St. Mary's would undoubtedly have liked to mark the 25th anniversary of their memorable Junior Football Championship triumph in 1979 by regaining the title this year, but it wasn't to be as they failed to reach the knockout stages after a generally disappointing campaign. With Liam Smith, surely the finest player ever to line out with the east Meath side, in the role of coach hopes must have been quite high that his know-how and experience gained as a player would not alone steer them towards the business end of the battle for the Matthew Ginnity Cup, but that they might manage to go all the way and achieve outright success. Smith, who was part of the Mary's team that achieved that junior success a quarter century earlier, was an outstanding forward who tallied an enormous amount of scores during his club career, while on the inter-county scene he lined out at left half-forward when Meath defeated Monaghan in the Centenary Cup final in 1984. Mary's fans of a more mature vintage will recall his goal from a free which earned his side a draw with Meath Hill in the '79 junior final, before they went on to win the replay with ease. Smith and the Mary's players must have felt they had a very realistic chance of achieving goal number one and qualifying for the knockout stages of the 2004 championship when the draw was made. They were drawn in Group B, a section that also included St. Vincent's, who had won the Junior B Championship in sensational fashion the previous autumn, Meath Hill, Moylagh, the second string teams from Summerhill and Dunboyne, as well as St. Michael's and Kilmainham. And when they opened up with a first round victory over Moylagh at Kilberry, there appeared to be every possibility that they were heading out on a journey that would take them through to the quarter-finals and, hopefully, beyond. Cormac Drew scored 2-9 when these teams clashed in the championship two years earlier and, while he didn't reach those heights this time around; his handy personal contribution of 1-4 played a significant role in a very comfortable 1-12 to 0-7 victory. Yet, Mary's were rather slow to get into their stride and Moylagh led by 0-4 to 0-1 early on, but Drew's goal helped Mary's to find their feet and they were ahead by the minimum (1-4 to 0-6) at half-time. They upped the tempo with the wind at their backs in the second half and, despite a missed Paul Watters penalty, they were eight points to the good at the finish. Every team likes to open the championship on a winning note to set the right tone and, with that surprisingly clear cut success under their belt, confidence should have been quite high as the competition started to gather momentum. However, St. Vincent's ensured that it wasn't going to be back-to-back victories for Mary's when the Ardcath men held them to a draw (0-12 to Mary's 1-9) in the second round at Bellewstown and the Donore side knew they needed to take something from their next outing - a tricky assignment against Meath Hill at Syddan. The north Meath team were without a number of regulars, but they still managed to win as they maintained their unbeaten start to the competition. Mary's raced clear early on, but Meath Hill gradually settled and were a point ahead at the interval. However, Smith's men soon took a grip on proceedings again and pushed ahead by 0-9 to 0-6 after the change of ends, but a goal from Paddy Owens proved vital for the Hill as they won by 1-10 to 0-10. With three points in the bag from as many outings, the pressure was firmly on Mary's to deliver in their next couple of outings if they were to keep their challenge for a place in the knockout stages on track and they responded as Smith would have liked by recording two very comfortable victories which suggested that they were certainly heading in the right direction. Kilmainham provided the opposition in a fourth round match at Rathkenny and, knowing that a win was a must, Mary's scored freely and had all of 20 points to spare at the final whistle as they won on a 5-12 to 0-7 score line. Bective was the setting for a clash against Summerhill's second team in the fifth round and Mary's easily justified their standing as hot favourites with a runaway victory. They scored points for fun on that occasion and added three goals as well to triumph by 16 points (3-19 to 2-6). After scoring a massive 8-31 in two matches, it was clear that a third huge tally in succession was highly improbable as they prepared for a very tricky sixth round showdown against St. Michael's at Rathkenny, but nobody could have predicted just how little they would score against the Carlanstown-Kilbeg combination for whom the great Martin O'Connell made a brief appearance as a substitute. Amazingly, a team that had scored with such consistency in the two previous rounds, failed to hit the target at all in the first-half against St. Michael's and were in serious trouble at the interval when adrift by 0-0 to 0-9. It could only get better in the second period and it did as Mary's raised three white flags, but with Daithi Regan helping himself to eight points over the hour, Michael's won easily by 0-13 to 0-3. That left Mary's with three wins, a draw and two defeats going into the final round of the qualifying campaign. Meath Hill topped the division with 10 points, followed by Michael's on nine, Dunboyne on eight and Mary's and Moylagh on seven each. Dunboyne provided the opposition in the seventh round at Skryne and the St. Peter's men guaranteed themselves of at least a play-off for a place in the quarter-finals when earning a 0-10 to 0-8 victory and thus inflicting a third defeat of the group campaign on Mary's. The Dunboyne men did most of the damage in the opening half when they built up a five-point (0-8 to 0-3) interval advantage and though Mary's improved in a second-half which they managed to win by 0-5 to 0-2, it just wasn't enough. Despite recording a couple of the highest tallied of the competition in those matches against Kilmainham and Summerhill, Mary's simply didn't do enough overall to make it to the last eight and that was undoubtedly a big disappointment for a club that would dearly love to taste Junior Championship glory again. "We fancied our chances when we saw the group we were in for the Junior Championship," recalled club PRO Pat Lenehan. "We made a very good start by beating Moylagh who we looked on as one of the stronger teams in our section. "That was the opening we wanted. You are always looking towards winning your first game. But then we only managed a draw against St. Vincent's and were lucky to draw. That was a very disappointing result for us, a bit of a downer. "Then we lost to Meath Hill in the third round. That was the first time they ever beat us in the championship. It represented a big blow to our hopes of reaching the knockout stages. We had lost Fintan O'Brien early in the championship with a cruciate ligament injury and his absence was proving a big blow. It was only when he was gone that we truly realised just how important he is to us." But two runaway victories followed which suggested that Mary's might just possess the scoring power to challenge for honours. "We got very big scores against Kilmainham and Summerhill, but when the crunch came against the likes of St. Michael's and Dunboyne we were found wanting," Lenehan added. "We were nine points down at half-time against Michael's and didn't manage to score at all in the first-half. "Inconsistency seems to be a problem for us. One day we can be very good and the next day we under-perform. That can be a problem when you have a lot of young players. That's the situation with us. We are young overall, with only two or three experienced lads. You really need that vital backbone of experience." With so many young players in their ranks Mary's will hope that they possess enough emerging talent to make a serious assault on the Junior Championship in the near future. "The talent is there for the future, providing we can hold onto the young players," Lenehan said as he contemplated 2005 and beyond. "Among the most talented youngsters are Stephen Bishop, Brian Smith (a nephew of Liam's), Robert Callaghan and Joe Moore. They are among the players who represent our hopes for the future." It wasn't to be for St. Mary's in the ongoing quest for another Junior Championship title in 2004, but the search goes on and they will certainly hope to mount a more serious challenge in '05. Tweet

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