Denn's fortunes in 2010 couldn't have differed more from the past two years and unfortunately it was to be one of the most frustrating seasons yet for this year's county captain Martin Cahill, who was forced to watch from the sidelines for most of the summer.

What a difference a year can make in Gaelic football. From the heights of a second consecutive county final appearance against the seemingly untouchable champions, to the depths of avoiding relegation at your nearest rivals' expense, Denn have been on a rollercoaster these past few years.

Determined as ever for another shot at getting their hands on the Oliver Plunkett Cup, the team began training in the New Year under new manager Damien O'Reilly of Mullahoran, having licked their wounds from another final defeat to Cavan Gaels the previous October.
O'Reilly - a vital piece of the Cavan Ulster SFC winning team of 1997 - succeeded Virginia native Gary Farrelly and revealed his thoughts on an objective for his players right from the outset and there were no arguments, having been there twice before.

"We wanted to get back to the county final, but this time we just couldn't seem to get it together," said Cahill.
"We weren't that worried about our run in the league going into the championship, because we were confident after last year that we'd be well capable of getting out of our group as tough as it was."
Things didn't get off to a good start though. In their ACFL Division One opener Denn lost two of their county contingent to injury, one of which being their skipper Cahill, and finished on the wrong side of a 0-13 to 0-9 result against Lavey in Crosskeys.

Heavy defeats to newly promoted sides Kingscourt and Killeshandra left things on an ominous note before a fourth successive loss away to Belturbet left Denn at the foot of Division One with no points to show for after four games. 
 "In the first game against Lavey, myself and Mossy Corr both got injured and we ended up losing the game. That was basically the way things stayed until we met Redhills," Cahill explained.

Where was the problem? Cahill doesn't hesitate in answering, and meanwhile living up to his nickname as 'Frank' in doing so.
"I think it was just down to not working hard enough in training and in the games," he stated.
"We didn't have the right attitude after getting into the last two championship finals and teams were coming up against us with a point to prove. They would have been saying to themselves 'these lads got to the final last year, let's show that we're better than they are."

The loss of Padraig McGovern from the start of had left the Crosskeys men with a hole to fill at centre-forward, while Cahill's club season continued to be hindered by injury having come through a difficult league campaign with Cavan. Incidentally, three Denn men in the form of Eoin McPhilips, Tomas Corr and Martin Cahill patrolled the Breffni County's full-back line for the majority of the inter-county season, while Cahill was chosen as captain by then manager Tommy

Carr after the McKenna Cup campaign.
"I played in the McKenna Cup and most of the league as well for Cavan. It was an honour to be named captain and I was absolutely delighted to get the chance," he said.

"It was just a pity that I kind of had injuries all year with the county and before the Cork game I was suffering badly with Osteitis Pubis, which is a problem with the upper groin. Unfortunately, I couldn't play any more football after the Cork game, which was very frustrating for me."
Hard-fought wins against Redhills, Castlerahan and Mullahoran kept O'Reilly's men within a fighting chance of survival in the league, before embarking on their championship campaign at the end of July as they entered a group full of genuine contenders to the Gaels' stronghold on the competition. 

First up were Gowna and in a typical fiery championship opener, Jerome Kiernan's first-half goal looked to be enough to steer Denn to victory but Gowna snuck into the lead deep into injury-time when a Darren Costello free was enough to earn a point for the maroons.
"The first game was against Gowna and it was a draw and then we drew with Belturbet in the next game, so we were in kind of a funny situation going into our last game against Mullahoran because they had drew with Belturbet as well in their first game," said Cahill.

"Against Gowna I honestly thought we were the better team, but we ended up going behind late on and needed a free from Darren Costello in the end to draw the game. In the Belturbet game we got off to a very bad start and ended up drawing the game in the end, so we still had a chance if we had beat Mullahoran.
"We beat them last year in the semis by 10 points, so I was kind of wary going into the game and knew they'd be out for blood against us after last year," he added

In front of a sizeable crowd at Kingspan Breffni Park, the Dreadnoughts raced into an early advantage with goals from Paul Brady and Philip Brady gave to take in a 2-7 to 0-6 half-time lead and a penalty from veteran Danny Brady early on in the restart all but confirmed Denn's fate
To their credit, the trailers battled well, with Tomas Corr grafting hard at centre-field and Darren Costello again showing well in attack, but Mullahoran had always been control and ran-out winners by a comfortable 3-10 to 0-9 to advance to a semi-final meeting with Cavan Gaels.
It meant that the team were left with three games to secure their status as a top tier club and after falling at the first hurdle to Lavey the pressure mounted.

