Pitched in the group of death
December 30, 2009When they set out in 2009, the most successful club in the county were hoping to become the only team to retain the Louth Championship twice this decade, but the trouble with being champions is that everyone wants to take you down a peg or two.
And if you add into the mix a disastrous run of injuries; no pitch because of redevelopment work at Newfoundwell; and being drawn in one of the toughest SFC groups for many years, then perhaps it should have come as no real surprise that the Drogheda club failed to hold onto to their title.
All the signs were good mind you.
Rewind back to the latter stages of 2008 and after clinching their first senior crown for seven years, Blues narrowly missed out on the O'Donnell Cup, before giving eventual All-Ireland champions, Kilmacud Crokes the fright of their lives in the first round of Leinster.
And they didn't skip a beat in the early part of 2009 as they waltzed to the final of the Paddy Sheelan Cup - which they lost to Mattock Rangers in a replay - and won their first four league games without breaking sweat.
However, subsidiary competitions and early league form can be a dangerous yardstick when it comes to the cut and thrust of championship football and Blues just didn't seem ready for a determined Naomh Mairtin in the first round of the championship in early May.
Drawn in a section that contained all four of the championship semi-finalists from the pervious year, Mairtin's were supposed to be the whipping boys in Group A, but Nicky Malone's side pulled off one of the shocks of the year by inflicting an early defeat on the champions in Drogheda.
It was by no means the end of Blues' season and they did bounce back to win their next game against St Bride's, but for joint manager, Eugene Judge there was something missing that night in the Gaelic Grounds.
'Maybe it was a question of attitude,' he muses. 'The biggest problem for most teams who win the championship is retaining the hunger and motivation that got you there in the first place and we just didn't seem as up for it this year.'
The former Louth selector is reluctant to offer excuses for the lapse, but he does concede that a number of factors went against his side over the course of the season.
'We weren't in our own pitch and that has been tough. As the old saying goes, you didn't miss the water until the well runs dry and not having a base didn't help the situation. We were indebted to the Nick's and then Ollie's (the school) for helping us out because if it wasn't for them we would have had nowhere to train.'
Injuries took their toll too. Blues lost winter recruit, Andy McDonnell to a leg break early in the season and the former St Fechin's player was a big loss.
'It set him back a full year because although he's back now he went from having a good chance of being in the Louth panel to having to start all over again this year. January might just come too soon for him for the county team next year.'
McDonnell's injury was the start of an unlucky run, as Blues also had to plan without fellow Louth panelist Aidan O'Brien, who put his shoulder out on inter-county duty.
'We did seem to get injuries and have lads sent off at key times, but we still should have been good enough to get out of the group.
'Maybe we were a little bit complacent against the Mairtin's and they caught us cold.'
Still, Judge and Richie Culhane had their charges well warmed up by the time they met St Bride's in round 2 and although they struggled in front of the posts they were ultimately full value for a three point win, 0-13 to 0-10.
Next time out Glyde came back from the dead to almost inflict a second defeat on the champs, who needed two late points to salvage a draw in a game that will unfortunately be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
For Judge though the first three games in Group A kind of summed up Blues' season.
'We just weren't consistent enough all throughout the championship. We missed a lot of chances against Mairtin's, beat Bride's and then were four or five up against Glyde and only just got a draw out of it.'
As if to hammer home the point, Blues went out and beat eventual champions Mattock Rangers by four points in their next game and it could have been a bigger margin of victory.
As a result they went into the last round against Cooley Kickhams joint top of the table, but a ten-point defeat saw them drop to fourth - ending their hopes of retaining Joe Ward.
As it turned out if they had scored three more points against the peninsula men they would have progressed at Glyde's expense and once out of the group of death who knows where 2009 would have taken them.
Judge, though, had no real complaints.
'We played well against Collon and were seven or eight up at one stage and we were right in it at half-time against Cooley. But they just blew us away in the second-half and, looking back, that was probably their best performance all year.
'I still feel we should have had enough to get out of the group. The champions are always there to be got at, but that's something we've always been able to handle in the past.'
As it happened three of the teams that contested this year's semi-finals finished just above Blues in Group A and the Newfoundwell men went on to reach the O'Donnell semi-finals again.
At the time of going to press Judge and Culhane had yet to decide whether or not to commit to another year, but whether they do or not you can expect Newtown Blues to be at the business end of the Senior Championship again in 2010.
The club hope to get back to Newfoundwell in March or April where two brand new sand-based prunty pitches will be ready and waiting.
Players and mentors from all age groups will be looking forward to that day, but a number of Blues underage teams took the nomadic existence in their stride this season, particularly the under-11s, who clinched the Drogheda Cumann title this summer.
Under the watchful eyes of Colm Nally, Damien Martin and Trevor McGinn the Blues lads prevailed in what was a particularly competitive competition, beating St Kevin's in the final.
And while that was the only silverware garnered this term, the U-9s reached the semi-final and the U11s fell at the final hurdle against Neath outfit, St Compiles', although they claimed the Drogheda Cumann title. Tweet
