Minors shine and seniors show potential
December 30, 2009JP O'Kane's side were desperately unlucky not to make the semi-finals this season but the progress they made in the championship as well as their minor side's double success suggests that it could be sooner rather than later that they make a long awaited breakthrough.
The Ramparts Road outfit finished the campaign as Dundalk's only senior side and with a bit more luck could well have become the first team from the town to reach the last four of the senior championship in the best part of a decade.
Having said all that, 2009 has very much been a rollercoaster campaign for the Gaels.
From the highs of their minor triumphs to the lows of their league struggles, consistency has been a major problem for the Pairc na nGaeil outfit.
One side who didn't suffer from inconsistency, however, was the club's minors who followed up on their league title success by clinching the Minor C Championship final at the expense of the O Raghallaigh's in Ardee on a 3-6 to 2-8 scoreline with full forward Mark Gray grabbing a hat-trick.
It marked a superb double for the club with chairman Dick O'Callaghan describing it as 'undoubtedly the highlight of the year.'
"The minors were definitely our star performers this year," he said.
"They won their league and championship and you can't ask anymore than that.
"Overall we've made huge progress in the last few years at underage level. OgSport Lu has been great for us as we've more kids than ever now involved.
"We have a lot of former players in coaching now and what they are achieving has every bit as much benefit to the club as what happens at a senior level," said O'Callaghan.
The Gaels' minors built the foundations for their Minor C final success over the O Raghallaigh's by racing into a 1-4 to no score lead inside the opening nine minutes with Gray netting either side of a brace of points from Gary Shevlin and captain Niall Ferguson.
The O Raghallaigh's fought back, however, to trail by just the minimum at the break before going 2-5 to 1-5 up after 41 minutes.
Two goals inside six minutes from Gray either side of a Niall Hearty point helped Gaels turn the tide to clinch a deserving win.
The Gaels side that beat the O Raghallaigh's that day was as follows: Adam Pepper; Brendan McGuinness, Nicholas O'Callaghan, Jim Pat Dwyer; Declan Curran, Ross Burlingham, Cillian Shields; Tiernan O Domhnaill, Dean Hoey; Niall Ferguson (0-3, 1f), Niall Hearty (0-1), Joseph Olaoye; Conor Oakes, Mark Gray (3-0), Gary Shevlin (0-2, 1f). Subs: James Lynch for JP Dwyer; Ronan Kent for C Oakes; Nathan Murphy for R Kent; Conor Smith for G Shevlin.
One of the members of that successful minor side, Nathan Murphy, also tasted success on the soccer field - breaking into the Dundalk FC first team at just 16-years-old before earning himself a trial with Newcastle Utd.
The undoubted star of the team, however, was captain Niall Ferguson who also played a pivotal role with the senior team that reached the quarter-final of the senior championship.
Despite a heavy defeat to St Patrick's in their opening match, the Gaels would go through the rest of Group B undefeated - beating the Dreadnots, Sean O'Mahony's and St Mary's as well as drawing with Kilkerley Emmets to finish as group runners up.
That set up a quarter-final clash with Glyde Rangers in Haggardstown with over 140 minutes of football required to separate the sides.
With the Tallanstown men short a number of key players the first day, the Gaels looked like they would upset the odds when a Stephen Coleman goal helped them to a 1-3 to 0-4 lead at the break.
However, a second half rally by Glyde after Sean Fee had been dismissed meant that the Ramparts Road outfit needed a stoppage time point from Sean McCann to earn themselves a replay on a 1-7 to 0-10 scoreline.
The general consensus was that the Gaels had missed their best chance of advancing to the last four but they gave Glyde the scare of their lives in the replay, with the Mid-Louth men only just scraping through on a 1-12 to 0-13 scoreline after extra-time as the Gaels paid the price for 16 wides throughout - including six in-a-row in the first period of stoppage time.
Despite trailing by 1-7 to 0-6 midway through the second half, a Derek Crilly inspired turnaround saw them take a one point lead late on only for a last gasp free from Dean Matthews in the third minute of stoppage time to take the game to extra-time.
Gaels missed the chance to retake the lead in extra-time, however, because of all their misses and ultimately Glyde managed to scrape through.
