Although such an outright triumph did not look likely earlier in the campaign, Skryne came good in the home straight to take the Meath Senior Football Championship title for the 12th time. After living in the shadow of neighbours Dunshaughlin for a few years, one of the Royal County's most famous clubs emerged to claim a place in the sun again. Skryne has the proud distinction of being the longest serving senior football club in the Royal County, staying in the top ranks since 1938. Over the years a number of great players wore the royal blue jersey and all of Meath's seven All-Ireland SFC winning sides had a Skryne clubman aboard. The heroic deeds of footballers like Paddy O'Brien, Micheál O'Brien, Brian Smyth, Tom O'Brien, Liam Hayes, Colm O'Rourke, Trevor Giles and John McDermott will be well documented when Skryne's history book is completed. But, like in so many club, there are other stalwarts who represented the county in leaner years and players who were brilliant clubmen without making good at a higher level. Skryne won the Meath SFC title for the first time in 1940 but, like most areas, in the county, the playing of Gaelic football around Tara dates back to the early days of the last century. There was a club called Kilanna Shamrocks around them time but in those years a lot of teams came and went. After that teams called Skryne, Oberstown, Rathfeigh and Painstown took the field and a bizarre incident involving an Oberstown team in the early 1920s is well worth mentioning. Members of the team were forced, by the black and tans, to wipe out an 'Up the IRA' sign from a road around where Swan's pub is now and instead paint 'God save the Queen.' The Skryne club owes a large debt of gratitude to Fr Michael McManus who helped in a big way to establish them as a major force during his short stay as a curate in the parish, from 1931 to '35. During his time in the Tara area, Skryne, donning the now familiar blue and white won the IFC title for the first time in 1933. Also in 1933 Meath gained their first ever national title in football with a National League triumph and Skryne were well represented. The legendary Tony Donnelly and Packy Mooney (grandfather of Trevor Giles) were on the winning team and Pat Donnelly was among the substitutes. As well as being the club with the longest unbroken senior football service in Meath, Skryne also have the oldest rural playing grounds in the county. Fr McManus helped the fledgling club get the present pitch back in 1935 before his transfer to Longwood and the following year the new facility was officially opened and called Fr McManus Park. The IFC was won for the second time in 1937 and have been in the top ranks since. Skryne really took the Meath scene by storm in the '40s. They gained SFC honours for the first time in 1940 and followed that up with further successes in '41, '44, '45, '47 and '48 as well as winning the Feis Cup six times. Curiously Skryne gained nearly half of their current haul of SFC titles in an eight-year period in the '40s. Since then they have appeared in plenty of finals but there were a good few more defeats than victories. Although reaching eight deciders in the '50s, only one of them culminated in a win. That was in 1954 when Kells Harps were beaten in the final and Skryne became the second holders of the Keegan Cup. Skryne lost to Syddan in the finals of 1951, '52 and '56 and to the all conquering Navan O'Mahonys side of the time in the 1957, '58 and '59 deciders. But one Skryne player got a medal after the '57 final. Micheál O'Brien turned in such a brilliant display that the county board honoured him with a special medal. Skryne have another unique distinction which they would probably be better off without. The 1965 SFC against Kilbride was abandoned by Syddan referee Seamus Duff, who ordered Martin Quinn off the pitch but the player refused to leave. Skryne were subsequently awarded the title at a county board meeting. David Carty was the captain of the blue and white brigade and the only winning skipper not to receive the Keegan Cup immediately after the final. Remarkably after that, despite regular appearances Skryne did not their hands on the coveted trophy until 1992 and they retained it the following year before being foiled of a third in succession by Seneschalstown in 1994. The '90s was a very good decade for the club as they became county champions for the 11th time in 1999. With Colm O'Rourke and Liam Hayes having hung up their boots, John McDermott, Trevor Giles and Mick O'Dowd became Skryne's most influential players and they spearheaded the 1999 triumph which was gained at the expense of Dunshaughlin. That was the first SFC final appearance for Skryne in a few years without an O'Rourke aboard. Ironically Dunshaughlin had two on their team, Brian and Tiernan, sons of former Skryne player Fergus. Normal service was restored for the 2004 success with Felim