Over the past number of years, the Geraldines club has been the envy of many others in the county as their impressive youth policy has produced a succession of excellent juvenile players. 

Back-to-back Minor Championship titles in 2007 and 2008 were followed by another final appearance in 2009 when they were desperately unlucky not to add a third Fr Larry Murray Cup. The club then illustrated that many of these players were going to make the successful step up to adult football as they went on to clinch two U21 successes.
On top of that, many have represented Louth at Minor and U21 level, while others have made the breakthrough to Junior and also Senior inter-county level.
That scale of success certainly represented a great reward for all the hard work that was put in over a number of years to revive the fortunes of the McGeough Park club and it is not surprising that as a result many have tipped them to be challenging for the top honours at senior level in the not too distant future.
While that is obviously the ultimate goal of the Geraldines, the 2010 season began with their focus on Intermediate matters as the club sought to take their place in senior football and championship level.
Unfortunately it didn't work out for the club as due to a number of factors including a lengthy injury list and players travelling abroad, it didn't go according to plan. In fact, the Geraldines had to go through the difficulty of an Intermediate Championship Relegation Play-Off Final before eventually securing their status in the middle grade for 2011.
According to team captain, Nicky Mackin, it turned out to be a challenging season for the Haggardstown side. However, he is quick to dismiss any suggestion of despondency among the players as they are confident that the good times lie ahead in the not too distant future.
He even goes as far as to suggest that the difficult times they encountered this season will stand to them and make them stronger for the challenges ahead.
"Like most teams, we began the year with the aim of challenging in both league and championship and although we showed some good form in the Paddy Sheelan Cup, our season never really took off. I think we were very unlucky with injuries throughout the year while we also lost a number of players to America during the summer," explained Nicky.
"As a result, we were unable to get a settled team during the year and just couldn't get into any real rhythm. In the end we found ourselves at the lower end of the league and didn't get out of the group stages of the championship.
"However, there is still a great feeling of optimism around the club and we will go into 2011 with high hopes. We have a lot of very good young players and I believe that this season will stand to them.
"They have enjoyed a lot of success during their underage careers and have been used to winning games. Sometimes a tough season like that can be a benefit. Next season they will all be older and this experience will stand to them as they will have learned a lot.
"I have no doubt that there is a lot to come from this team and if we can get everyone together and stay clear of injuries we will definitely be challenging for honours," added Nicky.
The Geraldines began their season with the Paddy Sheelan Cup and although they were handed a tough group that contained senior teams Cooley Kickhams, Newtown Blues and Naomh Mairtin, along with Young Irelands and Hunterstown Rovers, it did provide the opportunity to test themselves against the top sides, as the captain explained.
"We had been doing our pre-season training under Johnny McCabe and that gave us a great preparation for the year. We knew we had a tough draw in the Sheelan Cup but we went in determined to give it our best shot and we turned in some encouraging performances," added Nicky.
Geraldines lost out to Cooley in the first game before pushing the Blues all the way and were unlucky to suffer defeat, while they followed up with an impressive win over Naomh Mairtin.
Although qualification was beyond them, the Geraldines gave themselves a boost ahead of the league when they enjoyed two wins apiece over Young Irelands and Hunterstown, to finish the group on a creditable ten points from ten games.
The team was hoping to take that momentum into the Division 2 League campaign and they looked to be on course to do that as they opened with wins over Sean McDermotts and O Raghallaighs.
However, after losing to the Dreadnots in their third outing the Geraldines were unable to regain their rhythm as the loss of key players hampered their ambitions and they spent much of the season battling to stay out of the bottom two which was a disappointment according to Nicky.
"At the beginning of the year, our aim was not merely to survive in the league but to be challenging for a top four position but we just never got going and in the end had done just enough to survive."
It wasn't ideal preparation for the Intermediate Championship but the Gers went into the competition with high hopes of making the knock-out stages as they were drawn with O'Connells and reigning Junior champions, St Mochtas.
"We knew it would be tough as O'Connells are strong side playing Division 1 football and were among the favourites, while St Mochtas have a good young team.
"We lost the opening game to the O'Connells which meant we had to beat St Mochtas to survive. Although a lot of people fancied us to claim victory, the Louth Village side played very well on the night and were very organised as they claimed victory that sent us in to the relegation play-off," explained Nicky.
"We were drawn against Sean O'Mahonys in the semi-final and they were just too strong for us on the day. However, we were relieved to have a second chance against Hunterstown and thankfully that went well for us.
"Once again, people were expecting us to win that game but it is not a nice match to have to play as you just never know how things will turn out. They gave us a scare early on but luckily we got stuck in and the lads in the forwards tore them apart. Thankfully we came through in the end and it was a real relief as we certainly didn't want to be going back down to Junior.
"We have no doubt that there is a lot of quality in the squad as a number of players were involved with Louth at U21, Junior and Senior level so we will be going into next season's campaign with high hopes and if we have everyone available then we will be hoping to mount a challenge for honours," added Nicky. Tweet

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