"We lost to Lavey by a point and it was a very poor display by us," Cahill admitted.
"We met Crosserlough next and they would probably be our closest rivals. It was kind of do-or-die against them in the semi-finals because we'd be in the final against either Killygarry or Redhills if we lost."
By this stage Damien O'Reilly had departed as manager, with Jim Hyland taking up the vacant post and Cahill himself coming in to take a few training session to help fill the void left by being unable to play. 

"Jim Hyland came in and I took a few training sessions with him and we just kind of upped it a bit," he said. "We lifted the intensity in training session. Jim has done all the coaching courses up north and is a very good trainer.
"We were missing Darren Costello and Hubert Smith for the Crosserlough game. Both of them were on holidays and would have been seen as a huge loss to us because they were two of our top scorers.
"John Smith and Martin McKiernan came in and did well and we also got Fergal Farrelly back two weeks before the game, so that kind of lifted us. Thankfully, we won it by four points."

Denn prevailed by 1-10 to 0-9 at Our Lady of Lourdes Park, Mullahoran, where John Smith's 12th minute goal proved decisive for the Crosskeys men in securing safety and sending their rivals towards the drop to the intermediate ranks.
It was a rare occasion for Denn to celebrate in 2010 and Cahill hopes that they can regroup next season and get back to the last four stages of the league and championship, where silverware can be won for their efforts

"There just wasn't the right effort put in this year," he stated, "but it's amazing what a difference two or three good players can make to you. Padraig McGovern and Sean McGivney would be two good players for us and hopefully they'll be back for next year."
"We would want to do well in the league and get back to another championship semi-final, which we are well capable of."
At underage level, Cahill feels there are hard-working members which are helping the club hold its own, but admits that it's hard to envisage any team breaking the dominance Cavan Gaels have had in most of the top Divisions over the past decade.
"There are people putting in a good effort to make sure things are going well at underage in this club," said Cahill.
"The way I see it, everyone is on the same boat apart from Cavan Gaels. They have the pick and just seem to keep bring through the players to win titles. They were in third gear this year in the senior championship and reached another final and made a 1-13 score against Mullahoran look easy. It's hard to see them being beat any time soon, to be honest."  
 
Feile joy for U14s, while U13s come so close  
Denn's Under 14s made it a happy Easter Monday this year when they captured the county Feile Division Three title at Kingspan Breffni Park after a riveting run in Group Two of the competition.
Trained by club men Brendan O'Reilly and Martin Cahill, who took time out from his busy role as county board treasurer to get involved, the Crosskeys boys were well primed going into this competition and claimed an early scalp over Maghera to put one foot into the semi-finals.

In their second group game, Denn put Dernacrieve to the sword to advance through to the last four, where Drumalee awaited them and after a close scrap with the Cavan town outfit the maroons booked their place in the final.
In a well-contested decider, goals made all the difference as Denn delivered a first piece of silverware for the year back to the club when they defeated Mullahoran in the final by 3-8 to 0-6.

The triumph meant that the team would go on to represent Cavan in Division Six of the All-Ireland Feile on the first weekend of July at Derry, where they would find the competition a bit too stiff, failing to advance from a though group.
In August, Denn's Under 13 footballers competed in the Roinn D league final where they finished second best to Belturbet on a 6-15 to 3-11 score-line.
The teams had contested an even first-half in which the sides were level on four occasions in, with Denn smashing in the first goal through their half-forward and top-scorer Thomas Edward Donohoe.
Denn held the lead right up to half-time before Sean Og Lawlor's goal gave the town side the 1-6 to 1-5 lead at the interval.
Lawlor bagged a second goal for the Rories minutes into the restart, which was quickly cancelled-out by another fine Donohoe strike in the 36th minute, but an unanswered 3-3 would prove decisive for Belturbet.

To their credit, the Crosskeys boys never threw in the towel as full-forward Cavelle Keogan fired in their third goal late on, but it wouldn't be enough for a brave Denn side as their captain Cathal Reilly was forced to look on while Belturbet's Stuart Dunne raised the Cup.   
 
 
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