Despite winning seven of their eight senior championship matches, eternal contenders Skryne failed to reach even the last four in 2003. Mick O'Dowd, one of the club's most experienced players, spoke about the vagaries of the championship format, the men who devoted their lives to Skryne GFC, and the hope that the club can turn admirable consistency into actual achievement next year. Skryne, perennial favourites for the Meath senior football crown, again fluffed their lines in 2003. After winning all seven group games, they went into August's quarter-final against defending county and provincial champions Dunshaughlin as slight favourites to book a place in the last four. However, two years after Dunshaughlin had overcome Skryne to win their second county title, they again got the better of their near neighbours to keep their grip on the local slagging rights. But Dunshaughlin bowed out at the semi-final stage, and Blackhall Gaels and Simonstown - two teams who had finished in the shadow of Skryne in the group stages - went on to contest a novel county final, with the south county side coming out on top after a fascinating final in September. Skryne had beaten the two finalists by a combined total of eleven points in the round-robin stages, when they were the only side to advance with a 100% record, so the feeling persists that it was a championship that Skryne may well have left behind. After winning three titles in the 1990s, their first success of the new millennium is seen, by some unforgiving eyes at least, as long overdue. However, key forward Mick O'Dowd, at 29 and with 13 championship seasons behind him, prefers to dwell on the positive aspects of recent summers. A county panellist on occasion over the past few years, O'Dowd, building a house and with a baby on the way, was unable to give the necessary commitment to the Meath cause, and drew the line on his involvement with Sean Boylan's team in February of 2003. But he remains one of the cornerstones of the Skryne set-up, and holds plenty of hope that they can finally produce the right blend of hunger and skill to lift the Keegan Cup again next autumn. [Royal County:] After seven wins out of seven, and going into the quarter-final with a perfect record, ye must have been very confident going into the Dunshaughlin game? [Mick O'Dowd:] We were confident, we always felt we could beat Dunshaughlin. We'd only lost to them once in the championship and that was in the final in 2001. By the time we played them [this year], they were the county champions and the Leinster champions. I've the height of respect for what they've done, and yeah, we went into the game believing we could beat them, but we didn't match them in terms of work-rate. I think the key to beating Dunshaughlin is to work as hard as them. If you don't, you don't have a chance. [RC:] In your eyes, what went wrong in that quarter-final? [MO'D:] I don't think an awful lot went wrong in the few weeks between the group stages and the quarter-final. We just didn't play as well as we could against Dunshaughlin. It was our first game in the knock-out stages, and the pressure was really on for the first time. We didn't play well enough on the day. I wouldn't be one to look for excuses, but the forward line had been going really well at the start of the year, and then Jamie Jordan went to the States, Bryan McMahon was over and back from England, and I got injured and missed the last three games in the group. By the time the quarter-final came around, we weren't as cohesive as we had been earlier in the year. [RC:] The new championship system, with two groups of eight and at least seven matches for every senior club, doesn't seem to have done Skryne any favours. What do you think of it? [MO'D:] I suppose the idea of having seven matches is good in a way because it gives so many more games to club footballers. But at the end of the day, the championship is still only really going to begin at the last eight. That determines how good a side you are. You can win all the games and play all the football you want in April and May, but it's when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of the knock-out stages that the real business starts. So I wouldn't pay too much heed to the league stages. If I was to change one thing it would be the number of teams to come out of the group stages. I think to play seven games and there's still eight teams left isn't the best way, I think it should probably be only four teams to go into the knock-out stages. [RC:] The two teams that made it to the final, Blackhall Gaels and Simonstown, both came from your group. Ye had beaten Blackhall by six and Simonstown by five. Do you think that, had ye got over Dunshaughlin, the championship would have been there for the taking, and that ultimately Skryne left this one behind? [MO'D:] Having beaten both teams, yeah we would have been confident if we were to play them again. But it would also have been at the back of your mind that they would be out for revenge. The two of them improved a lot during the year. When