Gaelic football folk in Clonard will tell you that the game can be very cruel sometimes, and to be honest, you'd find it hard to disagree with them. Three championship wins in succession, only one defeat and still they failed to make the junior B play-offs in 2002. Sometimes football just has a way of kicking you in the teeth. Managing them this year was Ray Brennan, and he hated every minute of walking along the Clonard sideline. I just don't like having to stand and watch a game. I'd much prefer to be out there on the pitch and involved in the match. It browns me off not playing. I very rarely go and watch games because I would want to be involved. On some occasions this year I was nearly going to go in and put on my own football shorts and go out and play," he jokes. A native of Offaly, Ray transferred to Clonard in the past twelve months, but a cruciate ligament injury kept him out of action for several months. The Clonard committee seized the opportunity and asked him to coach the team for the year. "I was asked to play but had to tell them I couldn't because of the injury and then they came back and asked me would I train the team. Initially I said no, because I didn't have that much experience and so on, but having thought about it afterwards I decided to give it a shot. So I told them that if they still needed somebody to train the lads then I would do it," he says. By the time Ray took charge of the south Meath club they were already effectively out of the league. The team appeared to lack the required fitness and commitment to chase for titles but he soon turned it around. "When I took over in April they just weren't fit. They had been doing little or no training and so we faced an uphill battle straight away. A lot of the lads were playing soccer and one of them was playing rugby so it was hard to get them all back into training for Clonard. But eventually we got going and won our first championship match against Na Fianna. That was a tough game, but it was very important that the lads won because they were after having a few bad results in the league." Clonard won 2-9 to 1-9 but a bad result against St. Vincent's followed in early May when they lost 3-11 to 1-4. "They really hockeyed us that day. Looking back that was the game that cost us the chance of going any further in the championship. In all the other games after that the team were absolutely flying. St. Vincent's are a very good side but Clonard should have given them a much better challenge than they did that day. The players were able to lift their performance for the games against Summerhill and Na Fianna because they are all local enough teams but St. Vincent's are the other side of the county and maybe that had a bearing on the outcome." A crucial clash with Summerhill followed, which ended in stalemate at 1-4 to 0-7. "We should have won that game but in the end it finished as a draw. It was tight but I think we still could have won," he contests. A string of victories followed, starting with a 1-8 to 0-7 triumph over An Gaeltacht in early July. Towards the end of the month Clonard arguably gave their best performance of the year in disposing of St. Colmcille's 2-14 to 0-9. A two point winning margin over Castletown, 0-12 to 1-7, followed in August but earlier results came back to haunt them and a play-off spot proved out of reach. Although they ended the championship as strong as any other team in the group the lack of training and preparation early in the year had cost them dearly in the opening rounds of the campaign. Perhaps had Ray been drafted in around February or March it is possible that they could have made a steady challenge for the title because as the months went on Clonard looked better and better with each outing. They also proved that they have a huge amount of potential in their ranks. Even so the modest and friendly 30-year-old argues that his term in charge was far from successful. "I think that at the start of the year Clonard's aim was to do better than last year and although we won more games this year we failed to qualify for the knock-out stages so I wouldn't say it was a success. I mean I suppose it wasn't too bad and the lads did get better and they certainly seemed to improve with every game this year. If they can concentrate on the football instead of soccer and rugby then they could do well next year, they just need to do more training and need a little more time to gather experience because they are a young team," he argues. Their league campaign never really got off the ground this year and they finished up joint bottom of the pile in Division 5A with only one win and five defeats. Contesting the group with Clonard were Longwood, St. Brigid's, St. Vincent's, Kilmainham, An Gaeltacht and Boardsmill. They got off to a good start though with a 0-9 to 0-7 victory over An Gaeltacht in February. However five consecutive defeats ensued. Longwood beat them by the minimum, 1-5 to 1-4, in early March. By the end of the month they had lost to Kilmainham, 0-11 to 0-7, and Boardsmill, 3-9 to 2-11. In early April they fell to St. Vincent's 2-11 to 0-7, and then finally they slumped to a 2-14 to 2-3 defeat at the hands of St. Brigid's in June. It all made for a very disappointing year in the league. However Ray provides a perfect example of what can happen when a player puts the effort into the game and hopes that in the coming years this Clonard team will get better. "Cyril Tracey started off pretty much as a sub this year but he stuck at it and kept working away and eventually made his way onto the team. He improved with every match he played in and he is only about 18 so that is a good sign for the future." Taking on the Clonard job was never going to be a simple task but Ray admits that it was made a bit easier by the help he received from his three selectors Leonard Farrell, Finn Campbell and Gerry Twomey. Clonard chairman Joe Gannon was also of great assistance to him, and helped sort out jerseys and water for the players. According to Ray he never felt like an outsider within the club and that everybody involved made him feel very welcome. Ray only moved to the area within the last four years and originally hails from Kilclonfert in north Offaly. In his playing days with the club he lined out as a solid and dependable back and was also part of the Offaly junior panel. He won a Leinster medal with the Offaly vocational schools in 1990 and a junior B title with Kilclonfert in the past also. On his arrival to Meath Ray joined Summerhill and played senior football with them for a couple of years. However he was much in demand and Kilclonfert asked him to return and play for his home club. He did so for a year but then transferred to Clonard. Although he hasn't played for them yet, his injury is now behind him, and there is still plenty of mileage left in the tank. Of course he is still a wanted man in Offaly and where the heart goes, the feet sometimes follow. Clonard will be hoping that his wandering days are over and that next year he can lead their championship charge on the field as a player. And if they start back training early in 2003 Clonard should be capable of sustaining a strong challenge for junior B honours and Ray Brennan could indeed be at the centre of that quest. No longer will he have to walk frustratingly along the sideline, wishing he were out there playing. Next year, all going well, Ray will be back playing Gaelic football again. The injury that forced him out of the game for many months will be firmly behind him and he will be content. Now who said it was a cruel game? Tweet

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