It's fast approaching two decades since Ballinabrackey last won the Meath Junior Football Championship and the Offaly-border club possesses a burning desire to lift some important silverware and start to move up the footballing ladder. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be in 2004 for one of the more fancied teams for championship honours and the quest for a first junior title since 1985 goes on. With former star player Seamus Brennan in the managerial hot seat there had to be hope that his vast experience and knowledge of the game would do the trick and that Ballinabrackey would mount a very serious and prolonged challenge for honours. But it was unfortunate that a combination of injuries and players heading abroad robbed them of vital personnel during the campaign and that undoubtedly played a very significant part in their failure to get out of their section. They were drawn in a tricky looking Group C of the Junior Championship, a section that also contained the 2003 beaten finalists Ratoath, a Dunsany side which has been threatening to make the breakthrough at this level for a number of years now, Drumbaragh, Navan O'Mahonys' useful second string, Moynalty, Moynalvey and Kilbride. With Drumbaragh providing the opposition in the first of seven matches in the qualifying stages, Ballinabrackey were hotly fancied to open their championship campaign on a winning note, but that's not how it turned out at Kildalkey as the sides finished level on 2-9 each. A late Christy Carry goal rescued the north Meath side and it wasn't the sort of opening to the campaign that Ballinabrackey manager Brennan would have hoped for or expected. With a point dropped against one of the less fancied teams in the section, 'Brackey faced a very testing second round assignment against a Ratoath team which had gone all the way to the final the previous autumn, only to lose to a very talented Wolfe Tones' side. It was a close match at Dunsany, but Ratoath shaded the verdict with a 2-11 to 2-9 victory and the pressure was very much on the losers who still had only a point to show for their efforts after two championship outings. Their third round assignment offered up another very tricky test against the 2002 beaten finalists Dunsany (who had eliminated them at the quarter-final stage in '03), but Brennan's men responded as he would have wished and recorded a surprisingly comfortable nine-point win (1-13 to 1-4) at Longwood to give their qualification prospects a timely shot in the arm. By this stage O'Mahonys were topping the section on a maximum six points from their three outings. Moynalvey and Dunsany were tied together on four points each, Moynalvey after two games and Dunsany after three. 'Brackey were next with three points from as many games after a very mixed bag of results which yielded a win, a draw and a defeat and they were followed by Ratoath and Kilbride on two, with Drumbaragh next thanks to that point gained in the opening round and Moynalty pointless. The win against a well-regarded Dunsany team should have provided 'Brackey with a major confidence booster and few would have betted against them as they prepared to face Kilbride in the fourth round at Dunsany. But they were in very serious bother at half-time when they trailed by seven points (0-5 to 1-9) and although they rallied in the second-half, which they won by 1-6 to 1-1, 'Brackey had left themselves with too steep a mountain to climb. In the end Kilbride edged through on a 2-10 to 1-11 score line and the Offaly-border side were in big trouble. However, with the pressure firmly on them, they responded again, this time by narrowly defeating O'Mahonys at Longwood. But they had to pull out all the stops before recording a 0-11 to 0-10 victory against a weakened Navan side. 'Brackey worked their way into a favourable position by the interval as they led by 0-8 to 0-4 but, to their credit, the town side rallied and Brennan and his team were relieved to have that point to spare at the finish. It was back to Longwood for another crucial assignment in the sixth round, this time against Moynalvey. And, maintaining the inconsistent nature of their campaign in general, Ballinabrackey were beaten and were forced to wave farewell to any hopes of reaching the business end of the competition. Moynalvey, a club that was playing in the senior grade not too many years ago, won by 1-11 to 1-8 to maintain their interest in the championship. The winners opened up a 0-6 to 0-1 lead early on, but 'Brackey recovered very well and were ahead by 1-6 to 0-7 at half-time. However, the fact than they managed to add a paltry two points in the entire second period speaks for itself and that was never likely to be enough. But there was still hope as referee Martin Ennis played seven minutes of injury time, but a missed penalty during this prolonged spell ruined any chance of achieving a vital win. After six rounds 'Brackey had managed only two victories and a draw and, on just five points, were out of contention. That meant that their final round assignment against Moynalty was of no significance to them and overall it was a campaign that offered hope at the outset, but delivered disappointment. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of their last Junior Championship success and, after enduring such a lengthy barren spell in the quest to step back up to the intermediate ranks, there will no doubt be a renewed effort by all concerned to put the record straight. But the 2004 championship campaign has to go down as a less than happy experience overall. "It was a big disappointment not to reach the knockout stages of the Junior Championship," said club chairman Ger Thompson as he reflected on the 2004 campaign. "We started the championship with a draw against Drumbaragh. We were a bit down after that game and then lost to Ratoath. "But we beat Dunsany very easily which was a very good result. As I saw it, we played to our potential in that match, but the reality is that we didn't perform to that level before or after that game. "We thought we would have a bigger panel, but we were badly hit by a combination of injuries and players going to the United States. We could have been without as many as eight or 10 lads in all and that's just too many. "Aidan Flynn went to Chicago and missed most of the championship and Emmett Finn missed two games when he went. We lost Barry O'Connor through injury and Stephen Goonery went to the US in June. He would most likely have been fighting to replace Barry in the team. John Curry also missed games and he is one of our most experienced players." Ballinabrackey supporters of a less recent vintage will have fond memories of the highly talented Seamus Brennan wearing the club colours with great distinction and he was the man entrusted with looking after the fortunes of the junior side for 2004. A feature of the early stages of his reign in the hot seat was an All-County 'A' League Div. 3 victory over senior side Gaeil Colmcille and, indeed, as Thompson reflected, Ballinabrackey tend to fare quite well against teams from higher up the footballing ladder than them, particularly intermediate combinations. "Seamus was one of the club's star players of the past and he received good support from the players, but it just didn't go right for us. However, we have just got to look to the future now. There's no other way. "We have good young talent coming through the ranks and won the Minor Football League Div. 3 Shield title this year along with Clonard. "It's a great club, with hard-working people who put in a great deal of effort. We have a very nice ground and good facilities and the work is certainly going in at under-age level. "We also have to look at the new people coming into the area. A lot of houses are changing hands and there's a good influx of people." It didn't quite happen for Ballinabrackey in the Junior Championship in 2004, but with a combination of experienced players and some very useful youngsters coming up through the ranks they have to remain hopeful that that elusive junior title will come their way in the very near future. John Curry and Trevor Bannon, two men who played key roles in Meath's All-Ireland JFC triumph in 2003, as well as Aidan Coffey, represent much of that experienced backbone which is vitally important to any team. And what of the ageless Gerry Coffey who continued to serve the club with such tremendous loyalty in '04? He is approaching 40 and was part of the Ballinabrackey set-up that lifted the Junior Championship title in '85. He isn't getting any younger, but wouldn't it be amazing if he was still involved when 'Brackey managed to retain the title. Stranger things have happened. Tweet

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