It seems rather appropriate that a man named Clint should be one of the star performers for a club called Westerns. The hotshot attacker is certainly quick on the draw and was one of the most impressive players at intermediate level in Louth during the 2005 season. Unfortunately, it was a case of the good, the bad and the ugly as the Reaghstown men surrendered their Division 2B status, high-plains-drifting back down to junior football for the forthcoming season. By Gerry Robinson. Westerns went into the 2005 season determined to safeguard their intermediate status for at least one more season. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite according to plan and the fallout from an unsatisfactory '05 campaign is that the Green & Golds will return to the bottom rung after only two seasons in the middle grade. The irony of Westerns' lowly finish on the Division 2B table is that in 2004 they were decidedly unfortunate not to achieve promotion to 2A. The promotion race went right down to the wire that year before the Reaghstown men were edged out by Na Piarsaigh and, while the Dundalk club set its sights on senior football, Westerns were left struggling towards the bottom end of 2B throughout 2005. Despite a rousing victory over Hunterstown at Ardee in Group A of the intermediate championship on July 24, Westerns failed to progress to the business end of the IFC and their season disintegrated into something of a dogfight. They battled for survival until the bitter end but finally lost their fight in a thrilling 3-6 to 1-12 Round Thirteen draw with St Fechins on Sunday October 16. Centre half forward Clint Sweeney salvaged a share of the spoils with a late 1-1 salvo that afternoon but the bottom line was that both sides now found themselves in an irretrievable position at the foot of the 2B table. Lannleire and Glen Emmets breathed a sigh of relief - they were in the comfort zone with a round of games outstanding. At the outset, Westerns were eying the other end of the table. An early draw with St Mochtas and a win over the Dunleer men gave them hope of challenging for promotion but a series of narrow defeats (1-12 to 0-11 against O'Raghallaighs; 2-7 to 1-8 against the Fechins; 2-11 to 2-10 against Glen Emmets; 2-10 to 0-13 against O'Raghallaighs again) and a draw with Lannleire and then the aforementioned draw with the Fechins eventually saw them come unstuck. Clint Sweeney is convinced that a good start is half the battle. While Westerns got off to a relative flyer in 2004, they made a stuttering start to the '05 season and never got into their stride as a result. Reflecting on the year in general, he remarks: "Things got off to a bad start and we never recovered. We were missing a lot of players at the start of the year and dropped a few points. That left us playing catch-up and we never closed the gap. "Once we lost a few games early on, it affected everybody. The confidence drained out of the team and things went downhill. We were very disappointed to end up getting relegated, especially after doing so well in 2004, but we have to put it behind us now and focus on next year. If we keep out heads on and approach the season with the right attitude, then I'm confident Westerns can bounce straight back up." Memories of '04 had Westerns convinced that '05 could be a big year. Clint admits: "We thought we'd do much better. The previous year we just missed out on the play-offs in the championship and were close to promotion in the league, but it didn't work out for us at all this year. A couple of key players were in America for most of the year and we missed them badly. We're a small club and need to have everybody available. "We made a good start in '04 and that's vital for a club like ourselves. When we won our first few games, we got on a high and there was a buzz in the camp. Training became easier and everyone was enjoying it. This year was the complete opposite and we very soon found ourselves under pressure. We also lost our trainer Micheal McKeown to illness halfway through the season, so nothing went right for us at all. "Training became a slog, the heads dropped and it was an uphill battle." Westerns were comprehensively beaten by Naomh Malachi at Dromiskin in their opening game in Group A of the intermediate championship but followed up with a superb 0-11 to 0-7 victory over Hunterstown Rovers at Ardee. But a six-point defeat to neighbours St Mochtas in early August put paid to their hopes of a knockout place. "We were well beaten in the first round but Damien Reid from Collon came in and took over training and we had a great win over Hunterstown. That result gave us confidence and we started brightly against Louth village in Tallanstown. We were four points up [1-6 to 0-5] at half time but they lifted it in the second half and we couldn't stay with them." But it was the narrow defeats suffered in the league that would prove most costly as Westerns returned to the basement grade. Says Clint: "We were very unlucky in four or five games, where we missed a few points and a penalty in particular against O'Raghallaighs. We let a few soft scores get away and that was the difference between staying up and going down." A member of the Baile Talun side beaten by Clan na Gael in the 1999 Louth minor football championship final, Clint Sweeney had come on as a substitute for Westerns in the county JFC final against Glen Emmets two years earlier. "We had to wait a couple of years to get up through the league and we've been up and down a couple of times since," he notes. "But we've played a fair bit of intermediate football and I definitely think we should set our standards higher. We should be able to get back up to intermediate next year and we're capable of staying there. "We didn't always have the commitment in 2005 and we didn't do ourselves justice. We have the players, but we're lacking self-belief and confidence. If everybody puts the right effort in next year and plays with conviction, there's no reason why we can't be there or thereabouts in the junior championship and Division Three. It's important that we try to bounce back up straight away. The longer you stay in junior, the harder it becomes. "We have one or two lads approaching the end of their careers now but there are a lot of good young players coming through as well and we're expecting them to do well. Anthony Durnin and [Clint's brother] Richard Sweeney returned from the States towards the end of the season and it'll be a big boost having them back next year. They're two important players and we can't afford to be missing men like that. We're playing off a squad of 20 players maximum and we just can't afford to be missing anyone," explains Clint. The deadly Westerns playmaker was a member of the Louth junior team three years ago and seems certain to feature at that level again in the future. He agrees that the league represents Westerns' best avenue of achieving promotion in 2006: "The last two times we went up it was through the league and we'll be going for that again. If you show consistency in the league then you should make it. You can't depend on the championship because anything can happen on the day and it can all go up in smoke. And we haven't exactly got a great record in finals… Of course, it would be great to win a junior championship, but we're not fussy and we'll take it any way we can get it!" There's a palpable sense of shock in the Westerns clubhouse that relegation was their lot in 2005. At the start of the year, such an eventuality was almost unthinkable given the form displayed in '04. But they have to accept their fate and regroup: "We thought we'd survive but the bit of luck didn't go our way. We ran O'Raghallaighs close twice and they said to us afterwards that we were one of the best teams they played all year. That shows what we're capable of. But the team was disjointed all year and never gave a real team effort. We weren't playing as a team and that's something we have to look at over the winter. "We've talked about it already and we're all geared towards next year and hopefully a return to intermediate football." Tweet

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