The year gone by marked the end of Paddy Marron's four-year tenure as chairman of Drung GFC. The club came along in leaps and bounds during Paddy's stint at the helm and they have every reason to approach forthcoming campaigns with optimism. Though he has stepped down from the position of chairman, Paddy Marron will remain as deeply involved with Drung in 2003 as he's ever been. The ardent clubman has been named a first-team selector and has also agreed to sit as vice-chairman. He looks back upon his chairmanship with satisfaction and expresses confidence that Drung are currently pointed in the right direction. Having seen Drung regularly go close to capturing the intermediate football championship, Paddy admits he thoroughly enjoyed his term in the chair: "Absolutely," he says. "We made it to two intermediate finals and also contested a semi-final in the last three years, which was good going. We're happy to have made such progress. "However, at the same time, we're disappointed not to have won anything after putting in such a huge effort. But hopefully we'll cross that final hurdle in 2003." That Drung are making progress is beyond question. The club has held intermediate status almost every year since the junior championship win of 1980. They also won the Division Two league in 1997 to move up into the top flight, wherein they invariably held their own, usually finishing mid-table, sometimes closer to the top than the bottom. Of course, they've now lost their Division One status by virtue of the restructuring taking place this year to align the league and championship competitions. As only senior clubs can henceforth play in Division One, the only way Drung could have retained their premier flight status would've been by winning the 2002 IFC. Having contested the previous two finals, they were genuine contenders, but unfortunately their challenge fell narrowly short. Demotion to Division Two was a heavy price to pay. "We're disappointed that we have to go back to Division Two but we knew the leagues were being restructured and we're not the only club who've had to go back." While they clearly weren't as impressive in the '02 IFC as they had been in the previous two years, Drung nonetheless gave the competition a fair crack. After a tentative start, they found something approaching their true form and came within an hour of a third consecutive intermediate final appearance. They were in Section One of the 2002 intermediate championship, along with Drumgoon, Ballinagh, Ballyhaise and Drumalee. After opening with victory over Drumalee, the 2000/2001 finalists lost their next three matches. Drumgoon topped the group with a 100% record and Ballinagh finished next with six points from a possible eight. But Drung hadn't seen the last of either of these teams... In third place, Drung, Drumalee and Ballyhaise were all tied on two points apiece. A three-way play-off was required to see who would take the last quarter-final place. Drung managed to step up a few gears and duly despatched both Drumalee and Ballyhaise to march onwards to the knock-out stage. As fate would have it, the quarter-final draw paired them with Ballinagh. Drung raised their game a further few notches and carved out another win. It looked as though their season was finally taking shape. They were drawn against none other than Drumgoon in the penultimate round, a game that was played in Breffni. Drumgoon were the form team - they were unbeaten and were reigning All-Ireland junior club champions - but Drung had found some confidence and had one eye firmly fixed on another final. As it transpired, missed opportunities in the first half cost them dearly and the dream was over for another year. Meanwhile, Drung's league form was good enough to leave them in contention for a Division One quarter-final place at the end of the full programme of fixtures. Here, another three-way play-off was required as they finished joint-eighth alongside Belturbet and Killygarry. However, it had been a long season and Drung weren't entertaining any realistic prospects of winning the league out. Against such a backdrop, defeat to Belturbet hardly came as a major surprise. During the course of 2002, Drung also bought their own pitch. They had it previously on a 99-year lease and made the highest bid when the property went up for auction. Fundraising is ongoing to finance the purchase. The club organised an auction in the Community Centre in October and also ran a successful Poker Classic on Friday December 6th. Another important annual event on the social calendar is the club dinner dance, which takes place each spring. All in all, 2002 was a very progressive social year, made possible by a strong, hard-working committee. A realistic target for 2003? "Our primary objective has to be to win the Division Two title again. Hopefully we'll be able to bring in more younger players in the process and get them involved in the team. It'd be nice to get a good run in the championship too - and we've shown that we can be a good championship side - but the league will be a definite priority this year. Drung were so close to attaining senior status on two occasions during Paddy's chairmanship. "When we lost the intermediate final to Knockbride - who had five county players and were a class act - in 2000 we weren't overly disappointed. But the defeat to Castlerahan in 2001 was a real blow. "We lost the '02 final after a replay, and missed a lot of chances in the drawn game. We faded early in the replay and never really got into contention. Perhaps we were over-confident. We were in Division One at the time and they were in Division Three and we'd also had the experience of playing in a final the previous year, so we thought we might have the edge them. "The disappointment of losing those finals obviously took its toll on the players, and the dip in form we saw in 2002 was a natural follow-on from that." Originally from Corduff, Paddy played some football in his native Monaghan before moving to Cavan in 1982. He lined out for Drung for a few years and was out of football for the best part of a decade before returning as the club's main sponsor (as proprietor of Delaval Milking Machines) in 1995. He then served as vice-chairman before taking the chair for four seasons, 1999-2002 inclusive. After reaching intermediate finals in 2000 and 2001, did Paddy perhaps expect more from the team in '02? Were hopes high of a 'third time lucky' IFC triumph? "We went into the season looking at things realistically. We knew it was going to be difficult to pick ourselves up again after losing those two finals. But they tried very hard and you couldn't possibly ask for any more than that. "We've a lot of lads based in Dublin or at various colleges around the country, which made it very hard to organise proper collective training during the week. But it's just one of those things. You couldn't fault anyone, especially not the management." Drung supplied two players to the county U21 side that reached the Ulster final in 2002 - goalkeeper James Reilly and corner forward Niall O'Rourke. Ciaran Galligan was with the Cavan minors and Cathal Donoghue played on the St Patrick's College team that captured the Ranafast Cup. Unfortunately, the club itself had a poor year at underage level, recording no notable successes. At the turn of the year, two Drung men - James Reilly and Alan Curran - were training with the county seniors. So there's every reason to believe that Division One status (not to mention a decent championship run) is within reach. Looking forward to the 2003 campaign, Paddy notes: "We have a new first team manager - Frank Brady - in place. Frank is a Galway man originally and he lives in Latton. He was with Aghabog last year and has won junior championships with both Kill and Drumlane, so he's an experienced club manager and we're confident he'll get the best out of the players." Frank will be assisted by two selectors: Paddy Marron himself and Patsy Fitzpatrick. Reflecting upon his term as club chairman, Paddy states: "I'd like to sincerely thank the committee for all their hard work over those four years and the players for their effort. It was a successful period for the club and we were very close to attaining senior status. Hopefully we have established a platform for future success." Tweet

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