St Vincent's left reeling in 'what might have been'
November 30, 2009Losing a final can have contrasting reactions for teams. For some, the sourness of defeat can be too horrible a taste to recover from. For others, it fuels a greater enthusiasm to come back and go one better the following year.
St Vincent's dreams almost became a reality in 2008. They enjoyed a fruitful campaign, playing some sublime football en-route to reaching the decider but their hearts were broken by a youthful Donaghmore/Ashbourne side that carved out a three-point success.
It was a bitter pill for everybody involved with St Vincent's to swallow. They had arguably been the best team in the championship throughout the year but failed to show their true colours when it matters most. It happens to the best of sides.
But could the experience stand to them this year? Could that sourness be turned into a sweet-tasting success? There were plenty of astute judges who believed that St Vincent's had the best army for battle in the Junior B championship. A perfect blend of youth and experience that could prove more than a match for anything put in front of them.
They even secured the services of one of the best managers in the game. Martin Barry, who enjoyed so much success with the Meath juniors and the Stamullen outfit St Patrick's, took over at the helm and sensed a great opportunity to win something for a club steeped in tradition.
They certainly started off in textbook fashion. A six-point triumph (2-8 to 0-8) over Kildalkey left their supporters dreaming of silverware. And who could blame them? St Vincent's looked like they had improved from the previous year under Barry's tenure and they certainly had far too much class for Kildalkey.
But from there, St Vincent's season took a turn for the worse. A narrow two-point defeat to Ratoath (0-10 to 1-9) was followed by a minimum margin loss (0-9 to 0-10) to beaten finalists Moynalty and suddenly St Vincent's were faced with the prospect of making a premature exit from the competition before the knockout stages even commenced.
They had one last chance. Their final outing was against Trim and victory there coupled with other results going their way in the group would have seen them scrape through to the knockout stages where they would have made a major impact.
St Vincent's stuck to their side of the bargain and recorded a very impressive 2-9 to 1-11 triumph over Trim. But elsewhere results went against them and it was Moynalty, Rataoth and Trim that advanced to the business end of proceedings. St Vincent's were out.
Those narrow defeats at the hands of Ratoath and Moynalty cost them oh so dearly and they were left reeling in the 'what might have been' had they carved out victories in those outings.
Reflecting on the year, popular club secretary Gerard Clerkin felt that the loss of a couple of vital players was the main reason that St Vincent's didn't fulfil their potential this term.
"We were missing a few players this year. We had a few lads that emigrated to Australia and another few out injured so it was a little more difficult for us than usual this year," Clerkin said.
"We were hoping that we could get back to the Junior B Final that we were in the previous year and that was the aim at the beginning of the year. But the players that we were missing we two or three of our better players. Lads like Tommy Fields, Sean McNally and Darren Lane were out and those lads would have always been our main men over the last couple of years," he added.
But there is always a silver ling and Clerkin revealed that the loss of those experienced members of the panel allowed some of the youngsters to come through and gain some invaluable experience of the senior stage.
"The one good thing that we had this year was that four or five lads from the minor team came through from the Minor team. In 2008 they wouldn't have been on the panel but some of them showed great potential this year when they came up and it was great to see them lads coming through.
"It is just a case now of trying to keep them at it. Sometimes it can be very hard to keep youngsters playing football when they reach the age of 18 or so as they head of to college and they have plenty of other distractions. Especially with no jobs around now, it will be increasingly difficult to keep lads at home and keep them playing football.
"When you are playing off such a small panel of players it's vital that you have everybody that can play, playing."
There is plenty of underage talent filtering through the club and Clerkin is hopeful that some of the young stars that caught the eye in underage triumphs will cut the mustard at senior level in time to ensure the future is beaming with light for St Vincent's.
"There is plenty of talent coming through from underage. If you go back through St Vincent's/Curraha over the last couple of years, they have won a lot of underage title over the last couple of years. They have won minor titles and Under 17 and Under 16 one's too so you would like to think that them players will be coming through and making an impact soon."
Clerkin admitted that he was delighted to have Martin Barry at the helm and was keen to stress that the narrow reversals against Ratoath and Moynalty were the main reasons that the club wasn't seen in the latter stages of the competition.
"Martin Barry was over us this year and he probably seen that we reached the final the previous year and almost reached the league final and saw that there was a bit of potential there.
"We had a good win over Kildalkey. Rataoth only just beat us and Moynalty beat us by a point with the last kick of the ball.
"Going into the last game we were hoping that if we were bet that some other teams might do us a favour and that we might scrape through. It would have brought us back into a play-off but unfortunately it just didn't work out.
