St Brigid's are bubbling away with near annual progression to the knockout stages of the junior football championship and an underage setup that is the envy of most. With brilliant facilities to boot, the Ballinacree club is certainly one on the up.

Having successfully negotiated the group stages of the Junior Football Championship in 2010, winning four of their five games in the process, St Brigid's exited the race for the Matthew Ginnity Cup when they were beaten by Ballivor at the quarter-final stage.
Since winning the Junior B title in 2006 with a final victory over Clonard, the Ballinacree men have reached the knockout stages of the A grade on three occasions. They made a very favourable impression in their first campaign back in the competition in 2007 when they advanced to the semi-finals where they were beaten by eventual winners Clann na nGael.
There was disappointment in 2008 when they failed to make the business end of the championship, but last year they achieved knockout action again before bowing out when suffering defeat against Longwood in a quarter-final. Longwood went on to claim the title.
George Plunkett acted as coach last year, but there was a new man at the helm this term in Gerry Murphy, with Gerard and Martin Briody and Michael Browne acting as selectors. When the junior championship draw was made in the spring St Brigid's must have been quite happy as they came out in group A which also included last year's beaten finalists Dunsany and the second string teams from Gaeil Colmcille, Duleek/Bellewstown, Simonstown Gaels and Skryne.
Ballinlough provided the setting for the championship opener against Gaeil Colmcille and the concession of a first half goal meant St Brigid's were only on level terms (0-4 to 1-1) at the interval. The Kells team edged ahead with a point early in the second period, but they failed to score again and the Ballinacree men steadily gained the upper hand to win by 0-13 to 1-2. Stephen Skelly, Philip Tuite, Oisin Kiernan and Brian Briody proved most effective.
The important thing was that St Brigid's had opened with a victory, especially with an extremely tough encounter to come against Dunsany whose level of consistency in the competition has been remarkable over several years without the reward of outright success.
This match took place at Moynalty where a below par second half showing proved to be their downfall as Dunsany won comfortably by 1-13 to 0-10. St Brigid's looked to have every chance at the change of ends when they led by 0-9 to 0-7 after recovering from a slow start, but Dunsany's Mark Brennan goaled early in the second period and with the men from the north-west of the county managing only a solitary point in this half they were never going to stay in contention.
A third round meeting with Duleek/Bellewstown at Bective offered a realistic chance to bounce back with a win and St Brigid's achieved it with a minimum margin (0-9 to 0-8) success, before goals proved decisive when they easily accounted for Skryne on a 4-8 to 0-9 score line at Kells.
A strong second half performance enabled St Brigid's to complete their group schedule on a winning note and claim a knockout place when they beat Simonstown by 2-12 to 0-7 at Dunderry. However, it was all to play for at the break when the Navan men held a slender 0-5 to 0-4 advantage.
Brigid's needed to up the tempo in the second half and that's exactly what they did as they limited Simonstown to only two points and added 2-8 themselves. Goals from Fergal Hennessy and Peter Moore helped to put plenty of daylight between the sides on a day when Hennessy with 1-2 and Killian Kiernan with four points were the leading scorers.
When all was said and done in group A Dunsany were on top of the pile with a maximum haul of 10 points and St Brigid's were safely through in second place on eight from a possible 10. Duleek/Bellewstown finished on six points, Simonstown were on four, Skryne had two and Gaeil Colmcille occupied the basement position after losing all their matches.
The quarter-final against Ballivor at Athboy proved to be a step too far for St Brigid's against a team that would later lose to Ballinabrackey in the final. The concession of goals to Killian Canavan and Kevin Kelly in the opening 10 minutes proved a big double blow, but the Ballinacree men deserve credit for the manner in which they battled away.
They notched 1-3 late in the first half and trailed by only 1-5 to 2-5 at the interval, before narrowing the deficit to two points early in the second period. However, that was as good as it got and they failed to hit the target again as a strong Ballivor side pushed clear to win by 3-7 to 1-6.
St Brigid's will hope that they can make further progress next year as they attempt to bring the junior title to the club which enjoyed a highly significant day last year with the official opening of their new clubrooms at Ballinacree.
Enjoying the benefits of such good facilities can only be helpful in the preparation of teams and the club deserve the highest praise for the dedicated work they put into the successful project. The opening ceremony was performed by Meath County Committee chairman Barney Allen. 
Historic victory for Inny Gaels' youngsters
The Inny Gaels' under-12 team demonstrated plenty of potential this year and they enjoyed a memorable and successful outing at Pairc Tailteann when they defeated Drumconrath/Meath Hill by 1-12 to 2-2 in the Division 5 final. It was an historic match because it was the last under-12 county title to be decided after a decision by the powers that be in Croke Park to put an end to competitive action in this age group.
The talented Inny Gaels' side worked their way into a useful position at the interval by scoring points with consistency to lead by 0-7 to 1-0, but they were rocked back at the start of the second period when Drumconrath/Meath Hill gave themselves a big boost by notching their second goal through full-forward Robert McEntaggert.
However, the response to that setback from the Inny Gaels' players was very positive and they took control of the match again for the last 15 minutes. Influential corner-forward Shane Gibney, who was their leading marksman with 1-2, scored their only goal and that was sufficient to seal a seven-point victory.
Oisin Smith and Ben Reilly were particularly impressive in the Inny Gaels' defence, Kevin Gilsenan and Dylan Tighe proved effective at midfield and Sean Reilly, Joseph Blake and Gibney showed up to good effect in attack.
The Inny Gaels team and substitutes in the final were - Ciaran Boylan; Cillian Burke, Ben Reilly, Oisin Smith; Robert McGivney, Conan Smith, TJ Tully; Kevin Gilsenan (0-1), Dylan Tighe (0-3); Jack Doyle, Sean Reilly (0-3), Darren Gibney; Dylan Scully, Joseph Blake (0-3), Shane Gibney (1-2). Subs - Matthew Corrigan, Shane Moore, Dara Moore, Jamie McGee, Cian Tully, Harry Reilly, Alan Moore, Emmet Manning, Michael Sheridan.
The under-12s made it a double triumph when they defeated Slane in the Summer Shield final, again demonstrating the benefits to be gained from the valuable work being done with the young players in the club.
There was also success for Inny Gaels at under-13 level when they beat Slane in the Division 4 final, while in the under-16 grade they won the Division 6 crown. The minors enjoyed a progressive run in the Division 2 FL, but it ended in disappointment when they lost the final to the Ballivor/Longwood combination, St Finian's.
Later in the year there was also disappointment for the Inny Gaels' under-21 panel when they lost the 'B' final to St Patrick's by 2-5 to 0-16 at Rathkenny. Nonetheless, reaching the decider was a fine achievement in its own right. 

