The days of Kill Shamrocks' players metaphorically tipping their forelocks as they head into a championship game are long gone. Just ask stalwart clubman Brian McCarey Talk of an inferiority complex bedded in the psyche of Kill players was binned a long time ago. Still, according to one of their current leading lights, a tad more self-belief would come in handy. A timely infusion of same would be especially convenient if it were to coincide with the advent of the firm sod and attendant bouncing ball. "We don't fear any of the teams we come up against at intermediate level but we should have done better than we did in 2003. "Maybe, as a squad of players, we could give a bit more commitment but, most of all, I think we need to believe in ourselves more," attacking half-back Brian McCarey opines. In assessing where the Shamrocks have gone wrong in the recent past and just how things might go in the coming year, the highly-rated defender reckons that all belonging to the closely-knit club are determined to make up for an "average" year just gone by. But speaking with the sort of maturity unbecoming a 24 year-old, Brian says that a tragic death of the club's treasurer last year relegated football matters well down the list of priorities. "Teresa McCaffrey's sudden death put our football peformances last year into perspective. "Her death was a tragedy for her family and it upset everyone in the parish." But sure in the knowledge that the late Teresa would have wanted her son Niall and his team-mates to proceed to give the season their best shot, Kill Shamrocks bonded together in late summer in their attempt to rekindle their championship flame of old. Brian says that the objective of the players and the team-management was clear. Winning the championship was their Holy Grail. "We felt that winning the intermediate championship was a realistic goal. The intermediate championship has been hard to call for the last few years and there wasn't really any one team that you thought was outstanding or unbeatable. "The likes of Denn, Laragh, Ballinagh and Drung were always going to be in the running but we thought we had a good chance as well." Pitted in a group of four alongside similarly optimistic troupes from Denn and Laragh plus supposed whipping boys Cornafean, the good and the great of Kill proceeded to have a "slightly disappointing campaign." Cornafean presented the first obstacle. The fashionable refrain of "nobody said it was going to be easy" came home to roost for the Shamrocks when the two sides met at Butlersbridge. Indeed it took a brillant display of marksmanship in the final quarter of the game by attacker Niall McCaffrey to propel Kill to a 0-12 to 1-7 victory. The destination of the spoils still hung in the balance by the half-way mark but, amazingly, Cornafean failed to score from the 32nd minute 'till two minutes into injury time when they got a consoling goal. Kill certainly fully deserved their just rewards but after handing out quite a pasting to their opponents in the league a couple of weeks beforehand, Kill, for their part, seemed to lack the necessary urgency and killer-instinct to efficiently put away their opponents. "The game was a lot closer than we expected but we knew it was always going to be a dogged game because Cornafean were going to rise their game for the championship. "We counted on winning that one but at the same time we were just glad to get it over us." Around the corner lay champions in-waiting Denn. Brian insists Kill should have won that day in wintry Ballyhaise but, instead, let unbeaten Denn off the hook, going down by 1-7 to 1-9. Despite securing a large degree of possession over the hour, Kill failed to show the killer instinct or produce the hammer blows to put away what was a fitful Denn challenge. In fairness, the enforced retirement of countyman Pierce McKenna in the final quarter didn't help the Shamrocks' cause. "I don't think we got the rub of the green against Denn. "We hit the upright and the crossbar a couple of times. We could have won it," Brian opines. How did he rate the Crosskeys-based outfit though? Did they look like potential champions? "At that time, I didn't think they looked like they had it in them to win it out but, having said that, they were more economical than us from frees which made a big difference on the day." A meeting next time out with Laragh United would decide if the Shamrocks were to progress in the championship. Sadly a 0-6 to 0-11 defeat was their lot. Kill were caught napping on their starting blocks and by the time they shook off their lethargy, Laragh were sitting pretty on a 0-7 to 0-2 interval lead. "We were very poor in the first half and for a long time, it was one-way traffic even though we got the first score of the game after less than a minute. "We weren't winning possession from the kick-outs but we improved after half-time and put in a good second half. "It was a difficult game for all of us because just a couple of days earlier Teresa (McCaffrey) had died and there was a huge cloud over the match." On the day, Kill had graft and workrate in abundance but in the end Laragh's greater craft and ingenuity worked the oracle. And yet things looked pretty bright when two Niall McCaffrey frees helped reduce Laragh's lead to just a solitary score, 0-8 to 0-5, with eight minutes of the second half gone. However Laragh really got off the hook in the 20th minute when T.J. Byrne's close range shot was expertly saved at point-blank range by Jarlath Johnston and in the follow up the Kill player fly-kicked the ball wide of the post. "We had a couple of chances late in the match which might have made a difference but, in the end, we only had ourselves to blame for such a bad start to the match," remembers Brian, son of well-known Cootehill businessman Michael McCarey (E&M) and brother of former countyman Conor and John, a member of the current Kill intermediate team also. The disappointment of exiting the championship prematurely is patently still a sore point for young McCarey. However, all things considered, he's very optimistic for the team's chances of hitting the jackpot, sooner rather than later. "Considering that Denn went onto win the championship, we know that we're not that far off the pace and there's no way we were at our peak last year. "The average age of the team is only around the 23 mark and all the players are bound to be all the better for the experience gained in 2003." Certainly with the likes of Mark Kelly, Marcus McGee and Sean Gaffney epitomising the really young talent at adult level in the club, there is grounds for hope that Kill's perceived lack of sufficient quality attackers in depth may soon be addressed. "Scoring enough has been a bit of a problem in recent years but we're getting there," Brian assures us. A member of the Kill squad that annexed the Junior championship title in 1997, Brian says that Kill has done well to recover from the loss of some seven players in the immediate aftermath of that blue riband success. The occupational hazards for a football club such as emigration and retirements hit the Shamrocks hard almost before the champagne from '97 had been exhausted. "The team has steadily improved since 2001 when Gerry Brady of Gowna took over us. "Each year we've got better and although we're been playing against much better organised teams at intermediate level, we had no problem in making the step-up from junior after '97. "The only thing was at that stage that more responsibility was put on the younger players on the team than everyone would have liked because of the players that we had to do without after getting into the intermediate ranks. "The upside of that though was that the younger lads quickly matured and gained valuable experience which is now standing the team in good stead." Looking ahead to the coming season, Brian confesses he's not enamoured by the changes made by the county board to the championship format. "Putting the teams into bigger groups than other years waters down the knock-out tradition of the championship even more. "Teams will get more championship games alright but it's going to be more like a league than a championship," Brian opines. On a more positive note though, the dedicated Shamrock is glad to see some credibility being lent to the all-county league by dint of the re-introduction of the relegation-promotion system. But can we expect Kill to come good in 2004 whatever the structure, whatever the competition. "Some clubs might be surprised if we won the 2004 intermediate championship but I wouldn't. "If everyone in the squad can give that few per cent more commitment and we get the rub of the green, I think we'll be hard to stop." Ballinagh, Drung, Laragh et al, you have been warned! Tweet

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