mickey Graham and co were keen to try and turn things back around for the club before the decade's turn.

An opening defeat away to Drumlane wasn't the start Graham's team were looking for, but wins over Killinkere (2-10 to 1-7), Crosserlough (0-15 to 1-3), Drung (1-10 to 1-9) and Shercock (0-15 to 0-8) were enough to make sure that Ballyhaise forged a top-four finish and, therefore, a place in the semi-finals come the campaign's conclusion.
"Over all it was a mixed campaign because we lacked consistency in our results," explained Fr Michael.

"For most of the league campaign we would have be missing Ray Cullivan due to county and college commitments and Kevin Tierney would have started a lot of games on the bench. We were also missing Ali Pickett as well, and Fergal Slowey was not back for us until the start of the championship after recovering from injury."
As it had throughout 2008, luck totally deserted Ballyhaise in their 2009 intermediate football championship draw. The Annalee Park outfit drew former winners Drumalee, promotion winners Killeshandra and favourites Lavey in their group, but by the time the fixtures came around in June they weren't made to look out of place. In fact, Ballyhaise were convincing in a 2-9 to 0-10 defeat of Killeshandra at Kingspan Breffni Park and could count themselves unlucky not to have seen off Drumalee in Killygarry after a late Darragh Gaffney free snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat for the Cavan town side.
However, it was Ballyhaise's final group game which, unfortunately, proved pivotal in their season's downfall. With under ten minutes remaining in their game with Lavey at 'The Park', an already progressed Ballyhaise team looked set to show the New Inns men the exit door as they led by six points, but an unwavering comeback from Terry Hyland's men saw them force a draw through Darren Jordan's late penalty and save themselves a play-off against Drumalee, who had lost out to Killeshandra in the group's other game of the day.
"Lavey beat Drumalee in the play-off and then were drawn against us in the quarter-final and sure enough they beat us," explained Fr Michael.
"It was very disappointing to lose that game," he added. "We had Lavey on the ropes in the group stages and had we beaten them then you would have expected to at least get to the final as they did."
As expected, Lavey went on to win the competition by ousting Bailieborough in the semi-final and defeating Cootehill by 3-9 to 1-8 in the final.
It was a sickening outcome for the Graham's team and a league semi-final defeat to eventual winners Kingscourt didn't help to ease the pain, but there was to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

U21 glory
With Ray Cullivan in their ranks and a successful year at minor level, Ballyhaise entered the Cavan Division Two Under 21 Football Championship a fancied side.
After receiving a walkover from Drumalee in the first round, Ballyhaise's young guns dumped out Cornafean in the quarter-final and then overcame a stiff challenge from neighbours Laragh, who shocked Lavey in the previous round, to book their place in the competition's decider.
In the final at Ramor Park, Virginia, Graham's side made it look easy as they cruised past Bailieborough by 1-14 to 1-6 to help gain some revenge for the MFC final defeat to Killann Gaels two months previous and clinch the title that escaped them in 2008.
In the end, it was a superb attacking performance that made the difference for Ballyhaise over the hour, as five of their starting six forwards got themselves on the scoresheet to help put the Shamrocks to the sword.
It was Bailieborough that held a 0-2 to 0-1 after two frees from James Fulton helped cancel-out Kevin Tierney's opener and then steer the town side in front. Tierney and Fulton traded scores thereafter and Damien Reilly saw his effort of a goal fly just wide of Daragh Prior's post.
After that Ballyhaise began to get on top of their counterparts, with Tierney and Cullivan firing over scores which ushered their team into a 0-6 to 0-3 half-time lead.
A minute into the restart and the winners looked to be firmly on their way when poaching corner-forward David Duggan drove in a goal. After that, Ballyhaise pushed their lead to nine points, as Niall Costello, Neil Rooney and Tierney all raised white flags.
Bailieborough introduced Niall Kelly to try and stem the tide and the young substitute had an almost instant impact when he lashed over a superb point and backed up the effort just moments later when he fired in a penalty to cut the deficit.
However, the game was well and truly wrapped up in the closing stages when Cullivan leaped to make a trademark catch and raced through Bailieborough's rearguard to smash over a cracking point, which capped off his 'Man of the Match' performance from centre-field.
Costello rounded off the scoring for Ballyhaise in the next move, before Prior could make an outstanding save from Kelly in the remaining seconds.
Ballyhaise (Div 2 U21 final v Bailieborough): Darragh Prior; Aidan Moran, Mark Brennan, Enda Fay; Shane Briody, Kevin Rooney, Donal McGoldrick; Ray Cullivan (0-1), Cian Tierney; Niall Conaty, Niall Costello (0-3), Christopher Reilly (0-2); Neil Rooney (0-3), Kevin Tierney (0-5), David Duggan.
"The final was a good game, which was tightly contested. Ballyhaise had an excellent third quarter and that proved the difference for them in the end," said the club PRO.
"It was a great lift for the club and it shows that there is real talent coming through there. They have proved that they are winners and we'd be very hopeful that these players can come through and provide the backbone for the team in years to come."

