Far from Rover(s) and out
December 30, 2009Sadly the club's premier team fell short on both the league and championship fronts and an anti-climatic 2009 unravelled in a sadly all too familiar denouement.
But the dynamism and solitary of the gaels just south of Ardee remains steadfast; as does the steely self-assurance that characterises the band of stalwarts at the local coalface.
Of course, the year-end will spawn another tranche of introspection but for all the post-mortems that will colour the environs of Ardee, there'll be no recriminations.
After all, the potential and work ethic which propelled the intermediates to the cusp of league promotion and all the way to the quarter-finals of the championship will surely be acknowledged when the dust settles on another long season.
"I think we made a bit of progress this year," selector Gerry Reaburn opines. "We got to the knock-out stages of the championship and only lost out by 2-6 to 2-9 to Naomh Malachi.
"In the last few years, we didn't get as far as we did this year and there was no disgrace in going out to the 'Malachy's.
"They were the hot favourites and are a senior league team so to expect us playing two grades below them to come out on top was a lot to ask of our lads.
"Okay they had a man sent off and maybe to some extent we didn't make the best use of our spare man, but we have a relatively young and inexperienced team and it's all a learning curve for them."
For the most part of the past year, Hunterstown tickled the ivories of a winning tune without quite managing to hit the high notes that would have made 2009 a hit.
The team exhibited all the look of an organised and cohesive force which, at times, left their supporters purring.
"I thought the lads played some great stuff at times, like the Roche Emmets game in the group stage of the championship when the last kick of the game made it a draw (3-5 to 1-11) in the end.
"Our lads took a lot from that game, especially in the way they came roaring back into it in the last ten minutes or so against a team that would have been hot favourites to take both points.
"In fairness, the lads were up for it from the very first round when they beat (1-9 to 1-6) St. Nicholas's in Monasterboice.
"That was a victory that was all the more pleasing because we hadn't our captain Padraig Matthews for the second half after he was sent off.
"After that we ended up beating the Geraldines (2-9 to 0-9) and things were looking very good at that stage.
"It's just a pity that we didn't have Padraig for the quarter-final against Malachy's because of his knee trouble. He was a big loss."
Finishing above Roche Emmets, the Geraldines and St. Nicholas's in Group B was no mean achievement for unfancied Hunterstown though.
And our man Reaburn is keen to ascentuate the positives inherent in the club's championship record of two wins and a draw plus two defeats.
"You don't want to be looking back on any year on a negative note," says Gerry on the back of his sixth year as a selector.
"We did well to get into the quarter-finals with the O'Connells and Na Piarsaigh and only for a bad start in the league, losing the first two games, I'd say we would have gotten promotion to go along with that.
"The bad start to the year meant we were playing catch-up all the time and it wasn't until the championship came around that we began to show our true potential.
"I know it's a problem for most clubs but we were badly effected at times by lads being injured, away on holidays or doing exams.
"We had at least two or three fellas out of the reckoning for every championship game and it wasn't until the Malachy's game that we had our strongest line-out, apart from Padraig (Matthews) of course."
Hunterstown's listless opening to the season contrasted sharply with the vim and vigour they brought to the table for three-quarters of the season.
However the gnawing awareness that there are a few pieces missing in the jigsaw sits eerily on Gerry's shoulder as he dissects the team's silverware-less season.
"We've a good, young team but we're not an overly big team. There's no harm in admitting that there are a few light and small fellas on the team.
"But I'd be hopeful that there'll be more beef on these lads in the next couple of years and we'll see the best from them at that stage.
"I think the retirement of Dessie Levins will hurt the club though. He played in most of our championship games and was, as usual, an inspiration.
"He has been an absolute role model for the younger players who have graduated to the senior team over the years and to see him finish up after the 'Malachy's game was sad and a sorry blow for the club.
"He had a great career though with club and county and he can hold his head up high on the basis that he won championship medals with us in 1982 and '87 and again in '93 and '99."
In lauding Levins' glittering accomplishments, Gerry covets the hope that others with the same passion and will as his former team-mate will take up the baton and carry the torch etc in the years to come.
Gerry - assistant to team manager Jim Clifford in 2009 - is convinced that there are enough gaels in Hunterstown suffused with the same sort of ambition and pride to follow the path so stylishly laid out by Levins.
"Every single player gave us great commitment this year and off the field there was great work done too," the self-employed Design Engineer enthuses.
"A new training field will be fully operational next thanks to the work of our hard-working committee and their fundraising efforts.
"Hunterstown is very much a family-type club and there's quite a few of the sons of the committee people playing and sons of ex-team mates of mine too who are now playing with us.
"Being so close to Ardee and Collon, we've a small pick but we've been making the best of the resources we've got over the years.
"There's been times we've amalgamated with Collon at under 21 level which means that our lads can play football at that grade at a higher level.
"Last year I myself was a selector with Mellifont Rovers and if an arrangement like that is good for our lads, we're happy to continue to go down that road."
The one-time top notch Hunterstown defender (winner of an IFL medal in '91 and IFC gongs in '93 and '99) says the absence of "sunshine" footballers just south of Ardee gives him great succour and confidence going forward.
He talks up the spirit in the locality; the marauding enthusiasm of the club's administration and the definition and depth of the players' ambition.
Of course, he's a self-confessed 'half-glass full' merchant but, nevertheless, believes that his team's showing against raging hot favourites 'Malachy's is a fair barometer of where the club is at as the dregs of the 2009 season land upon us.
"If we had beaten the Malachy's it would have been a big upset but it would have made our year," he laments.
"I remember the previous time we made the semi-finals of the championship, in 2004, we were beaten by the O'Rahillys by a point when we had a lot of fellas currently on the team making their debuts.
"I'd like to think those fellas will be able to put that experience to the best possible use next year 'cause they have the talent to go along with it.
"Our strength-in-depth is improving every year, mainly because of the good work that's being done at underage level."
Enough strength to burst open the hatches of the chief pretenders to the titles on offer in 2010?
"I think so. I think we can build on the progress made this year. Let's say I'd put us down as dark horses for next year." Tweet
