Making hurling history
December 31, 2004
The strongholds of hurling in Meath have generally been based in the south of the county, but a club from the east made a very noteworthy and satisfactory breakthrough in 2004 when St. Patrick's won their first adult title in the small ball code.
Seeing titles going to different parts of the county can only be good for the game in general and this was a triumph which brought a great deal of satisfaction to the Stamullen club as they avenged an earlier defeat in the first round of group matches by defeating Kildalkey by 3-8 to 3-6 in a well-contested final played at Ratoath in late September.
It was a proud moment for Meath junior star Paul Tobin when he accepted the cup from Meath Hurling Committee chairman TJ Reilly and the hope will now be that this success will lead to further hurling glory for St. Patrick's and act as a spur to other clubs with mainly footballing pedigrees to work towards the promotion of what is, after all, arguably the greatest game of them all.
St. Patrick's dearly wanted this title, but when they got off to a losing start against Kildalkey in mid-May their hopes of outright glory didn't exactly look overly promising.
A second-half goal from Brian McMahon proved vitally important to Kildalkey as they gained a winning start to the competition in a match played at Kilberry and the Stamullen men had been well in contention at half-time when trailing by the minimum margin at 0-6 to 0-7. However, Kildalkey limited them to just three further points in the second period and went on to win by five (1-11 to 0-9).
It wasn't exactly the start to their title bid that St. Patrick's would have hoped for, though Kildalkey were clearly one of the better sides in the competition and they went on to prove it by going all the way to the final.
St. Pat's, who were coached by Tom Kirwan, needed to bounce back positively after that early setback and they did so when edging out Kilmessan by 1-10 to 2-5 at Ratoath. They made a blistering start and had seven points on the score board before Kilmessan managed to open their scoring account.
A 0-7 to 0-1 interval lead looked very useful and Patrick Calvey scored a second-half goal which helped them to maintain their advantage. However, the Kilmessan men hit back strongly with two goals in the closing stages, but Pat's held out for victory in a match in which Brian and Ciaran Calvey, Mark Scanlon, Enda Murphy and Tobin proved particularly impressive.
It was back to the happy hunting ground of Ratoath for a third round assignment against Drumree and St. Pat's made it two victories on the trot in a match that produced three goals for each side. Goals from John Paul Ryan and Phil Harney helped the Stamullen men to lead by 2-4 to 1-2 at half-time and a second-half goal from Harney copper-fastened their position of supremacy as they ran out winners by 3-7 to 3-2. Harney was in fine scoring form and finished with an impressive personal tally of 2-3, while Brian Kelly, Mark Scanlon and Paul Tobin also showed up to particularly good effect.
Boardsmill were next up for Pat's at Batterstown and they achieved the victory that kept their title aspirations alive, inflicting a first defeat of the campaign on the 'Mill and forcing a play-off between the sides to decide who would advance to the semi-finals.
But it was very, very close as Pat's edged through by the minimum margin (2-9 to 2-8). Boardsmill led by 1-4 to 0-5 at half-time, but the Stamullen men demonstrated great hunger in the second period and two goals from Tobin, who tallied an impressive 2-4 overall, as well as some fine points from play helped them to shade the verdict.
The dust had hardly settled on that meeting of the sides when they clashed again in that play-off and this time St. Pat's had matters much easier at Dunsany as they triumphed on a 4-5 to 1-4 score line to leave themselves just one step away from a final place.
Meath juniors Ryan and Tobin played particularly well, while Harney top-scored with 2-1 and Tobin chipped in with 1-3. Enda Murphy got the other goal and Pat's led by 2-3 to 1-1 at the interval.
Four more goals followed in the semi-final against Longwood as Pat's achieved their easiest win of the championship to secure their place in the decider. They won by all of 18 points (4-16 to 2-4) and could hardly have anticipated that they would get things so handy at such an advanced stage of the competition.
The victory was well and truly wrapped up at half-time when Pat's held a commanding 3-11 to 0-3 lead and the second period was a mere formality as a result. Tobin notched 1-5, but that was bettered by Harney who tallied 1-6 and, having scored eight goals in two consecutive matches, they must have been feeling good about themselves going into the final. However, they were without both John Paul Ryan and David Kirwan.
