Dark days for the Blacks
November 30, 2009Walterstown is one of the longest-serving senior football clubs in the Royal County, having been in the top grade since winning the IFC title in 1964. The greatest era in their history came between 1978 and '84 when lifting the Keegan Cup five times as well as gaining two Leinster club triumphs.
But over the last 26 years the Blacks have only reached the SFC final once. That was in 1991 when they lost out to Gaeil Colmcille. An interesting statistic from this year's senior championship campaign is that they failed to score a goal in any of their games.
Walterstown had Seneschalstown Keegan Cup winning captain of 1994, Padraig Coyle, at the helm with former Blacks players Alan Browne and John McCarthy as his assistants. They should have gained some encouragement from Division 1 League wins over Summerhill and Blackhall Gaels but such form was not carried into the more prestigious competition.
After being idle in the opening round, Walterstown began their SFC schedule with a 0-10 to 2-10 defeat to old rivals Skryne in a Friday evening clash at Pairc Tailteann.
The first half was closely contested and the sides were level at the break, 2-2 to 0-8, with Tom Walsh putting over six points.
However, the Johnstown side faded after the switching of ends. It took them 19 minutes to score in the second period when playing into the breeze with Anwar Khan ending their drought. After that a converted 45 by Walsh was all they could add and two Brian Byrne goals were the difference at the final whistle.
There was a controversial ending to Walterstown's second SFC outing, which Blackhall Gaels won by 1-9 to 0-10 at Dunshaughlin, with the referee being criticised for not allowing more time at the end.
When Tom Walsh slotted over his sixth point, fourth from a free, for his side's last score, they felt that at least one more minute would be allowed but the final whistle sounded on the kick-out.
Walterstown lost the game in the opening quarter when their opponents went into a 1-4 to 0-0 lead. With Walsh slotting over four points, two from frees, the deficit was reduced to a goal at the interval. When Richie Barry further cut the arrears in the first minute after the restart, there was every chance that the odds would be upset.
Although Joey Farrelly pared the deficit to the minimum with his side's second point, they couldn't get any closer and the difference was four points with as many minutes left. Points from Charles McCarthy and Walsh halved the arrears but the Blacks ran out of time.
Defeat number three for Walterstown was at the hand of Dunboyne who won by 1-12 to 0-12 in a Sunday evening clash at Pairc Tailteann. Tom Walsh was missing for this game with an ankle injury ruling him out for a few games. Alban Crosbie, who took over the free-taking duties, converted four kicks. Charles McCarthy put over three frees and Christopher Reynolds, who raised the white flag twice, was then only losers' player to score more than once from play.
That defeat left Walterstown rooted at the bottom of Group B and their final game in the division was against St Ultan's, who went into that Pairc Tailteann tussle with one point. The 2009 intermediate champions won by 2-15 to 0-11 to steer clear of a possible relegation play-off.
The Blacks suffered an early setback when full-back Brian McGrane went down injured as Gary Gorman netted the first goal in the second minute. McGrane was forced to go off and Davy Reynolds switched from attack to full-back.
Walterstown recovered from a 0-0 to 1-1 deficit to get on the board when Mark McCormack pointed a 45 and white flags from Alban Crosbie (two frees), David Maguire, Joey Farrelly and Richie Barry helped them to be only two points behind (0-6 to 1-5) at the break.
Four times in the opening 12 minutes of the second period the minimum margin separated the sides with scores from Crosbie (another free), Christopher Reynolds, Charles McCarthy (free) and Richie Barry keeping them in close touch.
But after that the Blacks only managed to add another converted free by midfielder McCarthy as St Ultan's tagged on 1-6. The losers had David Reynolds sent off on receipt of a second yellow card just before the end.
That defeat meant that Walterstown met Rathkenny in a relegation play-off at Seneschalstown nine days later. After the sides finished the hour on level terms (0-10 each), a goal scored by Thomas Rowan whose shot took a deflection and went past Ronan Barry gave Rathkenny a 1-12 to 0-12 victory after extra-time.
The Blacks had Alan Reynolds sent off at the start of the second quarter and Charles McCarthy was not able join the action until six minutes into the second half. The former county player made a notable impact with six points, five from frees.
The teams were also level (0-4 each) at the first break. Walterstown trailed by three points before points from McCarthy (free), Joey Farrelly and Anwar Khan levelled matters. Darren Barren edged Rathkenny back in front before McCarthy equalised from a long-range free.
Walterstown were back to 15 players with the introduction of Christopher Reynolds for the additional 20 minutes. They still struggled and the goal four minutes from the end of the second 10-minute period sent them tumbling to a fifth defeat.
It was presumed that Walterstown would then face Duleek/Bellewstown in the final relegation play-off but they successfully objected against the playing of extra-time, pointing out that they had not consented to the additional periods.
Walterstown had a request that they not be fixed to play between September 20th and 27th because a number of players were attending a wedding turned down and were annoyed at the lack of flexibility by the fixtures committee.
Leinster Council upheld an appeal by the Walterstown club that the game against Rathkenny should be refixed. The Meath County Committee then appealed the provincial body's decision to the Central Hearings Committee who ruled that extra-time should not have been played.
At the time of putting the 2009 Meath Yearbook to bed, it was unclear as to whether further relegation play-offs would take place or not.
Understandably, Alban Crosbie is disappointed at how his side's championship campaign went this year. "We had reasonably good hopes at the start of the year and we in a lot of hard work," he said.
"Padraig Coyle came in to replace Brendan Murray. Padraig had a good track record, having helped Clann na nGael to win Meath and Leinster junior championships a couple of years ago. He put in a lot of good work with us and employed some different methods.
"Paddy Reynolds retired and didn't play for any games this year while John Geoghegan, who was away travelling, missed a few games. John Davis, Brian McCormack and Karl Reynolds were others whom we didn't have," continued Crosbie.
"In our first championship game against Skryne we played well in the first half and were on level terms at half-time. Then we only scored two points and conceded the two goals which separated the teams at the end.
"A slow start proved costly against Blackhall Gaels, we were going well at the end of that game but we ran out of time. We lost that match by only two points and we felt we should have taken something from it.
"It was the same story in the game against Dunboyne when Christopher Reynolds had a 'goal' disallowed just before half-time and we eventually lost by a goal.
"In our last group game against St Ultan's we were unlucky to lose Brian McGrane who went off injured in the early stages. We recovered well from a bad start to stay with them for most of the hour but they pulled away in the last few minutes to win by 10 points, a margin which probably flattered Ultan's," added Alban Crosbie.
Mick O'Brien, who was at the helm for Walterstown's greatest triumphs, returned to help the club in their 'hour of need.'
Alban Crosbie wonders how the Blacks have slumped so much over the last three years. "In 2006 we won seven of our eight group games before losing to Simonstown Gaels at the quarter-final stage. We were the only team to beat Wolfe Tones in that year's championship," he recalled.
"We're training away but we don't know what will happen. I feel that we are too good a team to go down and hopefully we can survive and get the opportunity to do better next year," Alban concluded. Tweet
