Loyal support can be often hard to come by in these tough times, but the Mattock Rangers GAA club have had it in abundance for some time now. Former player and two-time minor championship-winner Frank Coleman showed what supporting your native club is all about when he journeyed across the Atlantic to cheer on Mattock in the Louth SFC final.

October 3, 2010 can go down as a landmark date for Mattock Rangers which saw them retain their coveted county senior title after overcoming Cooley Kickhams in a thrilling decider at Drogheda by 1-8 to 0-10. US resident Frank Coleman, who was in attendance at Drogheda Park, described the feeling afterwards as "just brilliant".   
"I was home for the game and it was such a sweet win and you could see what it meant to the players when the final whistle went," said Frank.   
"The way it finished was just brilliant and there are plenty overseas that were involved with the club that are proud of them for what they have achieved. I'm home often enough, but this was the first final that I was home for and I was delighted that I travelled because I'd be in Ireland two or three times a year anyway."  
The club's triumph over one of the county's traditional giants was there fourth over all in the senior championship grade and first time to retain the Joe Ward since first capturing it back in 2002.   
Frank's playing days with the club stretch back a bit further than that.   
Having come up through the ranks at underage level, while mixing duties with running for Dunleer AC, Frank progressed onto a minor team which combined players from Rangers, Monasterboice and Tullyallen. Despite having another two years to go in the grade, Frank lined-out for the amalgamation and played his part in steering the team towards the 1978 Louth MFC title. A year later and the winning-combo were back in the final but would lose out, before going on to regain the title in 1980.   
It meant that Frank would only be one of two members of the team from Collon to hold two minor championship medals along with good friend Paddy Watters from that unique amalgamation which had contested three finals in as many years.    
Frank commented: "We were amalgamated with Monasterboice and Tullyallen and played in three minor championship finals in '78, '79 and '80. We lost the one in '79.   
"We also won the Louth Under 21 Championship in '81. There were some great players on that team and it showed by what they won in the space of four or five years."   
From there, Frank would go on to play in the intermediate ranks with Mattock Rangers for five years as somewhat of a fringe player in the squad, before he would leave it all behind him to pursue a new life in the US. 
"I moved to the States in March 1985 to upstate New York," he explained.  
"I opened up Geith International in Slane and I was sent over here in '85 to open up another operation."
He continued: "At the moment I'm President with Lemac Corporation. We moved to Virginia in 1990 and broke away on our own in 1993. We have a company in Scotland called Lemac Engineering (UK) Limited.   
"Currently we have 25 working here in Virginia and 25 in Scotland. We had over 90 working with us two years ago, but the recession has hit here us just like everyone else in this business."  
In existence since 1988, Lemac manufacture attachments for earth-moving equipment and customise for demolition work to put it simply. The company's two main plant locations are in Tillicoultry, Scotland and Petersburg, Virginia (USA), with an additional plant in Pontypridd, Wales having just seized operations in recent times.   
Since moving his work to Virginia in '93, Frank has been accompanied by business partner Paul Smith, whose brother Liam played with the Meath senior football team in the 1980s. Both are also involved with the Quest Company, which works in the same area as Lemac, with the only difference being that Quest work with used equipment. 
"Paul Smith is my business partner and his brother Liam used to play for Meath. Ken is also another partner from Meath, so I have plenty of Meath men around me at work," joked Frank.
Last July's Leinster SFC final was sure to have brought about a debate in the office afterwards. Not that Wee County supporters need any reminding of the wrong doing they suffered that day in Croke Park, but to be surrounded by two Meath men the next day at work and take in the banter couldn't have been easy for Frank.   
While he wasn't too keen on going into the depth of what happened that day, the Mattock Rangers follower was full of praise for the Louth players and management for their achievement, in particular Paddy Keenan and Peter Fitzpatrick, both of whom emerged as stars from Louth's 2010 campaign.   
"Paddy Keenan is our first All Star, which is a great achievement and a testament to Louth's season and the player himself. He's a great footballer and if Louth can keep producing players like him then they'll keep contesting finals," said Frank.   
"I would have played around the time that Peter Fitzpatrick played too. Maybe Peter would be a little older than me, but he was apart of a great half-back line that the Louth Under 21s around the time I was playing.  
"I think this year he had the Louth players really believing in themselves and it showed by them getting to the Leinster final and the way they performed in the final itself," he added.   
Unfortunately, Louth were to be hard done by in the final but there was still some satisfaction to be had for Frank in early October when an injury-time point from substitute Keith Brennan saw Mattock Rangers retain their Louth SFC title.  
Brennan, one of five brothers in the Mattock squad, came off the bench to score the winning-point three minutes into stoppage time against Cooley Kickhams, who were the better side in the first half and led by 0-6 to 0-3 at the break.
Mattock levelled by the 42nd minute, but Cooley led by two points with less than 10 minutes remaining when Niall Callan goaled for the Meath-border side. Gavin Long looked to have forced a replay for Cooley when he equalised in the 57th minute, but Brennan had the final say for Rangers.
"Mick Ward is one of the staunchest Mattock Rangers men that I know and I don't think there was any one as happy as he was with the result of that game," said Frank. "He owns a bar in San Diego and he came out here at the same time that I did, so I'd just like to mention him here." Aidan Shevlin in New York completes the trio of ex pat Mattock Rangers Supporters from our era who emigrated to the US. 
Since 1993, Frank Coleman has been President of the Lemac Corporation in Petersburg, Virginia (USA). He is married to his wife Terri (from Drogheda) and they have three daughters. Tweet

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