Having lost nine of the team - through injuries and retirements - that went under to Navan O'Mahony's in quarter final of the 2002 Junior 'A' championship, Moylagh weren't expecting to set the world on fire in 2003. Former player and long-time administrator Gerry Grall reviewed the year. Only the most ardent Moylagh fan could have expected the club to launch a serious campaign in the 2003 Junior 'A' championship. The odds were stacked against them before they kicked a ball in anger. Damien Brody, Peter Fox, Ronan, Justin and Karl Reilly, Padraig McCormack, Brian Grall and Barry Hanlon were all absent for varying reasons ranging from injury to retirement. All eight were members of the 2002 Junior 'A' combination that progressed to the quarter finals of the championship. In Moylagh, like many other rural clubs, it is very much a numbers game. There isn't a bottomless pit of talent waiting in the wings to take up the baton. The loss of key players is felt more acutely . To exasperate matters, Shane Brody also missed the latter stages of the championship through injury. "Given that we were down nine players we felt it was too much too ask to repeat last year's performance," Gerry recalled. The club's concern at losing so many players proved justified in the league. They were eventually relegated from Div. 3A despite their best efforts to avoid the drop. "The loss of the nine players was most felt in the league games, which are played during the week. At the best of times it can be hard to get teams out for week night matches, because of work commitments and so on. This year it was particularly hard given all the losses," Gerry recalled. While the club floundered in the league they were able to muster sufficient numbers for their championship fixtures. Against all the odds Moylagh had a gilt edge chance of making the quarter finals entering their last match against Kilmainham, despite having lost their two opening fixtures to Ratoath and Kilbride "At the end of the day, they were unfortunate not to make the knockout stages of the championship. They performed extremely well to get as far as they did. With a little luck they could, have went further," he elaborated. Moylagh opened their campaign with a narrow defeat (1-7 to 1-8) at the hands of Ratoath, who proceeded to top the group on 10 points and to reach the Junior 'A' final. "Ratoath went all the way to the final were they were beaten by Wolfe Tones. We led for the most of that match and only lost it in the final moments when Ratoath got a goal with time running out," Gerry remembered. They suffered a similar fate in their next match at the hands of Kilbride when they went under by a single point (0-9 to 1-7). "Shane Brody got injured in that game and missed the rest of the year. Again Moylagh were very unlucky not to have got something out of that game," he noted. The Oldcastle parishmen bounced back in the third round when they scored a single point victory (2-6 to 2-5) over Ballinabrackey to re-ignite their season. Ballinabrackey subsequently qualified from the group in second place, but they played second fiddle to a resurgent Moylagh on the day. "At the beginning of the year Moylagh would have thought that Ballinabrackey would be the strongest team in the group, so we were delighted to come away with a victory. They were only beaten by Dunsany in the quarter finals, which goes to show we weren't that far away," Gerry suggested. They followed up their victory over Ballinabrackey with a double scores success (1-13 to 0-8) over Gaeil Colmcille. The Kells outfit were short a few key players on the day, but it didn't detract from Moylagh's victory. Suddenly and to their great surprise Moylagh found themselves on the verge of the knock-out stages. "We were expecting to beat Kilmainham, but we conceded three very bad goals in the game and it is hard to get into a winning position from there. However, we were going well until midway through the second half. We could have won the game but for some very poor finishing during the closing stages. Moylagh didn't play as a team in the final quarter and that cost us the victory," he revealed. He continued: "All we had to do was win by one point and we would have been in the quarter finals, which would have been a great achievement considering the way things had turned out for the club with injuries and so on, but it wasn't meant to be." Moylagh's second string participated in the inaugural Junior 'D' championship and acquitted themselves admirably considering the make up of the team. Gerry elaborated: "In general the Junior 'D' team was very young. They did more than hold their own, which is all that could be expected