It was a busy year for Roche Emmets, who received plenty of local and national media coverage through their participation in RTE's Celebrity Bainisteoir programme. The Faughart men also held onto their intermediate and Division 2 status after a slight scare and are well placed to face positively into the new season.

In the 2010 Louth IFC, Roche Emmets found themselves in Group B, pitted against O'Raghallaighs and Oliver Plunketts. Things didn't go quite according to plan and they finished bottom of the section, following successive defeats, which meant they went into a relegation play-off semi-final. In this game, the team produced a no-nonsense performance against Hunterstown Tovers to comfortably preserve their mid-tier status for 2011. While it was a boost to stay up, the reality is that Roche should never have been in this position in the first place, having made a superb start to the year in the subsidiary competition and all-county league, only to lose their way somewhat as the season unfolded.
However, a win against junior champions Naomh Fionnbarra in the Division 2/3 promotion-relegation final ensured Division 2 status for 2011.
Plunketts beat them by 0-13 to 0-8 in the championship opener in mid-August before O'Raghallaighs inflicted a 2-12 to 1-9 defeat in the second group outing. In the relegation semi-final against Hunterstown on Sunday September 5th, Roche rediscovered something like their early-season form to prevail by 2-12 to 0-10. The following personnel were on duty that day: Aidan McCoy; Duane Callan, Dermot Craven, Sean Kirk; Sean O'Hare, Harry O'Connell, Aaron Callan; Martin Carroll (0-1), Darren McConnon; Paudi Callaghan (0-1), Dan O'Connell (0-3), Barry O'Hare (0-2). Kevin Callaghan (1-2), Gerry Murphy (1-1), Martin Craven (0-2). Certainly it was an encouraging end to the year for co-managers Pearse Craven and Damien Shields.
Reflecting on the events of 2010, club PRO Eamonn Reilly says: "Yes, it was a busy year, but most years are busy for GAA clubs. It was busy for the committee and for the players. We started out with a new management team and it looked like a very good set-up with Damien and Pearse, who of course has a lot of relations in the parish.
"They came in after two good years with Na Piarsaigh, who they had guided to two intermediate championship finals, so they had the right qualifications. We were looking for men like that and they were looking for a club like Roche, who would be regarded as a strong intermediate team with a chance of going up. It was a perfect fit in many respects."
And the year started well. "We had really good numbers and we progressed well in the Sheelan Cup, but we have found before that decent early-season form can give you a false impression of where you're at and this proved to be the case again. We only had one county man - Daniel O'Connell with the Louth juniors - and we started brilliantly, going on a seven-game unbeaten run at the start of the season. Everything appeared to be going well for our young team.
"We qualified out of our group in the Sheelan Cup and we had won our first two league games, so we were sitting pretty, but then things went off kilter. Some might say we shouldn't have put so much into the Sheelan Cup but the fact of it is you only have three trophies to win during the year and to win any one of them would be a huge boost - especially the Sheelan Cup as it includes both intermediate and senior clubs.
"You can only play what's in front of you and we did well in the early games but then started to struggle a bit in some of our games. We came up against the Mochtas in the third round of the league and lost a game we could have won. There were signs there of our weaknesses and we realised that maybe things weren't as great as they'd appeared to be. It was a high-scoring game in Louth and we missed some chances and just missed out on victory. In fairness, the Mochtas played exceptionally well but that loss was the start of our problems.
"At that point, one of our best forwards went to America for his studies and we were suddenly struggling to get scores. However, having seen the draw for the intermediate championship, we were still confident.
"The Celebrity Bainisteoir thing came out of the blue

through a contact in the club, Dermot Craven, and it was something that we really couldn't turn down. The players were really up for it but, football-wise it may have been a distraction before we went into our Sheelan Cup semi-final against Glyde, who played well and beat us and put a big dent in our confidence.
"We didn't start well in the championship against Oliver Plunketts and only played in patches against O'Raghallaighs. Going into the relegation situation was worrying but we came out of that quite well with the win over Hunterstown. Our league form never really recovered from that third-round game against the Mochtas. Some of the subsequent matches were very close, but things didn't seem to just fall our way - unlike earlier in the season when we seemed to be getting all the breaks.
"Our early-season form has been very good for the past four or five years but we have never been able to sustain that and it's something we know we'll have to look at. On a positive note, we have a large number of young players coming through into the team, but we could be facing a transition period as some lads are coming into the team and others are coming towards the end of their careers. We'll take another look at it next year and take it from there…"
The club's juniors were very young and proved no match for a very experienced Stabannon side in the championship, while the underage section of the club continues to perform well, with most teams participating in Division Two. "If we can maintain that and continue to get numbers out and compete, with past players joining in as coaches, then we have a good future," the club PRO continues. "Og Sport is also going very well with a lot of parents involved and good numbers participating at a competitive level. The transition from Og Sport to U12/U14 football is a crucial period in the young players' development and that's where we have to stay focussed, trying to keep them in Division Two football at least.
"This is the fourth year of our successful nursery, with huge numbers of 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds and a lot of parents helping out. So, while underage isn't perfect, the juvenile section is integrated well into the club and we're doing our best. The Celebrity Banisteoir was a big boost to the juveniles, as it increased the club's profile and made us more attractive to young footballers."
Despite the disappointment of losing the (hard-earned!) home tie to Kilconly of Galway, the celebrity TV experience was worth the effort. "It was good publicity and it helped with fundraising. As a one-off, it was certainly no harm and it helped us bring a lot of people back into the club. The result was disappointing against a big, physical team from Galway, where we made a few early mistakes and then it just fizzled out but it was a good experience working with the cameras and the production crew etc.
"But the world of celebrity and television is far-removed from the normal run-of-the mill activities here at Roche. Still, it was good coverage for the club and for the local community."
It'll be serious business next year, though. Eamonn concludes: "You start every new year with optimism and everybody will be a year older and wiser. You start again; you work with the underage. We have started to win underage competitions again and we have a lot of good kids coming through so hopefully we can get back up to where we were and produce quality players.
"After that, it's down to the players and their dedication and you have to be lucky with injuries. We have been unfortunate with injuries and emigration in recent years. But these things are cyclical and next year we'll start again." Tweet

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