Walterstown's disappointment at losing a second successive SFC quarter-final was tempered by the realisation that they have improved beyond recognition under Mick O'Brien's guidance in the past two seasons.

While a return to the glory days still seems a long way off, Walterstown are clearly heading in the right direction under their highly successful manager Mick O'Brien who led them to the last eight of the SFC for the second year in-a-row in 2011.
Since returning to the helm last year, O'Brien - who steered the Blacks to five Keegan Cups and two Leinster club titles during a golden spell between 1978 and '84 - has revived Walterstown's flagging fortunes and turned them into a serious championship force once again.

"It's amazing the difference he had made since he came back. Lads are calling him Mourinho because he seems to have the Midas touch," O'Brien's assistant John McCarthy joked.
"Before Mick took over, we had been fighting relegation for three years and were really struggling. But he has put the pride back into the jersey and got things going again. The improvement in the team has been very noticeable."

McCarthy, however, is keen to stress that Walterstown's change in fortunes hasn't been all down to the manager.
"It's easy to say that Mick has come in and waved a magic wand, but ultimately it's the players who have turned it around. They have put in a huge effort over the last two years and they are the ones who have made it happen," says McCarthy, who won All-Ireland minor and under 21 medals with Meath in 1990 and '93 respectively, and was a member of the last Walterstown team to contest a SFC final in 1991 when they were beaten Gaeil Colmcille.

"To qualify for the knockout stages after losing our first two games was a good achievement. We produced a great performance against Skryne to get our championship back on track and were one of only four teams from last year to reach the quarter-finals again. We can take a lot of encouragement from that," adds John, who is a brother of midfielder Charles.

Under the guidance of O'Brien, McCarthy and fellow selectors Neil Reynolds and Pat Callaghan, Walterstown looked to be staring at an early exit and a possible relegation battle after succumbing to St. Patrick's and Dunboyne in their first two outings in Group C. But back-to-back victories over county champions Skryne and Duleek/Bellewstown saw them squeeze through to a quarter-final meeting with Wolfe Tones. However, their hopes of atoning for last year's defeat to Dunboyne at the same stage were dashed by a rampant Tones side who crashed home three goals in a 14-point win.

Walterstown made a bright start to their championship opener against St. Pat's with points from Tom Walsh, Charles McCarthy (two) and Alban Crosbie easing them into an early 0-4 to 0-1 lead. But the east Meath side hit the next six scores to lead by three before Michael Clarke, Crosbie and Mark McCormack replied to leave the sides level on 0-7 apiece at the break.

Crosbie and Walsh had the Blacks in front twice on the restart, but St. Pat's then struck an unanswered 1-3 - the goal coming from Niall Mooney - to take a firm grip on proceedings. McCarthy and Walsh clawed back points for Mick O'Brien's men, but these scores weren't enough to save them from a 0-11 to 1-2 defeat.
Gary Watters' haul of 1-4 proved decisive as Dunboyne inflicted a second defeat on Walterstown at Ratoath. The Dublin-border side led by 0-6 to 0-3 at half-time and it looked all over bar the shouting when Watters' goal helped them to a 1-10 to 0-5 lead at the end of the third quarter.

But Walterstown didn't give up and, after points from Charles McCarthy (two) and Mark Reynolds had closed the gap to five points, Cathal Hennelly placed Tom Walsh for a well-taken goal on the hour mark. The margin was suddenly down to two points, 1-10 to 1-8, but despite their best efforts, Walterstown were unable to score a winning goal in the three minutes of injury-time that were allotted.
With no points on the board, Walterstown were under real pressure to take something from their local derby clash with Keegan Cup holders Skryne at a wet and windy Dunsany. Rising to the challenge, they scored a surprise 0-12 to 1-5 victory with six points in 12 second half minutes being central to their success.

The Blacks recovered from a poor start to lead by 0-5 to 1-1 at the interval, but a Paddy O'Rourke '45 had Skryne level within two minutes of the restart. The sides were still deadlocked after 41 minutes, but Walterstown then enjoyed a purple patch which yielded points from Tom Walsh ('45), Alban Crosbie (two), Anwar Khan, Alan Reynolds and Charles McCarthy.
This scoring burst propelled them into a 0-12 to 1-3 lead, and while Paddy O'Rourke and Mark Battersby pulled back points for Skryne, the underdogs weren't to be denied.