Of course, Kildalkey had beaten them in the opening round, but this time Pat's got the victory and the title they so desperately wanted, edging through by just two points (3-8 to 3-6). But they had to hold off a strong Kildalkey challenge to do so.
Just a few weeks after helping his adopted county to win the All-Ireland JHC title, Tobin played an immense role in the final success by contributing a superb 2-7. The only other Pat's player to register was Harney who got 1-1.
The sides were on level terms (1-4 each) at half-time, after Pat's had led by 1-4 to 0-1 after 20 minutes, but with Tommy Masterson leading the scoring charge Kildalkey moved ahead early in the second-half. However, the Stamullen men responded superbly and a decisive spell that yielded 2-4 proved invaluable and helped them to a 3-8 to 2-4 lead.
But Kildalkey had no intentions of throwing in the towel and put Pat's under severe pressure in the closing stages. However, some fine saves by goalkeeper Fergus Minogue and sound full-back play from Niall Stafford were very significant as the title went to Stamullen.
The history-making St. Patrick's team in the final was - F. Minogue; A. Stafford, N. Stafford, B. Calvey; P. Muldowney, B. Kelly, J. Kenna; M. Scanlon, C. Calvey; E. Murphy, P. Harney (1-1), C. O'Brien; M. Calvey, P. Tobin (2-7), P. Reilly. Subs - J. Loughlin for M. Calvey, P. Calvey for Reilly.
"An historic success," was how coach Tom Kirwan described the triumph. "We have no hurling tradition in Stamullen and only started under-age in 1989 or '90. Myself, Tommy McDonnell and Paddy Prendergast were initially involved. We won four or five under-age titles in the 'B' grades. Adult hurling only started four or five years ago.
"We got to the Div. 2 semi-finals last year, but were beaten by Kiltale who went on to win it out. This year we got Paul Tobin, Phil Harney and Mark Scanlon from St. Vincent's in Dublin. Mark is a Clare man. The addition of those players really helped.
"Brian Kelly from St. Colmcille's and Enda Murphy from St. Vincent's, Ardcath, also play with us because there is no hurling in their areas."
St. Patrick's recovered from a less than convincing start to the campaign to go on and take ultimate honours.
"We lost our first championship game against Kildalkey, but, as I said after that match, we weren't going away," Kirwan added. "And that's the way it worked out as we went on to beat Kildalkey in the final when we were without John Paul Ryan, our best player, and David Kirwan. They were big losses.
"It was great to win it. Stamullen is mainly a football parish, but we got a big crowd for the final and the club looked after us superbly. Anything we needed, we got it. It was a year to remember. As well as winning the championship, we had three players winning Leinster and All-Ireland JHC medals - Paul Tobin, John Paul Ryan and Mark Scanlon. John Paul has been on Meath teams up through the age groups. We also won the Wolfe Tones' seven-a-side tournament.
"We have no under-age hurling system at the moment, but with the population growing we would hope to pick up some players that way. It remains to be seen how we get on in the junior grade."
Football disappointment
St. Patrick's went agonisingly close to making it to the quarter-finals of the Senior Football Championship, but missed out despite finishing tied for fourth place in Group B with Seneschalstown.
It was the fact that Seneschalstown had won the fifth round match between the sides that meant they went through to the last eight.
Coached by Richie Culhane, Pat's opened the championship in desired fashion by recording back-to-back victories. They started with a 0-12 to 1-7 win over Summerhill at Walterstown and really gave their qualification prospects a push in the right direction when getting the better of Walterstown (0-10 to 0-8) at Donore.
However, three successive defeats followed that seriously damaged their hopes. Dunderry edged them out by 0-10 to 1-5 at Walterstown, reigning champions Blackhall Gaels trounced them by 4-17 to 0-7 at Ratoath and then came that loss to Seneschalstown by 0-8 to 0-11 at Duleek.
Despite being without ace attacker Daithi Whyte, they bounced back well to beat Kilmainhamwood by 2-11 to 1-5 at Rathkenny, but they were deprived of victory by a Gordon Codd pointed free in the last round of group matches at Walterstown and that draw (Pat's 1-7, Cortown 0-10) meant they were out.
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