Knockout bogey continues
November 30, 2009their hopes of outright glory at the semi-final stage. By Noel Coogan.
After bowing out in the penultimate round to Moynalvey in 2007 and losing to Dunsany the following year, Moylagh must feel that their turn for title glory is not far away. In 2008 they won all of their four group games before beating Ballivor to reach the last four.
The JFC campaign began with a 3-8 to 1-9 success over Skryne's second string at Bohermeen's Newman Park. Most of the Moylagh scores came in the first half when they built up a 3-4 to 0-5 interval advantage.
In the second round they faced opposition from another of Meath's famous senior clubs in Navan O'Mahonys, who were defeated by 1-9 to 1-7 at Drumbaragh, after the town team led by 1-4 to 0-3 at the halfway stage.
The men in green and white recovered from being 0-0 to 1-3 in arrears in the first half with a goal from Patrick Grall early in the second half proving to be a vital score. Justin O'Reilly, who missed the 2008 JFC as he was abroad, put over four points and Barry Smith made a sound contribution by raising the white flag twice.
Declan Traynor returned home after a spell in the United States to play well in goals and Colm Fanning was another to show impressive form. Moylagh received a walk over in the third round with Drumree not continuing in the championship after receiving two heavy defeats.
They returned to winning ways when outscoring Drumbaragh by 3-11 to 2-10 at Ballinlough after goals from Eanna Brody and Michael Corrigan boosted them to a slender 2-5 to 1-7 interval advantage.
An unusual feature of that game was a goal direct from a sideline ball kicked by Barry Smith in the second half. That was a valuable victory over one of the most fancied sides in the JFC and Corrigan took the individual scoring honour with 1-3 while the usually reliable Justin O'Reilly contributed five points.
It was considerably more comfortable for Moylagh as they concluded their group schedule with a runaway 2-14 to 0-1 win over Kilbride in a one-sided clash at Seneschalstown. It was 1-6 to 0-0 at the break, the winners had nine different scorers with Justin O'Reilly again the main marksman with 1-3.
Ballivor were Moylagh's quarter-final opponents and in a Friday evening clash at Simonstown a place in the 'semis' for the second time in three years was earned with a minimum margin 0-7 to 0-6 win.
It was not one of the north-west side's better displays and they were in arrears by 0-4 to 0-5 at the break. But they just did enough in the second period to advance to the next stage. Once again Justin O'Reilly was the top scorer with four points, Tom Reilly put over two and Michael Corrigan also got on target.
Bohermeen again proved a bogey ground for Moylagh. They lost their semi-final there two years ago and Dunsany edged them out on a 1-9 to 1-8 scoreline to bring their promising run to an end.
The side in green and white trailed by six points before-a goal on the stroke of half-time left them with arrears of 1-3 to 1-6. Goalkeeper Declan Traynor started the build-up to that score, Quentin O'Reilly and Peter Fox carried it on before Eanna Brody fired a shot to the net.
On the resumption Moylagh slipped four points behind before getting the next three scores. Justin O'Reilly (play and free) and Aengus Fanning put over those points to bring the deficit down to the smallest possible.
Two Mark Brennan efforts increased the Dunsany lead to three. After Fanning had a 'goal' ruled out for a foul on opposing goalkeeper Niall Flynn, O'Reilly slotted over two more points, one free, to bring the difference back down to the minimum.
However, there was another disappointing end for the Moylagh contingent as their opponents held on to advance. A late equaliser attempt from Joe Melia went wide as his side's hopes of a final place went west.
Moylagh defender Peter Fox ruefully reflected on what he described as another disappointing year. "It was the fourth year in a row for us to reach the knockout stage but we still haven't managed to get to the final.
"It was the third time in those four years for Dunsany to end our hopes of championship success," he said.
"We had reasonably high hopes at the start of then year, especially with goalkeeper Declan Traynor and forward Justin O'Reilly coming home from their travels abroad and centre back Maurice Quinn, who had been living in the area for a while, joining us from Westmeath club, St Paul's of Clonmellon," added Fox.