we played Simonstown they were missing a few players, Hank Traynor was injured and Seamus Kenny was out, but they improved a lot. I'm not sure if Blackhall were at full strength or not, but they got better and better as the year went on too. Blackhall have been building all the time since they were relegated a few years ago; it was a great achievement to come straight back up, and they've been improving ever since. It doesn't really rankle that the two teams came out of our group, and it's great to see a new team like Blackhall go the whole way. [RC:] It seem that every year Skryne go into the championship as one of the two or three favourites to win it out, but ye haven't won since 1999, so it's now four disappointing years in a row. How disappointing is that? [MO'D:] I think it was 1999 the last time we won it, and when we did there was plenty of people predicting we would go on and win more. But I think, as a unit, we haven't has as much hunger as some of the other teams in it. You get what you deserve and you have to work hard as a unit. We have a lot of talent here, but there are a lot of other clubs with the same amount of talent, and it all comes down to who is going to work hardest at the end of the day. We won three championships in the Nineties by doing that, and I think the team that sticks together and works the hardest next year will go very close to winning it out. I think since we won it four years ago we've only been beaten five times in the championship but unfortunately for us it's always in the knock-out stages that it happens. We've played in plenty of semi-finals and quarter-finals. On the positive side of it though, isn't it great to be so consistent, to always be there or thereabouts? Hopefully next year we can go that bit further. [RC:] Looking at positive aspects, what were the things that you would take from this year? Who were the younger players who came though? [MO'D:] We had a lot of young players who came in and did well this year, and that would give you hope for next year. Andrew Curry and Jamie Jordan were great for us all year, and Aidan Tuite came in and did very well at midfield. He was missing against Dunshaughlin, and he was a real loss for us that day. Those three lads were very good, and Davy Rogan was probably unlucky not to start in the championship. Another couple of young lads, Vinny Reilly and Kevin Mulvaney, could push for a place next year As for a few of the slightly older fellas, Alan Carty had his best year ever for us and Johnny Quinn was very solid in the backs. And there's probably loads more in the rest of us, so there's plenty to be positive about. [RC:] The form of Trevor Giles really improved for the club during the year. A lot of people have been kind of writing him off, saying he's had too much football. Do you think he has still as much to offer for both club and county? [MO'D:] Trevor absolutely loves football. He has a huge hunger for the game, he's always confident going into games and he always tries to do better than he did the last time. I suppose, for us and for the county, that he needs lads to do more of the donkey work for him. He works very hard himself during games, but he needs other lads to come in and take some of that burden off him so that he can do what he's good at. If we could get him in there in his best position, at centre forward, and find a way of getting him plenty of ball, he can still do serious damage. [RC:] John McDermott took a lot of criticism after the quarter-final, when Niall Kelly played well for Dunshaughlin. Can he bounce back from that? [MO'D:] Ah yeah, Mac has loads left in him. He wasn't able to train as much last year as in other years, but there were plenty of games where we would have been lost without John Mac in the middle of the field. The team as a unit didn't play well enough against Dunshaughlin, it wasn't down to John Mac or anyone else. I'd say there were ten fellas who came off the pitch and said to themselves, "I should have done better". [RC:] It was a sad year for the club in many respects, with the passing of three former chairmen, Colum and Paddy Cromwell and Jim Hayes. [MO'D:] Yeah it was. When I started playing underage Paddy Cromwell and Jim Hayes would have been involved, I think Colum was already involved with Simonstown by that stage. But I knew all three of them well, and they were lovely men who devoted their lives to the GAA and to Skryne in particular. I suppose, like a lot of clubs, we have plenty of great people behind us, people who put their energies into fund-raising and blottos. They devote their lives to it and we definitely wouldn't be where we are without them. [RC:] Looking ahead to next year, Skryne are going to be one of the favourites again. Where can you improve as a team to go and challenge for the title? [MO'D:] Maybe we should be looking to gel in the younger guys with a few of us older lads. But unity of purpose is the key to winning anything. It all boils down to work-rate. When we work hard enough I think we can beat anyone. Tweet

Most Read Stories