O'Rourke, son of Blues stalwart of a good few years ago Padraig, in goals for the home run to the title after being an accurate forward in the early rounds. Eight of the Skryne team which started in the final against Simonstown Gaels were on the team five years earlier. After Eamonn Giles, the 1999 boss, Martin Frayne and Dessie Finnerty had been at the helm; Mick O'Dowd took over as player/manager for 2004. "At the end of last year Dessie Finnerty decided to step down because of work commitments. We were left without a manager and a few people suggested that I might take over. With nobody rushing for the job, I decided to give it a shot" said the 1999 winning captain before last October's final. O'Dowd had Ray Mooney, the club secretary who has contributed so much to the Skryne cause down the years, and Waterford-native Martin Kennedy as his selectors. Kennedy, the principal of Skryne National School, was also the team trainer. In 2003 Skryne won all of their seven group games before losing to Dunshaughlin at the quarter-final stage. But it was a very different campaign in 2004. After suffering two defeats, to Trim and Navan O'Mahonys, and drawing with Simonstown Gaels, O'Dowd's charges were in danger of not making it through to the last eight. "When we lost to O'Mahonys, we knew we knew we could not afford to be beaten again and that probably suited us. The new system of the two groups of eight does not have the same intensity in the early rounds with teams well aware that they can slip up once or twice and still be in the hunt for the title. But there comes a point when there is no room for error," said O'Dowd. "The extra matches give team managers and selectors the opportunity to try out different things" he added. In 2004 Skryne played twice as many games to reach the final than in 2001 when they had just five before the decider against Dunshaughlin. Skryne's 2004 Meath SFC campaign began with a 0-9 to 1-7 defeat by Trim in a Thursday evening clash at Pairc Tailteann. Both sides were fancied to emerge from their group and the question as to how the result would mean the following August was posed in a report of the championship opener in one of the local papers. Although two of the more fancied SFC contenders were in opposition, the game was very low key. It was only April and there was a long road ahead. "Although the evening was mild enough, there was no danger of getting overheated," the same report said. Felim O'Rourke sent over four points, all from frees, and the corner forward did twice as well when contributing 0-8 in the 0-15 to 1 -12 draw with Simonstown eight days later. Nobody in the small attendance at the Brews Hill venue could have visualised it but they were watching a 'trailer' for the final and the game was livelier than Skryne's opening encounter. Skryne had a bad first half and when they trailed by 0-3 to 1-7 at the break it was suggested that they might not qualify for the last eight. But they did well to come back strongly after losing two forwards through injury. Allan Carty was forced to retire after 17 minutes and Mick O'Dowd did not reappear after the break. James Gibbons made his mark with four points from play. After a defeat and a draw, Skryne were relieved to get a first win under belts and that came at Dunshaughlin when Dunboyne were defeated by 2-11 to 0-12. It was 1-3 to 0-5 at the beak with Ken O'Connell netting the first goal and Allan Carty hit three fine points in the second period during which James Gibbons found the net. 'Skryne losing race to reach last eight' suggested a headline after the disappointing 0-10 to 1-13 loss to Navan O'Mahonys in July. In that game Mick O'Dowd started at midfield alongside John McDermott with John Quinn at full back, Brian Smyth at centre back and David Rogan at wing forward. O'Dowd was switched to the front ranks and shot five points that night and shot five points. There was still some shuffling to be done before the winning pack was found. The line out was much closer to the title winning format for the 1-13 to 0-6 win over Gaeil Colmcille in the fifth round and two weeks later Skryne gained a very important 0-13 to 0-12 win over Dunshaughlin at Ratoath. With Mick O'Dowd again impressing and midfielders Trevor Giles and John McDermott getting among the scorers, the Blues looked unstoppable in the opening 25 minutes and led by 0-8 to 0-5 at the break. Eventually they had to rely on a late O'Dowd point, his sixth of the evening, to secure a precious win. A 2-13 to 1-5 win over Ballinlough was more than enough to clinch a place in the quarter-finals where Cortown were conquered on a 1-13 to 1-8 scoreline. Mick O'Dowd and Jamie Jordan shared nine points with the latter sending over five and Allan Carty blasted in an important goal after 11 minutes. "The team in blue and white showed well enough all over the pitch to suggest that they will not be easily dislodged from the title