Ballinacree National School reaches two finals
The boys and girls from Ballinacree National School enjoyed the thrill of lining out at Pairc Tailteann in the Cumann na mBunscol finals in November this year and there was success for the boys who defeated Ardcath in a highly entertaining Division 6 decider.
This game produced an extraordinary amount of scores, with Ballinacree winning by 10-10 to 5-8. They included several players who had lined out in last year's successful campaign and this was the school's third Division 6 title annexation in four attempts. That represents an outstanding level of consistency.
Joint captain Kevin Gilsenan and Dylan Tighe, who teamed up at midfield, were both in tremendous scoring form for the winners, notching 4-2 each, while Joseph Blake contributed 2-3. The remaining points were scored by Lisa Mullen, who got two, and Jack Blake.
Ballinacree led by 5-4 to 3-5 at the interval and added a further 5-6 in the second half to be well clear of a gallant Ardcath team at the finish. It was a happy moment for joint captains Kevin Gilsenan and Alan Moore when they accepted the cup.


The Ballinacree NS team was - S Moore; M Sheridan, C Burke, O Smith; D Tighe (4-2), K Gilsenan (4-2); C Tully, Joseph Blake (2-3), A Moore. Subs - A Sullivan, K Flynn, L Mullen (0-2), Jack Blake (0-1), D Gibney, D Plunkett, K Halpin, C Browne, O Connell.


The Ballinacree girls did well to reach the Division 5 final, but they lost by 0-2 to 8-3 against a strong Dunsany team which had a real star in Megan Thynne who contributed a sensational 6-2.
Dunsany were well on the way to victory when they led by 4-2 to 0-0 at the interval, but Ballinacree battled bravely and Lisa Mullen got them off the mark with a point on the restart. Their other point was registered by Keady Flynn near the end and they were particularly well served by Ciara Browne, Lisa Mullen and Flynn.


The Ballinacree NS team was - S Halpin; R Gilsenan, C Browne; L Mullen (0-1), K Flynn (0-1); A Connell, A O'Dowd. Sub - C McCabe for Halpin. Tweet

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