of them in the circumstances." The club's second league team also performed well. Their participation in the league came to an end at the penultimate stage when they were beaten by Wolfe Tones in a play-off to determine who would play in the final. Despite having lost their Div 3A status this year, the club can look forward to 2004 with renewed optimism. For the past decade the Oliver Plunketts outfit have put in a huge effort at under age level to the point where there is now a good crop of young talent ready to challenge for places on the Junior 'A' side. Gerry is hoping that some of the Junior 'D' players will be able to make the step up to Junior 'A' next year. Players like Padraig Traynor, Michael Corrigan and Enda Mulvany will all be fighting for first team places, according to Gerry. However, their prospects in the higher grade could hinge around the fitness of those key players that missed the 2003 campaign. "If we could get five or six of those lads back next year it would be a massive boost to the club. They were our better players last year and were a huge loss to us this time round," Gerry affirmed. In 2004 the club will be anxious to regain its Div 3A status in the league and will be hoping to mount a serious assault on the Junior 'A' championship. Indeed, Gerry is predicting a very open championship. "Wolfe Tones have been the best team Junior A team for the past couple of years. Now that they have finally won it, there isn't that much difference between the rest of the teams. If we could get the injured players back, we would be in with a realistic chance," he concluded. Recent achievements Junior hurling B champions 2002, Junior A semi-final 2003 v Navan O'Mahonys. Minor B Final v Kilskyre 2002, Under 14 B final v Blackhall Gaels 2003 Under 11 Division 5 All-Ireland semi-final v Mullahoran Under 16 B quarter final v Dunboyne 2 replays Under 16 B semi-final, 1st game a draw second game beaten by one point County players: Junior; Joe Melia; Minor, Michael Corrigan Under 14 Development Squad: Eanna Brady, Shane Nolan, Paddy Grall, Barry Curran Moylagh Hurling Club 2002 was a very historic year for Moylagh hurlers, winning our first adult championship (the first adult championship win in Moylagh since the footballers won 1975 Intermediate Championship all of 27 years ago, as one man described the scene in Dromone that Sunday evening, it's like Armagh on a smaller scale. We beat Dunderry on 15th December 2002 in Athboy on a scoreline of 2-4 to 0-2 as we held Dunderry scoreless from play. We played 8 matches altogether including a play off with Boardsmill and Dunderry. Three of the team that started the game Brendan Dolan, Michael Gurke, Packy Clinton and sub Pat Reilly - also played in our first ever game against Rossin in Rathkenny in June of 1988. Also playing that day were selectors Ned Boyle and Ollie Melia. There are some people that should take a lot of credit for this victory. All the above mentioned plus Frank McEvoy, our first chairman, who did alot of spade work. Noel Brady is with us for three years now while John O'Farrell coached a lot of these young players and brought them to what they are today. Paul Foley and Mattie Nolan got the underage up and running in the early minutes and these two men do trojan work and are our top two fundraisers. Carmel Foy and Hilary McGrath put in a huge amount of work with Under 10's and 12s while Maura Melia is at every match to do our first aid. We had Joe Melia centrefield on Meath minor footballers who reached All-Ireland final and Damien Smith centrefield on Meath minor hurlers who also reached All-Ireland final. But at least they got championship medals in 2002 as they also won minor football championship medals with Moylagh, the final was played the week before the hurling final and overall nine players collected both medals. This was also the first time Moylagh won a minor football title. We lost the minor hurling final to Kilskyre by two points and had eight players going for their third championship medal that day. We had a very enjoyable Dinner Dance along with our footballers in the Crover House Hotel. None other than Johnny Dooley, the Offaly legend came down to present our medals. Johnny made a couple of down to earth speeches and Benny Reddy did likewise before presenting the minor football medals - Benny trained the footballers and hurlers five years ago. This year we were only beaten once in the group stages of the Junior Hurling championship by one point against Dunboyne. We made it through to semi final where O'Mahony beat us by two points ,so all in all progress was made. Tweet

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