race" suggested a report of that tie. Although Dunshaughlin were favourites for the 'semi' clash, Skryne were still standing after 140 minutes of exciting action. It was 1-11 to 0-14 after extra time when the curtain came down on the first instalment. Mick O'Dowd scored 1-3 and Trevor Giles contributed 0-5 but after having the upper hand for much of the game, some felt that Skryne missed the final boat. But they had two big performances left in the tank which was to gather up strong steam in the home run. The unthinkable happened when Trevor Giles was dismissed for the first time in his glorious career, being shown a straight red card by Jimmy Henry, near the end of the first half in the replay. That dismissal came seconds after Ray Maloney was sent off on receipt of a second yellow card. However, with John McDermott becoming more prominent and Mick O'Dowd leading by example, Skryne shook off the setback to win by 0-15 to 1-7. After trailing narrowly, by 0-6 to 1-4, at the break, they hit some delightful scores in the second half. Young substitute Kevin Mulvaney put over three terrific efforts and his side finished with a flurry of shots between the posts. After initially being handed down a four weeks suspension, Giles had his case referred back to the Meath county board by the provincial body and at a specially convened meeting in Pairc Tailteann on the Friday night before the county final the decision of four days earlier was rescinded after oral evidence was accepted, giving the twice national Footballer of the Year the green light to play in his sixth Keegan Cup decider. Although Giles had a quiet enough outing, he figured on the winning team on Meath club football's biggest day for the fourth time. Mick O'Dowd gave Skryne the lead after a minute and the roving full forward turned in a 'man of the match' display as he also claimed his fourth SFC medal. Giles hit his only score from a free just inside the 45 metre line after four minutes and Skryne were never subsequently headed. O'Dowd scored 1-4 with the goal after six minutes being finished to the net on six minutes after Allan Carty had an attempt kept out by opposing 'keeper Ronan Kenny. Hitting seven scores in a row during their title winning burst, Skryne led by 1-7 to 0-2 at the break. After the goal O'Dowd slotted over a long range free and then came four fine points from play. The sequence was started by James Gibbons, then Jamie Jordan got on target and O'Dowd contributed two brilliant scores from the right. Skryne also managed to add two points but it was more than enough and it finished 1-9 to 0-7. Team captain John Quinn moved up from centre back for his side's eighth point and substitute Paul O'Donnell completed the winning total. It was a disappointing final for neutrals but Skryne hardly cared as they celebrated again. Captain Quinn was sharing in a big Skryne triumph for the first time and he seemed to thank everyone in the parish in one of the longest acceptance speeches since the Keegan Cup was first handed over 51 years ago. The players ("a great bunch of lads"), Ray Mooney, Martin Kennedy, Mick O'Dowd, the captain's wife and children, physio Lil Fox, tea and sandwiches woman Mary Ryan, Jim Gibbons, the sponsors, the supporters, the referee and Simonstown were also praised. Mick O'Dowd became the first recipient of the Colum Cromwell trophy after being named 'man of the match.' How fitting that the late Colum's two clubs should figure in the first final for the trophy to be presented and wife Kay made the presentation. "I am proud to receive this trophy as Colum was a gentleman and much loved in Skryne, It's a great honour for me" said the successful player/manager. "It's great to win another title. It has been a difficult year for me, being the player and also the manager. Thursday night was the cut off point for me, after that I was just a player and just worried about my own performance" said O'Dowd. The full forward singled out John Quinn for special praise and praised the defence in general and the midfielders who dropped back in support. "It was a huge boost to have Trevor but it was only justice that he was available. It was probably our best performance of the year" he said. It did not look likely a few weeks earlier but Skryne were strongest in the home straight and emerged as worthy champions. The SFC title winning team was : Felim O'Rourke; David Rogan, David Donnelly, Gordon Geraghty; Martin Mulvaney, John Quinn, Nicky Hamill; Trevor Giles, John McDermott; Jamie Jordan, James Gibbons, Brian Smyth; Allan Carty. Mick O'Dowd, Kevin Mulvaney. Subs - Paul O'Donnell for Kevin Mulvaney. Andrew Curry for Geraghty, James Looby for Jordan, Ciaran Kennedy for Carty, also on panel, Adrian Flanagan, Brian Byrne, Peter Mooney, Ken O'Connell, David Harrington, Vinny Reilly, Adrian Tuite, David Lynch, Cian Byrne. Tweet

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