"They lads had high expectations at the start of the year and I suppose not to reach the knockout stages would have been a bitter disappointment for them.
"There is great interest in St Vincent's and there is even talk of next year already around the place. The potential is certainly there to do well and if things go well and we have a bit of luck I'm sure we will be there or thereabouts next year.
"A young lad that came through from minor that did very well was Declan O'Sullivan. Another young lad that is promising as well is Bob Tallon and there are another couple of lads with plenty of potential too so you'd like to think that the future is bright for St Vincent's."
As a parting shot, Clerkin admitted that a club like St Vincent's will always be working off a small panel of players and emphasised the importance of keeping that crop together and fit and healthy in order to secure success for the club.
"When you are working off such a small panel if one or two lads go away or another few get injured it is very hard to keep things going and keep winning. The way games drag out all over the season you don't know when you're playing until a week or two beforehand so you can't really plan ahead. There might be a game at the start of the summer and there mightn't be another one for another five or six weeks so it can be hard to keep going," Clerkin concluded.
St. Vincent's Juvenile Club
This was a fantastic year for St. Vincent's Juvenile Football Club. Training started in early February for U12, U13 & U14 and continued all through the summer until the first week in November during which time we reached five County Finals and were successful in three.
U14 League
Our first game was against Ballinlough in Ardcath where Colin Andrews (1-3) and Richard O'Sullivan (1-4) were both in good scoring form, while Sean Moore and Ciaran Brangan in defence played very well to earn us a comfortable win. Our next outing was away to St. Pats with man of the match Roy Moore scoring 5-6 of a total 6-10 leaving us with a 10 point win. Brú na Bóinne were next and St. Vincent's won 7-12 to 6-11 in a very exciting game in which Ryan Gaffney, Ben Lynch and Ryan Hand were impressive for Ardcath. Next up was the long drive to Clonard where we won quite comfortably as the home side could not break our defence as Jamie Harford, Karl Mc Guinness and Liam Thornton were in fine form. We played Brú na Bóinne in the semi-final in Duleek where forwards John Corry and Richard O'Sullivan and also goalie Conor White were in top form, full-time score 4-6 to 2-3. The final was fixed for the 25th April against Ballinabrackey. We won this 3-9 to 3-6 and were pushed all the way having no subs due to two players being injured. Roy Moore was impressive up front scoring 2-1 and was well supported by Richard O'Sullivan (0-5), Colin Andrews (0-1) and the ever-alert Ryan Hand (1-0). In mid-field Shane O'Brien (0-1) and Ryan Gaffney (0-1) covered every inch of the pitch, while in defence Jamie Harford, Ben Lynch and Sean Moore all played well in an exciting contest.
U14 KO Championship
In the quarter-final of this competition we were away to Blackhall Gaels and this was St. Vincent's best game of the year. The movement on and off the ball was superb as Shane O'Brien and Ben Lynch in mid-field controlled the game while Ciaran Brangan, Graham Connor and Liam Thornton ran tirelessly in defence. This left space for forwards Roy Moore (4-2) and Ryan Hand (2-0) to get the scores their teams play so well deserved. We won 6-5 to 3-3. The semi-final was closer to home where we played St. Pats in Bellewstown on a wet Friday evening. St. Vincent's missed some good scoring chances and with goals from Roy Moore (2), Richard O'Sullivan, Sean Moore and Ryan Hand (1 each) we managed a draw. Final score St Vincent's 5-5 to St. Pats 3-11. On another wet night a week later, the re-play took place in Bellewstown with Ardcath playing a much more impressive game. This time around scores came from Roy Moore (2-5), Richard O'Sullivan (1-1), Sean Moore (2-0) and Ryan Hand (1-0) to give us a comfortable win of 6-6 to 2-6. On the 23rd May we played St. Cuthbert's in Páirc Tailteann in the final. This was a low scoring game where defenders on both teams impressed. In the first half goals from Roy Moore(1-0) and Sean Moore(1-0) and points from Shane O'Brien (0-1), Colin Andrews (0-1) and Roy Moore (0-2) gave St. Vincent's a 2-4 to 0-2 lead at half time with Richard O'Sullivan setting up most of the scores from the centre-half forward position. In the second half we played into a strong breeze and although Shane O'Brien and Ben Lynch ran tirelessly throughout St. Vincent's failed to score. However, St. Cuthbert's only managed to score 1-3 thanks to great defending by Jamie Harford, Ciaran Brangan and Graham Connor. In the final minutes goalkeeper Conor White made two point blank saves to ensure that St. Vincent's completed the League/Championship double. Final score was 2-4 to 1-5.
