Bective: a new dawn?
November 27, 2010On the face of it, failure to challenge for qualification from their championship group or promotion in the league hardly appears to be anything to write home about. For Bective, though, the 2010 year represented significant progress as a new team populated by young players, guided by a new manager, put together a number of performances laden with promise for the future.
Marty Mulhall is one of those younger players, the free-scoring 19-year-old forward joining a host of his contemporaries in graduating to the adult side at virtually the same time. And he feels the arrival of former Walterstown star Ian Kearney as team trainer played a part in instilling the belief required to compete at championship level.
"Ian came in and he just added something new straight away," he says. "He got on well with the players and he introduced a new style of play, a bit more of a tactical approach in training, and the players just adapted to it and responded."
Central to the new approach was a back to basics mentality. A quicker, more direct style of play was born. "He wanted lads to deliver the ball into the forwards quickly, and it allowed us to play to our strengths a bit more," says Mulhall.
While a challenge for honours in both Division 4 of the All-County 'A' League and the Junior Championship failed to materialise, there was plenty of encouragement to be taken from the outcome of the year. After a number of summers when a battle against the drop in league and championship was almost routine, mid-table consolidation in both competitions was encouraging.
Bective have been nothing if not inconsistent in recent years and that continued over the past 12 months, but when they were good they were very, very good. An average of just over 15 points per game from their five championship outings augurs well for the future and if that progress can be maintained, another tilt at outright junior success could be on the cards in 2011, 14 years on from the club's most recent adult championship win.
There's often a moment to which a team's belief in itself can be traced, and this particular group of Bective players could well reflect on the opening game of the Junior Championship last April. A first round game against Summerhill was always expected to be tough, and when the senior club's second string helped themselves to two soft goals in the first half, the Bective team in its previous guise may well have retreated into their shells. However, this is a new team, with a new mindset, ready to create their own legacy.
"We gave away two bad goals against Summerhill and went in at half-time seven points down," says Marty. "If that was a year or two ago, we probably would have collapsed and got beaten by ten or 12 points. But Ian brought us in at half-time, told us to stay calm, told us he knows we're good enough. He just said to give it everything for half an hour. We did, and it worked out well. We clawed it back and scored a free in the last minute to take a draw. We were happy not to have lost but even at that we still saw it as a bit of a missed opportunity, because we thought we had the chances to win the game."
A game against Boardsmill followed and an 11-point win continued a decent start to the campaign but Rome wasn't built in a day and the upbeat mood dripped away following a disappointing reverse at the hands of Donaghmore/Ashbourne in Group D's third round of fixtures. "That was definitely the most disappointing game of the year," recalls Marty. "We were going into it on a bit of a high but we just didn't turn up on the day. We probably didn't prepare well ourselves, took our eye off the ball a bit and we were well beaten. But we learnt a lot from that game. We realised that we had to get stuck in and drive it on, that nothing was going to be handed to us."
Another defeat followed against a Ballivor side who many saw as Junior Championship favourites, and while that result brought an end to Bective's hopes of reaching the knock-out stages, it also brought some measure of progress. "We had won a couple of league games going into the championship game against Ballivor so we were going it in good heart again. A few things didn't go our way - they got a goal where the lad just drew a kick at a loose ball and it flew into the top corner, and we scored a goal that was harshly disallowed for a square ball. To make it even more disappointing, we played a stronger Ballivor team the week after in the league - they had one or two players back who missed the championship game - and we beat them by a point."
The final game of the year saw the Bective lads take on their local rivals Navan O'Mahonys and while neither side were in the running for qualification, games between these two clubs are always tough encounters. It was satisfying, then, to put up the club's highest championship score in several years - a tally of 4-11 enough to post an eight-point victory over the town side. "It was just a case of pride being at stake but we're always going to be up for games against O'Mahonys. We got the breaks that day and a few goals came our way."
Given continued dedication from the panel of players and normal progression next year, hopes are high that Bective could finally have another team capable of maintaining a challenge into August and September. "We definitely have the belief that we can win a Junior Championship," says Mulhall. "We just have to drive on next year and step up another level. We know we're good enough, we just have to put in the effort."
Central to the confident mood is the number of exciting young players who have graduated to the adult side from successful underage sides in recent years. "My father [Martin Snr] says that eleven U-21s played Junior Championship football for us this year," he says. "I'm 19, midfielders Ciaran Reilly and Paul Lyness are 20, Ciaran McConnell is 18. Colm Barry came into the team early on in the game against Summerhill and did very well. You also have lads like Brian Cantwell and James Davis who have been around for a few years but are still young.
"A lot of the younger players came through together from underage level and we were used to winning games. We won a Division 2 title at U-14, Division 4 at U-15, Division 3 at U-17. When we were minor we were playing in Division 2 against a lot of senior and intermediate clubs. We beat Oldcastle, who had a few players who went on to win an Intermediate final, and we lost to Blackhall Gaels in the quarter-finals.
"We were always challenging at underage so it was hard for us to come into the Junior team and be struggling for a year or two. But we're getting there, hopefully we can bring that winning mentality into the team over the next year or two and push on."