Moylagh met second strings of senior clubs in each of their first two JFC games and Peter said he and his team--mates expected difficult tests.
"Skryne had some players with senior experience on their junior team but we got over them with five points to spare. We were pleased to get off to a winning start.
"We met Navan O'Mahonys in the second round and we were also wary of them.
"They led us by six points at one stage in the first half but, helped by a good goal from Paddy Grall soon after the restart, we managed to win by two points.
"With Drumree giving us a walk over in the third round fixture, we went from May 4th to August 16th until our next championship game. That was against Drumbaragh, who were a well-fancied team. We probably gave our best display of the year against them and the win put us through to the quarter-finals.
"Our final group game was against Kilbride, who had nothing to play for. We won that game by 19 points but we didn't read too much into that result," concluded Fox on his recollection of Moylagh's group games.
Then it was on to quarter-final clash with Ballivor, who had been relegated by Moylagh's neighbours Oldcastle the previous year and Peter Fox said they were not taking them for granted.
"We knew they had lost a few players to Kildalkey and some people may have been writing them off. However, we were not underrating them and they gave us a very difficult game, at the end of which we just scraped through with one point to spare.
"While we seem well able to beat Dunsany in the league, it's a different story in the championship. I feel we didn't do ourselves full justice in the latest meeting with them. The goal before half-time gave us hope and we felt we could take them. However, we played catch-up throughout the second half and they held out to win by 1-9 to 1-8," he said.
Johnny Guirke was the Moylagh manager for the second successive year. He had returned home after a few years in Boston and according to Peter Fox, gave great commitment during the two seasons.
There was another autumn disappointment for Moylagh, who gained promotion from Division 4 to 3 in the league in 2007, as a defeat to Moynalvey sent them back down.
"We lost some games by narrow and performed well against intermediate sides. It's disappointing to be going back down," said Fox.
Oldcastle's IFC triumph could inspire Moylagh to get to the JFC final for the first time since 1999 when losing out to St Paul's and perhaps Oldcastle's IFC triumph might inspire them in their efforts to bridge the gap.
"The win by Oldcastle was a great boost to the area and I was delighted to see them doing so well. The average age of the Moylagh team in the game against Dunsany was only 26, I've on the team for seven or eight years and I'm only 24," remarked Peter Fox.
"I'd like to think that the experience of the last few years will stand to us, we'll give it another shot, we'll be gunning for it again," he concluded.
Moylagh also keep the hurling flag flying in the north-west of the county, fielding a junior team and underage sides with Kilskyre. Last February Moylagh/Kilskyre claimed the 2008 MHC B title with a 3-8 to 0-9 final victory over Blackhall Gaels in Ashbourne.
Lads from the Moylagh/Oldcastle area played significant parts in that success with Thomas Rahill scoring two goals and Willie McGrath also finding the net. All the goals came in the second period after Blackhall led by 0-8 to 0-4 at half-time.
Goalie Colm Melia, who brought off a crucial save in the second half, Patrick Briody, Darren Hawdon and Tommy Reilly were others to show up well for the winners.
In the JHC Moylagh opened with a win over Dunboyne before drawing with Navan O'Mahonys. Then they lost by five points (3-8 to 4-10) to Kildalkey, who went on to claim outright honours.
Paul Foley is the Moylagh hurling chairman with Mattie Nolan another who has put in a lot of work in the promotion of the small ball game over the last few years.
"There are some quality hurlers playing with the club but with football the number one game in the area, getting hurling going can be a bit of a struggle at times," said Foley,
"Moylagh have been fielding hurling teams since the early '80s and we have had successes in the junior and underage grades. We won the Junior 2 title in 2002 and there have been a few underage successes.
"Underage hurling is going very well, we are joined with Kilskyre in age groups up under 21. There is plenty of enthusiasm for the game among the young players and that augurs well for the future," added Foley. Tweet
