Picking through the bones of 2009, there is plenty of reason for optimism out Mountnugent way. Having contested the previous year's county JFC decider, the club was hoping to go one better by landing the junior crown and earning promotion to intermediate ranks. Unfortunately, such an eventuality didn't materialise as their championship dreams went up in smoke at the quarter-final stage, but at least there was ample success at various other levels, including - notably - three impressive outright juvenile victories.
Mountnugent culled an U12 shield, an U13 championship and an U16 shield - all nice souvenirs to have nestling in the clubhouse as the harshest winter in half a century took its icy grip on Ireland's shivering terrain. Underage successes are always vital to any club's long-term prospects and club stalwart Michael Caffrey - who marked his first year as chairman in '09 - was particularly pleased by the juvenile success. At adult level, the heroics of 2008 weren't repeated but the club still managed a meritorious win in the county junior 'D' football championship, beating Butlersbridge in the decider.
The final of this one was played at Our Lady of Lourdes Park in late September and 14-man Mountnugent saw off a fancied Butlersbridge side to claim the silverware by the minimum margin, 3-6 to 2-8. Butlersbridge had raced into a three-point lead through Patrick Flynn, Paul Flynn and Sean Henry before Mountnugent clicked into gear and replied with three on the spin from Darren Hennessy, Liam Hennessy and Declan O'Reilly. The winners then grabbed the first of their three goals: Micheal Mulvey had possession in the middle but his pass to Henry was intercepted and Mountnugent worked the ball to Felim Farrelly, who fired to the top corner.
Mulvey and Patrick Flynn knocked over points for 'the Bridge' to leave them trailing by just one at the interval, 1-3 to 0-5. The losers surged forward early in the second half but shot four wides in succession. The champions-in-waiting edged further ahead when Liam Hennessy fired over but Paul Flynn kept 'the Bridge' in touch. The turning point came as Mountnugent took a vice-like grip on the game by grabbing two goals inside three minutes. Farrelly fired low to the net for his second major before impact-sub Conor Kelly rifled home emphatically to put his team 3-4 to 0-6 in front.
Paul Flynn hauled 'the Bridge' back into contention when he notched 1-1 in the space of two minutes but Liam Hennessy popped one over for Mountnugent just before Sean Plunkett received his marching orders. Paul Flynn and Adrian Garry exchanged points close to the end and, with the game entering injury time, substitute Darragh Keogh poked the ball home from close range to leave the minimum between the teams.
But Mountnugent held on for a wonderful victory. The team that captured the 2009 Cavan junior 'D' football championship was: Liam Smith; Thomas Hennessy, Thomas O'Shea, Raymond Duffy; Cillian Caffrey, Barry Givney, Sean Plunkett; Sean Brady, Darren Hennessy (0-1); Kevin Plunkett, Mark Smith, Declan O'Reilly (0-1); John Duffy, Liam Hennessy (0-3), Felim Farrelly (2-0). Subs: Adrian Garry (0-1), Conor Kelly (1-0), Kenny Quinn.
With Sean Fitzpatrick at the helm, Mountnugent beat Corlough by 5-12 to 1-8 in the JFC and also recorded a 0-13 to 0-10 victory over Cornafean, but the latter side struck back to eliminate the 2008 finalists on a 0-9 to 0-8 scoreline. In Division Three of the all-county football league, Mountnugent finished sixth from 14 teams, with six wins out of 13 games. All in all, with four trophies in the cabinet, the club chairman is happy enough:
"Hopefully we can go forward from here," says Michael. "We were obviously disappointed that the junior team lost to Cornafean having reached the final the year before, but we're looking good across the board. The ladies section is coming along nicely, with a lot of underage teams taking shape, and we're optimistic that we'll taste success there.
"We'd be happy with the four trophies, especially with the underage success because there's a good bit of work going into that and it's nice to see it rewarded. But we'd still like to get the main one, which is the junior championship."
What are the chances of Mountnugent going all the way in 2010? "I suppose it depends on emigration and the money side of things. The way things are in the economy, there's a very real threat of losing players. We've lost five or six lads already and the problem is that a lot of our lads would have been working in construction. We have a few young lads coming through, but this won't count for as much if we lose some of the more experienced lads, which is a real possibility. It could be a big blow, but lads have no work here and what are they supposed to do? This is a problem facing a lot of clubs at the moment but I think it could hit Mountnugent particularly hard. Junior clubs don't have a big pick at the best of times and it would be devastating to lose some of our most important players. We're picking from a small panel as it is, so hopefully the emigration situation won't impact as badly on us as we fear…"
In 2009, the club's Ballad group won the county Scor again - for the third successive time - while Mountnugent also entered various items in junior Scor as well. With a strong Scor section within the club, Mountnugent is providing an invaluable service to the community as a whole. "The club caters for the entire community, with a good mix of young and seasoned campaigners," Michael confirms.
"We're trying to develop the underage section of the club as best we can, with a lot of hard work being done at present. We believe that whatever you put in you will get back out, so we're pushing hard with the juvenile section.
"On the financial end of things, we're determined not to allow the club to get into a lot of debt. These are demanding times and you have to cut your cloth accordingly. So we're keeping a very close eye on our budget and making sure we don't overspend. As half of the parish is in County Meath, we don't have a big playing base or a big support base here anyway, so we have to be very careful with our finances."
In the coming months, Mountnugent will launch an all-out bid for the Cavan JFC. "There are several teams in there that could win it," Michael opines. "It's wide open and it'll be all on the day. It's all going to come down to who wants it most, so we're hoping to do fairly well.
"A lot will depend on keeping the majority of our players at home. There are so many factors that you have to get right if you are going to win a championship, and holding onto your players is definitely one of them. If we can hold onto the core of our team, we should be able to give it a good go."
Mountnugent have a number of players who stand out at intercounty level. David Givney represented the club with distinction at senior county level in 2009, while Graham Paterson was invited into this year's Cavan U21 panel but had to decline as he's off to Australia for six months. Raymond Finnegan and Sean Plunkett were in with the county minors for trials and Barry Givney is another who seems sure to push for a place with the 2010 Cavan minors. Tweet

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