Ballinabrackey full-back Trevor Bannon put it best. "It was a good year. We got promoted in the league and that was our aim. As for the championship, we were unlucky against Nobber in the semi-final but we are getting closer, every year that bit closer." In truth Ballinabrackey suffered two heartbreaking defeats in the past twelve months, one in the league final and the other in the junior semi-final. Indeed Nobber were the only team in this year's championship to actually beat the south Meath side. Overall Ballinabrackey enjoyed one of their most consistent seasons in a long time. Trevor Bannon was a key figure in the team during the past 12 months and he put in some outstanding performances at the heart of the Ballinabrackey rearguard. The 20-year-old also caught the eye of the Meath junior selectors, and was called up to the panel for this year's championship. Trevor played in their Leinster championship clash against Offaly in Tullamore, in which they led by eight points at one stage. However the Faithful battled back in the second half to beat Meath. "It was great to be involved in the Meath junior set-up and Martin Barry was a very good coach. However we were very disappointed to lose against Offaly. It is a game that I would rather forget about. We were looking good at half-time and then they came back at us and got the win. I wasn't too happy with my own performance that day because I had played better in the games leading up to that match," says Trevor. On the club front Ballinabrackey won promotion from Division 4A of the league but lost the final to Na Fianna. Of course it would have been nice to bring home some silverware after all their efforts but promotion had always been the priority. At the start of the year that was what they had aimed to achieve, and they were successful in reaching their goal. In total they played 13 games in the league, losing only three. Those defeats came against Kilbride, St. Ultan's and Na Fianna in the decider. However apart from a draw with St. Mary's in early summer, Ballinabrackey beat all comers in the division. Nobber fell 1-10 to 0-10 in February and after losing to St. Ultan's, Ballinabrackey hammered Ratoath 2-10 to 1-7. It was the start of a superb run and by the end of the league Moynalty, Bellewstown, Meath Hill, Na Fianna, Bective and Drumbaragh had all fallen victim to Ballinabrackey. In a play-off they beat a determined St. Mary's outfit 2-12 to 3-7 and progressed to the final against Na Fianna. They were confident they could overcome Na Fianna having comfortably beaten them back in early June. That day Ballinabrackey won 2-11 to 0-10. However it was not to be in the final as Na Fianna registered a goal and a point in the opening exchanges. Ballinabrackey battled back but they never succeeded in compensating for the early goal and it was that strike that separated the teams at the final whistle, 1-12 to 0-12. "We would have liked to win but getting promoted to Division 3A was what we had set out to do at the start of the year and by finishing in the top two we had achieved that. Next year we will be playing a lot of intermediate sides in the league and it should help bring us on even further. Hopefully by competing against stronger teams it will improve our game and that should be good for us in the junior championship," believes Trevor. As regards this year's championship the Ballinabrackey juniors raced away from the pack in Group B and went unbeaten until the semi-final. They opened their campaign with a 1-8 to 0-9 victory over Dunshaughlin in April and followed that up by comfortably disposing of Dunsany 2-9 to 0-7. By the end of the group phase they had accounted for St. Mary's, Kilmainham and Drumbaragh. The victory over Drumbaragh was particularly impressive, as the north Meath club would have fancied themselves to go all the way in the championship. Ballinabrackey beat them by two goals, 2-5 to 0-5. Last year Ballinabrackey lost to Wolfe Tones in a quarter-final while in 2000 they fell to a strong St. Ultan's side in a semi-final. But as they entered this year's junior quarter-final against Simonstown, Ballinabrackey had emerged as one of the prime candidates to lift the Matthew Ginnity Cup. They were the form team in the grade and continued their winning ways with a two-point victory over Simonstown, 0-9 to 0-7. A semi-final against Nobber was their reward but Ballinabrackey inexplicably kicked a criminal amount of wides and lost 1-6 to 2-2 in a low scoring clash. "We got off to a good start by scoring an early goal and although we trailed 0-5 to 1-0 at half-time we were still in the game and had enough chances in the second half to beat Nobber. I mean we kicked 17 wides and they only kicked about five. That made it all the more disappointing, knowing we had kicked so many wides," he admits. Trevor's brother Darren also plays for Ballinabrackey while his father Sean was a selector on the junior team this year. "Sure that is the only reason I got on the team," jokes Trevor. His brother Gordon is also a promising young player, ensuring that there will be a Bannon on the Ballinabrackey team sheet for many years to come. As for his own career Trevor is aiming for a run with both the Meath junior and under-21 sides next year. "Hopefully I can get a few trials with the Meath under-21 team next year. I would also like to get another run with the junior team but we'll just have to wait and see what happens." Of course he is also gunning for glory with the Ballinabrackey junior footballers and he points out that this team is likely to get even better in the coming years. "We have a very good young team here and a lot of the lads that played with the juniors also played for the under-21 side this year so that is promising for the future. And we have good people in charge of us such as Chris Kennedy and Danny Flynn. They were pretty much joint managers this year and they have done a very good job with the team." There is also a great sense of team spirit within the Ballinabrackey camp and Trevor selects one stalwart for special praise. "Gerry Coffey is around 38 years of age and still going strong at full-forward. We all hope he gives it another year or two." The last time Ballinabrackey won the junior championship was way back in 1985. Needless to say Trevor's generation don't remember that success and the club have lost a lot of players since Clonmore Harps were founded in 1993. Ballinabrackey always had a small pick but the arrival of Offaly's Clonmore club really stretched the Meath border outfit to their limits. They struggled for a number of years but at last they appear to have turned the corner. Many of their juvenile footballers have started to make the breakthrough on the junior team and all the hard work at underage level is beginning to pay off. Trevor has been part of the junior side for a couple of years now but in all the time he has played for Ballinabrackey, amazingly he has yet to emerge triumphant from a penultimate match. "I have never actually won a semi-final with the club. I have played eight in total, from under-12 all the way up and never been on a winning side. I mean that is eight semi-finals and eight defeats. Not a great record," he says. Trevor Bannon could be forgiven if he believed there was some sort of semi-final curse on his young shoulders. But if you look at the glass half-full rather than half-empty it tells a very different story. There are not too many clubs that have competed in eight semi-finals in as many years at any grade. Ballinabrackey must be doing something right! Their day will come, and Trevor will shake off his semi-final curse. After all the Ballinabrackey fullback put it best - they are getting closer, every year that bit closer. Tweet

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