Consistency is the key
December 30, 2010All in all, it was a decent year for the club.
At the end of any season, clubs are generally judged on their championship form and, in this respect, Kilkerley Emmets certainly did themselves no harm in 2010. The Blue & Yellows advanced to the knockout stage of a new-look SFC, pushing champions-elect Mattock Rangers all the way in a closely-contested quarter-final.
However, it must also be noted that Kilkerley were consistent in the league and were genuine challengers for the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup all season, maintaining a place at the business end of the table throughout before edging St Brides out for a fourth-place finish. This meant a semi-final date with Mattock Rangers, which had not been played at the time of writing due to the Collin men's involvement in the Leinster club championship. The Kilkerley Emmets V Mattock Rangers Cardinal O'Donnell Cup semi-final was penciled in for Wednesday, November 17th.
In the SFC, Kilkerley were in the same section as Naomh Mairtin and St Brides. On paper, it was the tightest-looking group of all - and so it proved. The opening assignment resulted in an unlucky 1-13 to 2-9 defeat to the Mairtins at The Grove, a match Kilkerley led by a goal with eight minutes left. The team on duty was: Cillian Quigley; Ronan Lennon, Gerard Scully, Alan McGeogh; Patrick Mulholland, Fintan Clarke, Alan McGuill; James Fegan, Donal McElroy; Sean McElroy (1-1), Shane Lennon (1-5), Niall Lennon (0-1); Conal McGeogh, Cathal Bellew (0-1), Sean Hand (0-1). Subs: Raymond Mulholland for P Mulholland, Patrick Hughes for C McGeough, Brian Gernon for Scully.
Having trailed by six points at the interval (1-6 to 0-3), Kilkerley beat St Brides by 0-15 to 1-9 in their second group match to advance to the last eight. Points from Sean McElroy, Shane Lennon and Cathal Bellew halved the lead quickly after the restart and a brace each from Lennon and Sean Hand had the scores level, 0-10 to 1-7, after 43 minutes. Kilkerley then took complete control to carve out a dramatic win.
In their quarter-final, Kilkerley came up against defending champions Mattock, who of course went on to retain the Joe Ward Cup. But Alan O'Neill's charges pushed the holders all the way at Drogheda on Saturday September 4th before falling to a 1-15 to 2-7 defeat, with a late burst of Collon scores putting a false reflection on the final scoreboard.
Trailing by a point with a minute of normal time left, Kilkerley almost got a goal through Cathal Bellew, but it wasn't to be and the champions tagged on 1-1 in injury time. Kilkerley had started brightly with a brace of points from Shane Lennon and another one from James Fagan before their county man added a goal to make it 1-3 to 0-1. But the winners led by 0-9 to 1-5 at the break and it was nip and tuck throughout the second half. Kilkerley's quarter-final team was: Cillian Quigley; Fintan Clarke, Gerard Scully, Alan McGuill; Sean Doherty, Alan McGeough, Emmet Hughes; Sean McElroy, James Fegan (0-1); Niall Lennon, Cathal Bellew (0-1), Andrew McGuill; Sean Hand, Shane Lennon (1-5), Patrick Mulholland. Subs: Ronan Lennon for A McGuill, Conal McGeough for N Lennon, Ultan McElroy for S Doherty, Patrick Hughes for G Scully, Cormac Bellew for E Hughes.
Overall, club PRO Willie Quigley was satisfied with how Kilkerley performed over the course of the season. They may have limited numbers, but the team displayed no shortage of battling spirit and it is encouraging to note that there are some promising young players starting to come through. "We got to a championship quarter-final and we got a Top Four finish in the league, which isn't too bad. It's progress on last year anyway and we would be fairly happy," he states.
"It had been a while since our last quarter-final -
against Cooley in Haggardstown - so it was nice to get back to that stage again. We were without Shane Lennon at the start of the year - which is a big loss for any club - and we lost three league games. You can't really afford to be missing a player of that quality.
"We did have Shane for the championship and we gave it a good go. With 60 minutes on the clock, a Mattock Rangers defender made a block to deny us a goal. If that had gone in, there's every chance we'd have gone through to the semi-finals. Mattock went on to get a goal of their own, but things might have been different if we'd got our goal first. It would have put a different complexion to the scoreboard. But it wasn't to be.
"I think, all in all, the club would be happy this year with the players and with the manager, [former Armagh player] Alan O'Neill from Culloville, who came in to replace Martin McQuillan when he was approached by Peter Fitzpatrick to join the county management team." And what a job the Wee County did in 2010, with Kilkerley's Shane Lennon playing a pivotal role at full forward on the side that should rightfully have been crowned Leinster champions!
Having done so well in 2010, can Kilkerley kick on in 2011? "The reality is that there are very few clubs in Louth who have what you need in terms of a strong panel, that would see them challenge for a league and championship at the end of the year. There is no club that won't be without players at some point during the season - either through injuries or suspensions or county commitments - and that's when the depth of your panel is tested. To compete, you need 21 players who are all as good as each other, all as strong as your first 15. The majority of clubs don't have that. Mattock, the Pats, Cooley and the Blues are strong in that department and this is what separates them from the rest.
"That's the reality. And, while there's little between any of the other eight senior teams on any given day's football, those big clubs will win more than they lose. It's always nice to have 20 players as good as one another but when you don't have strength in depth and you lose a couple of lads and have a man on the county team, it hurts your club a lot."
Kilkerley's junior team did well in the league in 2010 and also got to the quarter-final stage of the junior 2 'A' championship, which was encouraging. The club has a number of exciting young players coming through at all levels and they did well with their underage amalgamation (joined with Naomh Malachi), contesting a minor Shield final and an U16 'C' championship final, while the U10s won an Ulster Shield title in a tournament in Armagh.
"There is definitely underage talent coming through and we have teams from U7 right up to minor and U21 levels. We've been joined with the Malachis for a few years and it's a good arrangement for both clubs, enabling us to have competitive teams out on the pitch. There are young players in the ranks for sure, but the worry is that other clubs might have more.
"We have lads like the two Bellews and Conor McKeown coming through as well as the likes of Alan McQuillan and Donal McKeown at U16 and minor, while Darren Behan is a good prospect too. We have young blood in Kilkerley so the task now is to keep them at it and keep them interested."
Off the field of play, Kilkerley carried out plenty of development work during the year, installing dug-outs and putting stop nets behind the goals as well as sowing grass seeds on the second pitch. Clearly, a big effort is going in on all fronts to keep Kilkerley Emmets as competitive as possible. Tweet