U14 Summer League
We had an impressive league run with wins over Dunboyne, Clann na Gael, St. Michael's and Moynalty which left us paired against St. Cuthbert's in another final. In a closely contested encounter St. Cuthbert's got revenge for their championship defeat and won by four points. Final score 0-8 to 1-9.
U14 Squad - Conor White, Sean Moore, Graham Connor, Liam Thornton, Ciaran Brangan, Jamie Harford, Karl Mc Guinness, Shane O'Brien, Ben Lynch, Ryan Gaffney, Richard O'Sullivan, John Corry, Colin Andrews, Ryan Hand, Roy Moore. Managers - James O'Brien, Shaun Murray
U13 League
Our first game of this competition was in Ardcath against Nobber and although we played quite well we were beaten in the end by 4 points. Our next game was against Ballivor and despite only scoring 5 points in the first half we turned a 6 point half time deficit into a 7 point win. This was done thanks to good defending by Andrew McEntee, Ciaran Brangan and Liam Thornton while at the other end of the field scores came from John Corry (1-4), Ryan Hand (0-3), Patrick McGill (0-1), Ryan Gaffney (0-1), Sean Moore (0-1). First half goalie Richard O'Sullivan scored (1-6) when he moved to mid-field during the second half. Final score 2-19 to 1-8.
Carnaross away was our next game and despite losing 3-8 to 3-16 Andrew Cawley, David Morgan and Adam Ryan impressed for Ardcath. A win against Clonard and a draw with Boardsmill put us in the semi-final against Boardsmill in Trim. This was a very impressive performance as scores from Karl McGuinness (1-2), Sean Moore (1-0), Adam Ryan(1-0), Ryan Hand (0-3), Richard O'Sullivan (1-2), John Corry (1-2) and Ciaran Brangan (2-1) put us 15 points ahead at one stage but Boardsmill fought back to reduce the winning margin to 3 points. Final score 6-13 to 8-4. The final was in Donore against Nobber where a huge crowd turned out to support Ardcath. It was Nobber who started best and only for goalie Liam Thornton, halfback Andrew McEntee and half-forward Ryan Hand who were very good throughout, the game could have been out of our reach. A goal from Earl Cawley and points from Richard O'Sullivan (0-2) and John Corry (0-2) left the half-time score 1-4 to 2-4 in favour of Nobber. In the second half Nobber regained a 6 point lead, then Ciaran Brangan scored an inspirational goal to lift the team and with further points from Corry and O'Sullivan and a wonderfully taken equalising point from David Morgan we were set up for a grand finale. Richard O'Sullivan then kicked over a 35 meter free to win the game for St. Vincent's. Final score 2-11 to 3-7
U13 Squad - Liam Thornton, David Morgan, Andrew Cawley, Ross Keogh, Sean Moore, Jack Morin, Ciaran Brangan, Andrew McEntee, Richard O'Sullivan, Karl McGuinness, Ryan Hand, Nathan Rogers, Adam Ryan, Patrick McGill, Ryan Gaffney, Earl Cawley, John Corry. Managers- Eamon McGuinness, James O'Brien
U12 Summer League
Our first game was very entertaining as we edged out Walterstown 2-12 to 0-15 with scores coming from Ryan Hand (0-9), Ciaran Gallagher (1-1), Nathan Rogers (1-0) Sean Moore (0-2), while at the other end of the field Andrew McEntee made some fine saves in goals. From this we went on to beat St. Marys, Bective/Cannistown and Kilmainhamwood to put us in the final in Ardcath. In this we played Walterstown who got a good lead in the first half and despite a strong fight back the away team held own to win the League Title.
U12 Squad - Andrew McEntee, Emma White, Simon McManus, Sean Moore, David Morgan, Ryan Hand, Adam Ryan, Ciaran Gallagher, Patrick McGill, Ross Keogh, Danny Tuite, Nigel Hand, Evan Connor, Emer Brangan, Jack Byrne, Nathan Rogers, Earl Cawley, Nicola McNally, Jack Morin, James Tuite, Luke Ryan, Manager-Thomas Hand.
U8 & U10
The U8 & U10 players played a lot of games and participated in blitzes over the summer months while training every Wednesday evening until early September. Thanks to all the trainers who helped out to insure these Boys and Girls developed their skills of Gaelic football and with such large numbers turning out we look forward to seeing them play in the coming year and beyond. Tweet
