Sean O'Mahonys' form was somewhat on the erratic side in 2004 but the Dundalk club did at times produce some wonderful fare and they also achieved their prime objective of a quick return to Division 2A of the all-county league. All in all, it was a year to remember. Division 2B of the Louth senior football league is notoriously competitive and hard-fought. Relegation dogfights and promotion tussles are commonplace on this fierce battleground, and it's not entirely unheard of for teams to become embroiled in both at the same time! Bearing the ultra-competitive nature of the division in mind, Sean O'Mahonys' achievement of securing promotion by finishing top of '2B' in '04 was indeed a noteworthy one. After the shock of losing their opening league game of the year to Na Piarsaigh, the Point Road side recovered brilliantly to string together a magnificent series of results, winning five matches on the trot and seven out of their next eight. This left them sitting pretty at the top of the table (with two promotion places up for grabs) as the latest protracted season in Wee County GAA petered to a close. They also won their last three games to brilliantly capture the McShane Cup with 20 points out of a possible 24, booking an instant return to Division 2A. With the Seans prepared to take their place in the higher division of intermediate football, the disappointment of their IFC group play-off defeat to Sean McDermotts was almost forgotten. Playing out of the more relaxed habitat of Division 2A in '05, the team will be in a much better position to express themselves. 2A is also a more obvious springboard to senior football than 2B, so the Seans can be quietly content with their year's work. Of course, nobody in the club is losing the run of themselves just yet. While '04 was a modestly successful year, the players know they could have done even more and are determined to acquit themselves better in future campaigns. Team stalwart Brendan Nordon is quietly satisfied: "At the start of the year, our priority was the league. Of course, the championship is always nice to win and you will always do your best on the day, but when you're in Division 2B it's important to try and get up to 2A. That's the level we think we're at right now. We feel that 2A is the division that suits us best. It's probably the division we belong in and we're hoping to go into that division next year and build on that. "No matter what level you're at, it's important to try to move on to a level that's as competitive as possible. Having said all that, to be honest we have always found Division 2B to be very competitive and we certainly wouldn't look down our noses at the division or any of the teams in it. It's just that 2A is a more obvious stepping stone to senior and, with the team we have, it's where we want to be. "2B has become very tight, with little between any of the teams. When we were down there two years ago, ourselves and McDermotts seemed to run away with it, but it was a lot tighter this year and every point was earned. It just shows that it's getting very competitive in every division, except maybe the top one where a couple of teams are pulling away…" Sean O'Mahonys were in Group B of the 2004 intermediate football championship. After winning two of their four matches, they found themselves involved in a play-off with Sean McDermotts, with a quarter-final place up for grabs. The match took place at Castlebellingham on August 29 and, despite starting well with an early Shane Hession goal, O'Mahonys slipped to a 3-7 to 1-7 defeat, which spelled the end of their involvement in the '04 IFC. They played a total of five games in the competition, yet failed to make the knockout stage. They were in the shake-up, however, and found themselves within touching distance of first a semi-final spot and then a quarter-final berth. But it wasn't to be. Seans opened their campaign with a disappointing 0-10 to 0-9 defeat to intermediate rookies Dowdallshill at The Ramparts on May 15 but followed up with successive victories over Sean McDermotts (1-8 to 0-8 at Tallanstown on May 27) and Na Piarsaigh (0-11 to 0-10 at Castlebellingham on July 4). They would've progressed to the semi-final stage had they beaten Hunterstown Rovers in their final group outing, but the men from the Point Road fell to a 0-18 to 1-12 defeat at Dowdallshill on August 15. Hunterstown progressed as group winners but O'Mahonys were one of three clubs tied on four points in second place. A three-way play-off ensued and it was the Mountrush men who went on to face Dreadnots. Considering that they set the pace in the league all year and threatened a breakthrough in the championship, were Sean O'Mahonys happy with their season? "We played okay but there's still plenty of improvement in the team and hopefully we'll see that next year," says Brendan: "We started out in February, which is very early, and we were on a bit of a downer after getting relegated on eleven points the previous year, having lost an intermediate championship quarter-final replay to Dundalk Gaels, who went on to win it out. "We got a bit of a shock when Na Piarsaigh beat us in our first game and I think that result gave us the wake-up call we needed. We realised there was going to be nothing easy in the lower division and we got our act together. After the first game, we picked it up and went on a good run in the league, which put us in a good position to secure promotion. I suppose we were happy enough with our league form, though we realise there's lots of room for improvement. "In the first round of the championship, we went and played Dowdallshill and they beat us. Having seen them play earlier in the year, we knew they would cause us problems, but we had beaten them twice and felt we could beat them again. Maybe we were a bit complacent going into that game but Fair Play to Na Piarsaigh! They played very well on the day and fully deserved the win. "We then beat McDermotts and Na Piarsaigh but lost the last game to Hunterstown when Paddy Matthews destroyed us with 0-10. That put us in a play-off against McDermotts and they beat us, so that was it. "I suppose one of the big problems is over-familiarity with some teams. For example, this was the third year in a row that we'd been in the same division as Sean McDermotts. We know each other inside out at this stage and we played them five times in 2004 … those games could really have gone any way. "We were also a bit unfortunate with injuries. I missed out on a large chunk of the season myself and John O'Brien picked up an injury in the Na Piarsaigh game. Ronan Byrne, who joined us from Knockbridge, was going well until he got injured and Gary Mulligan joined the Cadets. In fairness to the management [Martin Connolly, Paul Boyle and Gareth Doyle], they probably only had the full complement out once in the entire year. When you bear that in mind, it was a satisfactory season." Is there much for O'Mahonys to build on? Do they have the makings of a good side? "I'm one of the oldest players and I'm only 26, so that's a good sign. And we have good underage teams too. Our U14s and U16s both won two trophies. The likes of Barry Walsh, Ronan Byrne and Stephen Hillard are only 19 and are coming through. In fact, five of our first-team players were 19 this year, but it's important that we keep developing from there…" Brendan, himself, has been on the first team since he was 18, winning an intermediate championship in 1998, as well as an old intermediate league and various other league honours. He is hopeful that there are more glory days around the corner and believes the club is going the right way about securing its long-term future: "We had a lot of success last year at Cumann Peil na nOg level, under Paul McLoughlin, Liam Byrne, Martin Connolly and Michael Crawley. It's important that clubs start from the very bottom and the O'Mahonys are doing just that." Tweet

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