Bective/Cannistown underage
Under 6
We began our season in early March every Friday at 6pm until end of September. We had over 30 children aged 3 ? to 6 who came to start their career in Gaelic Football! They played various games introducing ball work through the fundamentals course provided to us mentors by Meath Coaching Games GAA. Mentors: Fiona Cassidy and Stephaine Cahill
Under 7 Girls
The girls of Bective had a great season; they bonded really well with getting to grips with Gaelic Football. We'll have a few stars along the way; each child enjoyed themselves thoroughly with training and playing games
Under 8 and 10
Both groups began training in March and put in a lot of time and effort to it. They travelled to several blitz and we hosted two days for both ages. It all went well and we provided refreshments for all after the games. Mentors Under 8: Diarmuid Smith and Martin McLoughlin
The Under 10's travelled by bus to Boardsmill and other places to play games … The children enjoyed their trips. Mentor: Paul Roche
Diarmuid Smith and Martin McLoughlin accompanied their under 8 team to kick football on the green grass of Croke Park. The young squad travelled by bus…used the dressing rooms in the stadium and played their game. On our route home we stopped in the Phoenix Park to enjoy a picnic…a great day was had by all the children
Under 12 Boys
Our under 12 boys squad is a developing unit as the majority of our players are eligible to play under 10. We have a very young squad with good players like Donna Garvey, Kieran Roache, Jamie Keating, Jack Clarke and Niall Dowdall and many more . The hope would be that as this team matures they would be very successful. Mentors: Paul Roache and Gregory Crinion
Under 14s
Our under 14s had an eventful if not a fully rewarding season at the end of it all. Training started in early February and we competed in all competitions during the year. After starting the spring league with a comprehensive win over St. Cuthbert's and also taking Syddan on the way we lost out to Castletown in the semi-finals. Losing to Dunderry narrowly in the championship and Bru Na Boinne in the 7 aside blitz brought a fruitless summer but some great performances along the way from our top scores C. Casey and Mr consistent P. Flanagan. Of note at this stage was that of O McGuire making the Meath squad and the luckless C McConnell who was plagued by injury this season. So things began to look good in the summer fair play league where they had great wins over Clonard and Ballinabrackey to help them progress to the final against Summerhill. With our strongest panel available since the start of the season we all felt gutted when the final game just seemed to go against us to a team that had a height advantage in some key areas. So no reward on the take but how much these boys have matured over the year and I have no doubt this years work will stand to them all in the future. Thanks to parents of all the players for their commitment during the year. Mentors: K Fleming, G McGuire, M Casey, B Flanagan
Players: A Hapkins, C Casey, C McConnell, C Blake, C Fleming, C Reilly, C Swann, D Fitzpatrick, D O'Regan, D McGuire, E O'Brien, E Reilly, J Clarke, J O'Hare, J Friary, K Meade, K Donegan, L Manning, P Harkin, P Flanagan, C Roche
Under 15s
The under 15 league didn't start until mid September and with an early win over Clonard we were hopeful for the future of this team. After losing comprehensively to Ballinabrackey it wasn't hard to lift the team to beat Boardsmill. This left the boys qualifying for a semi final against Ballinabrackey where we fell short after a great start and a great comeback in the second half in dreadful conditions for football. We finished the season by playing St Cuthbert's in a tournament match that showed some of the true potential of this team in an entertaining match. Mentors: K Fleming, S Moran, G McGuire
Players: A Keating, A Carpenter, E Crampton, J Moran, L McNamea, M Lyness, R Mooney, O Kenny, J Kenny, S Fitzpatrick, C Casey, C McConnell, C Flemming, D O'Regan, D McGuire, K Meade, P Harkin, P Flanagan, D Fitzpatrick, C Swan, K Donegan
Under 16
Bective defeated eventual winners Blackhall Gaels on a score line of 4-10 to 1-06 in the opening round of the under 16 league only to narrowly lose out to Longwood in the semi final.
Players: Kieran Blake, Gary Killion, Pauric McConnell, Alex Carpenter, Adam Keating, John Moran, Paddy McDonnell, Ciaran Casey, Ross Mooney, Jason Kemmy, Francis Tracey, Tomas Tiernan, Cillian Reilly, Cathal McConnell, Michael Lyness , Paul McCabe, Colin Foley, Patrick Flanaghan, Dylan Kenny, Ryan Keating, Shane Conroy
Under 17
Bective lost to Dunsany in the quarter final of the under 17 league.
Players: Dylan Kenny , Shane Farrell, Mark Geraghty, Cillian Reilly, Adam Keating Sean O'Brien, John Moran, Paul McCabe,Pauric McConnell, Ryan Keating, Alex Carpenter, Mark Lupo, Michael Lyness, Gary Killion,Dara Maguire, Tomas Tiernan, Ciaran Casey, Raymond Cahill, Francis Treacy, Ciaran Blake, Jason Kenny
Minor Team
This year's minor team was made up of mostly under 16s with only two players of minor age (Mark O'Brien and Kieran McConnell). With injuries and holidays we struggled to get a team together for minor league games in the early part of the year, and after suffering some heavy defeats we were not looking forward to the championship with any degree of confidence. We were drawn in the group as St Cuthbert's, Ballinabrackey and Moynalty. With our injuries cleared up and the holiday season over we put in some very good displays losing narrowly to both St Cuthbert's and Ballinabrackey before beating Moynalty in the final group game Unfortunately Moynalty got their revenge when they played us in the shield
final and were deserving winners on the day. Apart from the above mentioned O'Brien and McConnell, we had great performances throughout the campaign from Cathal Kennedy, Adam Keating, Paul McCabe and goalkeeper Raymond Cahill. Only two of our team were of minor age and with the injuries in the early part of the year, we were happy to be able to compete in this years league and championship. Hopefully the experience gained by our younger players will stand to them in next year's campaign. Selectors: Manus Tiernan, Dessie O'Brien and Vinno Keating. Tweet
