A top four side
November 30, 2009In 2007 the 'Hill lost to the men from the Furze in a quarter-final clash and the following year they progressed two steps further with a thrilling 'semi' success over Wolfe Tones before going down to an 11 points defeat to Navan O'Mahonys in the final.
Paraic Lyons, who was again joint manager with Mattie Kerrigan, still holds a distinction he would rather pass on to someone else - that of being the last man to captain Summerhill to SFC glory. That was back in 1986 when Seneschalstown were defeated in the final played in Kells.
This year former Clare county forward Rory Donnelly was the skipper of the side in blue and yellow who were drawn in Group C along with Wolfe Tones, Dunshaughlin, Trim and Rathkenny.
Not surprisingly, the 2008 beaten finalists began the latest title race as one of the more fancied teams and 'Summerhill show positive signs' was one headline after their opening 0-11 to 0-7 victory over Dunshaughlin at Dunsany.
Rory Donnelly did not start that game but joined the action at the start of the second half and contributed two points, his side having led by 0-7 to 0-2 at the break. Maurice Kennedy showed up well at midfield and put over two points while half forward Brian Ennis was on target three times from play.
After being idle in round two, Summerhill suffered a setback when losing by 1-9 to 1-12 against Wolfe Tones in a third round clash in Athboy. They did not build on a bright start when going into a 1-1 to 0-0 lead, Rory Donnelly netting the goal. The Clare-native was unlucky not to find the net again in the early exchanges but his shot hit the crossbar.
After being behind to 1-4 to 0-8 at the halfway stage, Summerhill edged into an advantage of 1-7 to 0-8 with points from Stephen Kennedy, Michael Byrne and Sean Dalton. However, after that bright spell, they could only add a converted free by Byrne to their total.
Twelve weeks later Summerhill had their third SFC outing and just got the better of local rivals Trim, by 2-10 to 3-5 in a Saturday evening clash at Pairc Tailteann. Boosted by two goals from Sean Dalton, the 'Hill led by 2-8 to 1-3 at one stage in the second half.
Although the deficit of eight points was reduced to two, Summerhill held out for their second brace of points. Their overall performance was described as 'unspectacular.'
The divisional schedule was completed with a comfortable 1-14 to 0-8 win over bottom of the group Rathkenny at Simonstown. It was 0-7 to 0-3 in favour of the eventual winners at the break and the game's only goal, netted by Stephen Kennedy, left the board reading 1-11 to 0-5.
A goal and two points of Kennedy's 1-3 came from open play and Rory Donnelly and Sean Dalton also scored well with four and three points respectively. That win earned the 'Hill a quarter-final tilt with St Patrick's.
That clash resulted in a hard-earned 1-11 to 0-11 win for Summerhill in a less than spectacular contest. The goal which separated the sides when referee David Coldrick blew the final whistle came after just five minutes with Stephen Kennedy firing to the net after taking a pass from Sean Dalton.
Left full forward Kennedy went on to send over five points, four frees, and his brother, Maurice, kicked two points from play in the first half. After the goal left them three points to the good, the 'Hill held a slender 1-4 to 0-6 advantage at the break.
The sides were on level terms five times, the final time after 47 minutes when Paul Larkin left the board reading 1-7 to 0-10. After that Summerhill tagged on four points to one by their opponents with white flags from Stephen Kennedy (two more frees), Brian Ennis and Rory Donnelly steering them into the last four.
Summerhill were involved in another close encounter two weeks later but this time, after the teams were level eight times, a dramatic winning point from a 45 taken by Brian Clarke in the fourth minute of added time gave Seneschalstown a 0-14 to 1-10 victory.
The south county side suffered a blow in the first half when Stephen Kennedy was forced to retire with a hand injury after 23 minutes. However, his replacement, Conor Gillespie, was only on the pitch a matter of seconds when shooting the game's only goal, having received a pass from Davy Dalton.
That left the scores 1-5 to 0-5 and it was 1-5 to 0-6 at the break. Seneschalstown were back on equal terms about a minute after the restart before points from Davy Dalton and Brian Ennis (free) gave the 'Hill minimum margin leads.
The loss of free-taker Kennedy was a blow and although Ennis converted three in the second half, he was off target with a couple of kicks into the tricky wind. It was 0-13 to 1-9 as the clock ticked past the half hour mark and when Rory Donnelly fired over another equaliser, extra-time looked inevitable.
However, there was a sting in the tail for Summerhill as Brian Clarke sent the late 45 sailing between the uprights. Despite the disappointing defeat, Summerhill could take some satisfaction from their contribution to an entertaining match. Paraic Lyons was not slow in recognising the effort put in as he congratulated all his players on their way off the pitch.
There was another blow for the losers on the final whistle with centre back Willie Milner, who collapsed, being taken to hospital for treatment for a punctured lung. All interested in football in Meath hopes that this fine footballer will be back playing in 2010.
Summerhill full back Adrian Kenny said it would have been difficult playing the final without Willie Milner and Stephen Kennedy had they qualified. "It would have been nice to get through for the second successive year but going out without such key men would have been very hard on us," he remarked.
"Although it ended on a disappointing note, it wasn't a bad year for us in general. After getting to the 2008 final, we were expected to get to the closing stages again. The defeat to Wolfe Tones was our only loss in the group games.
"We started off with a good win over Dunshaughlin at Dunsany. It's always good to get a victory in the first round and we had four points to spare in that outing. We were very hopeful of putting it up to the best of the teams.
"We were without some players for the game against Wolfe Tones. We led in both halves in that game and eventually lost out by three points. We felt we could have been awarded a penalty at the end.
"Then there was a long break before the next round of the championship as the county team took preference. It can be frustrating not knowing when we are going to be playing again but we also like to see Meath doing well.
"We eventually got to meet Trim and after holding a big lead, they hit us with a couple of goals and in a close finish we just held out to get the win. It's usually difficult playing against local rivals and we were glad to get the points from that outing. Then we had a comfortable win over Rathkenny to qualify for the quarter-finals," Kenny concluded his look back at the group games.
"St Pat's gave us a tough game. There was wasn't much in it at any stage, maybe we didn't play our best football in that game but we got a few important scores at the end and we were relieved to get over them.
"We thought we had a great chance against Seneschalstown. Although they beat us in a quarter-final clash in 2007, we got the better of them in the group stages last year. It's a game which could have went either way and losing Stephen Kennedy, who was on the county panel this year, in the first half was a blow.
"I don't think the missing of frees in the second half was a factor. We had other chances of scores and it was unfortunate to lose the way we did, with that late converted 45 putting us out," said the long-serving forward.
Adrian Kenny was a forward before settling well into the Summerhill defence. He impressed sufficiently in attack to earn a place on Sean Boylan's Meath squad and was on the panel from 2001 to 2004.
Being on the Meath squad in 2001 was an exciting experience for Adrian and he gained a Leinster medal. He came on as a substitute against Dublin and Westmeath and also made a similar experience in the All-Ireland final against Galway. He started in the championship games against Laois and Donegal in 2002.
Kenny was left full back and captain for Summerhill in 2008 before moving to the number three position this year. He is optimistic about his side's prospects of making the breakthrough, saying: "The club has won three under 21 titles in the last few years and a good number of the players from those teams have made it on the senior side.
"Paraic Lyons and Mattie Kerrigan, also Mick McGlynn, have put in tremendous work and we hope they will be with us again next year. It would be nice to reward them with the championship title. There isn't much between the top teams and we will be looking forward to giving it another good crack next year," he concluded. Tweet