If they were close to making a championship breakthrough though, then they came nowhere near as close in the league.
Despite reaching the Cardinal O'Donnell semi-finals 12 months earlier, things never really got going for JP O'Kane's men in the league where they struggled right from the beginning.
Aside from wins over fellow strugglers St Brides and Naomh Malachi, their only other points came from a victory over Kilkerley Emmets in their penultimate game and a draw with the Newtown Blues.
That meant that they went into their last match away to St Patrick's needing a win to make sure of survival in Division One but despite a three point lead at the break, courtesy of a Paul Buke goal after just 17 seconds, ultimately a heavily depleted side went down to a narrow one point defeat on a 1-10 to 1-9 scoreline. In many ways it summed their season up.
That meant that they were left sweating over their survival going into a relegation play-off match with their town rivals Clan na Gael.
Like many clubs, a lack of consistency was the Gaels' biggest downfall with chairman O'Callaghan saying their failure to get their ideal starting 15 on the pitch enough times proved costly.
"The league was very disappointing for us but what people forget is that we have a very young team and it's probably a bit too young at times. I suppose it's better to have a young team than an old team but you can't put a price on experience either. That can be the difference in some of the closely fought games we've lost this year.
"I suppose we haven't done too bad in the last few years considering the age profile of the team but it's a matter of trying to get your best 15 out which, unfortunately we weren't able to do enough for our liking.
"In terms of the championship we were very happy with how we performed but the league was a disappointment. Last year we were in a semi-final and this year we're in a relegation play-off. That's a big slide.
"I think we suffer more than most when we've players missing though. It's all about numbers ultimately and if the truth be told there's probably too many teams in Dundalk and that means when you scratch beyond the surface there's not much depth there.
"Having said that we had our chance to avoid the play-off when we met the Pat's out in Lordship. We were missing a lot and even some full strength teams would go out there and get beaten off the park. We performed well but still lost by a point. It was probably typical of the way our year has gone," said the chairman.
O'Callaghan said the club did take some consolation from the fact that no one beat them with ease throughout the year, even if his side were not always on the right side of the scoreline.
"We lost a lot of games narrowly this year whereas we were sneaking those type of games last year. That was the major difference.
"We were very lucky with injuries last year, whereas this year we had a lot of injuries and suspensions go against us. If we had avoided them I have no doubt we would have done a lot, lot better.
"It is a learning curve though. A large portion of our squad are under 23 which is great from one point of view but those lads are inexperienced and they just haven't learn enough about how to hold out a lead just yet," he said.
O'Callaghan revealed that the Gaels have big plans for their grounds on the Ramparts Road next year and said events such as their annual golf classic and the sports table quiz they hosted in the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Hallowe'en were vital in keeping the club going.
"It's absolutely vital for a club such as ourselves to run a lotto every week but you need more than that to keep things going in this day and age.
"Our golf classic always generates great interest but with the recession and one thing or another it was slightly down this year. That's when we hit upon the idea of the sports quiz.
"You need to do these things because like everyone else, we have our bills and it has got ferociously expensive to run a club.
"Having said that we want to push on and next year we hope to start some developments at the ground. We have some money there which is called the Tesco money in the club and early next year we hope to start majorly developing our dressing rooms. There will be other projects to follow down the line from that but we have to see is the money there first before we can think about that."
This year marked O'Callaghan's last as chairman but he feels the club is in good shape going forward.
"I'll be done at the end of this year," he said.
"I've done nine years now and I had a previous spell before that so it's time to give someone else a go at it.
"I think the future is bright though and we can take great heart from the numbers we have playing juvenile football with us now. Cumann Peile na nOg was a tired organisation but we've found OgSport's principle of fewer numbers and more participants absolutely tremendous.
"The young lads we have playing football with us now might reach U-14, U-16 or U-18 and then stop playing but at least the current setup gives them football.
"We've a young senior team at the present and hopefully they'll continue to improve. They're all superbly talented football and for a small squad they've done really well in the last few years."
Although he is set to step down as chairman at the end of the year, O'Callaghan will still be an avid follower of his beloved Gaels. He has bright hopes for the future and after the progress made in recent seasons, he'll be hoping that there's more good times ahead on the Ramparts. Tweet