Buoyed by their first win, a depleted Walterstown side beat Duleek/Bellewstown in their final Group C fixture at Dunshaughlin to secure a quarter-final place at the expense of both Skryne and St. Pat's on the basis of their superior score difference. Just like their game against Skryne, the Blacks were slow out of the starting blocks and trailed Duleek/Bellewstown by 0-0 to 0-3 after six minutes.

But after county minor David Donnellan raised their first white flag, Walterstown quickly took control and took a 2-5 to 0-4 lead into the break thanks to goals from Alban Crosbie and Michael Clarke.
Further scores from Donnellan and corner back John Geoghegan extended Walterstown's lead to 2-12 to 0-8 before two late Duleek/Bellewstown points left the final score at 2-12 to 0-10 - just enough of a cushion to see Mick O'Brien's charges through to the last eight.

Sadly for Walterstown, that was as good as it got in 2011 as Wolfe Tones ended their championship interests with an impressive 3-14 to 0-9 victory at Pairc Tailteann. The Blacks never recovered from the concession of quick-fire goals from Stephen Sheppard and Fiachra Ward which left them trailing by 0-2 to 2-3 at the end of the first quarter.
The Tones went on to lead by 2-6 to 0-5 at the break and when Cian Ward netted in the 40th minute to make it 3-12 to 0-7, Walterstown's race was run.

Despite the manner of that defeat, Walterstown could still take many positives from the year, including their mid-table finish in Division 1 of the 'A' league and an appearance in the delayed 2010 Feis Cup final which they lost to Oldcastle by 1-5 to 1-7 on a heavy Moynalty pitch in March.
A soccer-style Alban Crosbie goal had the Blacks ahead by 1-3 to 1-2 at the break, but they faded in the second half as Oldcastle came back to claim the spoils. This year's Feis Cup campaign proved to be short-lived, with intermediate side Dunderry knocking out Walterstown in the first round.

In the JFC 'B', Walterstown's second team got off to a whirlwind start with wins over St. Colmcille's. St. Patrick's and Dunderry, but subsequent losses to Moynalty, Donaghmore/Ashbourne, Ratoath and St. Vincent's put paid to their hopes of reaching the latter stages.
The big question as 2012 approaches is: can Walterstown keep the progress going? Their assistant manager seems to think so: "We've good young players like David Donnellan, Colm McGrane, Cormac Madden and Stefan McDonnell coming through and that bodes well for the future. We don't have a huge pool of players like some of the other senior clubs, and we're still relying on the same few families to a certain extent.

"But there is a good platform there now, Mick O'Brien has instilled a belief in the players that they are good enough to compete with the best and we hope to push on from here."
Walterstown lined out as follows in their SFC quarter-final against Wolfe Tones: R. Barry; J. Geoghegan, D. Kennedy, R. Reynolds; P.Reynolds, T. Walsh, C. O'Sullivan; A. Reynolds, J. Farrelly; M. McCormack (0-2, C. McCarthy (0-2), D. Reynolds; D. Donnellan (0-1), A. Crosbie (0-2, fs), M. Clarke (0-2).


U14 Summer Shield success

Walterstown turned around a heavy championship defeat to Blackhall Gaels to claim the Summer Shield title at Walterstown, 3-19 to 2-4.
The Blacks held a twelve point half time lead and with Vinny Murphy and Brian O'Connell scoring at will went on to win by eighteen points. Walterstown scorers were Vinny Murphy (2-5), Conor Grogan (1-2), Brian O'Connell (0-6), Sean Irwin (0-2), Neil Freeman, Andrew Moran, Nathan Dempsey and Jack Hennelly (0-1) each.

Karl McCabe was brilliant in goals, Conor Cullen and Alan Wall were outstanding in defence while Kashif Ali dominated midfield. Walterstown were managed by former Meath great Martin O'Connell and Martin Wall. After the game Mick Ryan presented the shield to Waltersown captain Luke Bedford.

Walterstown - Karl McCabe, Conor Cullen, Mark Foy, Alan Wall, Luke Bedford, Ronan McGrane, Andrew Moran, Kashif Ali, Sean Irwin, Nathan Dempsey, Conor Grogan, Vinny Murphy, Brian O'Connell. Tweet

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