Minor league success
Seven of that Under 21 team had already tasted minor league success with the club back in May, when they secured a comfortable 2-9 to 0-5 victory over St Joseph's in the Division One final at Drumlane.
However, the club PRO explained that despite the final result, the league was no stroll in the park for Ballyhaise.
"The league wasn't that comfortable for us," said Fr Michael, who was a selector with the minor panel.
"We finished third in a division of eight teams and needed to be in the top four in order to get through to the semi-finals,"
Wins over Lavey, Bailieborough and Mullahoran paved the way through to the last four for Ballyhaise, where they would face a Kingscourt side whom they drew with earlier on in the competition. After a narrow win over the Stars, Dessie Reilly's team were paired with Arva and Killeshandra amalgamation, St Joseph's, in the final.
"The final was against St Joseph's in Milltown and we were wary of them because they'd beat us earlier on in the league," he said.
"The game was played on a terrible day, but thankfully things went our way and we were on top at midfield and also had strong performances from Aidan Moran and Donal McGoldrick at the back. In the end, it was good scoring from Kevin Tierney and Neil Rooney up front that saw us win the game comfortably."
Come the minor championship in August, Ballyhaise were continuing to carry their good form with a worthy victory over rivals Redbridge and a hard-earned win over Mullahoran in the semi-final, which brought them into the county showpiece. There they faced Killann Gaels and ended up finishing second best to Bailieborough/Shercock combination.
"The performance on the day, from our point if view, was very poor. We didn't do ourselves justice and I'd like to think that if we had played to anywhere near our potential we'd of won the game," said Fr Michael, who was as disappointed as anyone after the defeat.

Castletara claim camogie crown
After a four-year wait, Castletara's camogs wrestled back the senior championship title from Lacken in September with a 0-9 to 1-5 triumph in the county final at O'Connell Park, Milltown.
Battling well against a tough breeze and reducing Lacken's star attacker Roisin O'Keefe to just one point during the first-half were key factors, as the Ballyhaise women only trailed the holders by a single point (1-2 to 0-4) at the break.
Castletara introduced Pamela Crowe to their full-back line early on in the second-half and from there on they took a firm grip on the game, with Majella Smith's frees and a well-struck score from Glenda Fitzpatrick moving their team three points in front.
Unwilling to give up the coveted cup easily, Lacken fought back and eventually drew the game level in injury-time when Aoife Brady had slipped through for a score.
From the resultant puck-out Lacken looked to have regained possession at the centre of the field, but referee Frank McDonald deemed them to have fouled possession on the ground.
With the pressure on, up stepped Majella Smith to sail over the ensuing free, which proved the difference between these two sides shortly afterwards, as Castletara held out for much coveted senior championship glory.
Castletara (SCC final v Lacken): Geraldine Mulvaney; Marie McPhillips, Anne Donnellan, Anne-Marie Smith; Aileen Smith, Caroline Larkin, Mairead McCabe; Elaine Reilly, Elaine Reilly; Colette Smith, Majella Smith (0-5, 4f), Orla Prior; Fiona Lynch (0-1), Glenda Fitzpatrick (0-2), Anne-Marie Larkin (0-1). Subs: Kate O'Gorman, Maria Smith, Pamela Crowe, Agnes Mundy.

50th anniversary celebrations
2009 saw the 50th anniversary of Ballyhaise GFC. The club, which was first formed in 1888 as Castletara Sarsfields, went out of existence for a ten year period and was reformed in 1959. Over the past 50 years the club has won the intermediate and junior 'B' titles and has had great success at underage level culminating in the capture of the Minor League Division One title and an appearance in the County Minor Final this year. A dinner dance to mark the 50th anniversary of the club was held in the Hotel Kilmore on Sunday October 25th. Tweet

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