After 15 years in the top flight, Oldcastle lost their Senior Football Championship status in 2002 when they were edged out by survival specialists Summerhill in the relegation final which was played in atrocious cold, wet and windy conditions at Kells in late October. No club likes to be demoted and Oldcastle were extremely disappointed as they lost a tense, low-scoring match by 1-6 to 0-6 on a day when star Meath defender Mark O'Reilly, who was positioned at centre half-back, turned in an inspirational performance for Summerhill and was the main difference between two highly committed teams who gave everything in their bid for survival on such a dreadful afternoon for football. Scores were few and far between, particularly in the first half, which was no great surprise given the dismal weather, and the only point during the opening 24 minutes came from a Billy Shaw free for the 'Hill. But the south Meath side held a slender 0-3 to 0-2 lead at the interval, before pushing ahead by five points (1-5 to 0-3) in the second half, thanks largely to a goal at the three-quarter stage from their top-scorer John Loughrey. But Oldcastle have always been renowned for their great battling qualities and, to their credit, they never gave up and put Summerhill under enormous pressure as they fought back courageously and reduced the deficit to just two points at 0-6 to 1-5. The 'Hill got the margin back to three and what followed was as tense and gripping a spell of football as was witnessed in the 2002 championship as the north Meath men went in search of the goal they so badly needed to revive their faltering survival hopes. Referee Seamus McCormack played plenty of injury-time and Oldcastle set up camp in front of the Summerhill goal at the town end as they bombarded the winners' defence in search of an equaliser. But that goal never came and when McCormack finally sounded the long whistle the emotions in both camps were so different, with Summerhill feeling a mixture of elation and relief after they had survived at the death for the second successive year, and Oldcastle shattered and bitterly disappointed as they came to terms with the fact that they would be playing intermediate football next year after a decade and a half at senior level. It was a senior campaign that brought no joy for Oldcastle as they lost their three matches in Group C to Seneschalstown (3-8 to 2-4), Walterstown (2-8 to 0-12) and St. Patrick's (1-12 to 0-6) to finish bottom of the section behind joint winners Seneschalstown and Walterstown, who had five points each, and Pat's, who secured their survival in the top grade on two points thanks to that one victory over Oldcastle. It was now a case of concentrating purely on survival for Oldcastle, but at least they had two bites at the cherry if required. They faced Dunderry in an initial relegation play-off, also at Kells, but lost by five points (2-9 to 0-10) as veteran attacker and former Meath All-Ireland captain Tommy Dowd made all the difference for the winners with a late salvo of a goal and two points to book his side's passage to safety. That defeat left Oldcastle with one last chance, but the shattering defeat to Summerhill meant they dropped out of the top grade. Naturally, it represented a major blow to the club and selector John 'Black' Farrelly was as disappointed as anybody in Kells on that miserable October afternoon. "Obviously, it's not a good thing to go down to the intermediate ranks," said the man who was a member of the St. Brigid's (Ballinacree) team that lost to eventual winners St. John's in an Intermediate Championship semi-final in 1974 on the same day that Summerhill made the big breakthrough at senior level. "Any club in the senior ranks wants to stay there for as long as they possibly can. We had a good few years at senior level and we put up a great show last year at the quarter-final stage against Dunshaughlin, losing narrowly after conceding three goals. "But we just didn't have much luck this year with injuries. The lads did their best, but unfortunately it just wasn't good enough. "On the day against Summerhill in the relegation final the match could have gone either way, but they were the ones who got through and survived. It was an absolutely dreadful day to try and play football, but at the end of the day the brilliant performance from Mark O'Reilly at centre half-back made all the difference. He was absolutely great that day for Summerhill." John is father of Oldcastle players Ronan, JP and Terry and is a cousin of former Meath players Gerry and Peter. Maintaining the very strong GAA link, he is a first cousin of Tomas Farrelly, father of Martin Farrelly who was the Louth senior football team captain this year. Oldcastle's sights must now be firmly focused on getting back up to the senior ranks, but as former Keegan Cup giants Navan O'Mahonys discovered this year, no club has a right to expect that they will make an instant return, though the Navan side did go very close when they were just edged out by Ballivor in an amazing conclusion to the intermediate final. John has seen enough football over the years to fully appreciate that the intermediate grade is very competitive in Meath, but he is happy that Oldcastle have sufficient players coming up through the ranks to give them every chance of making their way back to the Senior Championship. "It might happen soon and it might not," he added when asked about Oldcastle's prospects of making a quick jump up. "The Intermediate Championship is a good grade of football in Meath, but it's broken into two divisions, so you have a better chance of winning games, unlike the senior competition where the sections have only four teams each and you haven't much room for slip-ups. "On the positive side for Oldcastle, we have a fair few young players coming through who should be able to do well at intermediate level. It's a whole new ball game for us now and the bottom line is that we have to put it together and try to get back up to the senior grade." The more rural clubs in the county could be forgiven for looking at the likes of Dunboyne and three in-a-row champions Dunshaughlin with considerable envy as the populations of these areas continue to swell and the local GAA clubs reap some benefit from new people coming into their locality in the form of increased membership, more juvenile players to choose from and, hopefully, the odd senior player or two who could strengthen their championship challenge considerably. Sadly, the situation tends to be very different for rural clubs. "It's a lot more difficult for the rural clubs in this day and age," John said. "On the other hand, clubs like Dunshaughlin, being so near to Dublin, can always hope to pick up players." Oldcastle may have failed to win a match in the Senior Championship and suffered demotion, but their form in the All-County 'A' League was far more impressive as they won nine of their 11 matches in Div. 3 and lost only two. That good run of results left them joint top of the table with Wolfe Tones on 18 points and secured promotion to Div. 2 for next year. Such consistent form also meant that Oldcastle and Tones qualified to meet in the Div. 3 final, which was due to be played at Kells on the Sunday of the October Bank Holiday. But Oldcastle had nine players going away on holiday and, as they would have been forced to field a seriously depleted team so soon after the savage disappointment of the Senior Championship relegation final defeat against Summerhill, a decision was taken not to fulfil the fixture on that date. Silverware delivered in late November Oldcastle's reserves rounded off a storming campaign in fitting fashion when defeating Syddan in the Division Three B league final at Moynalty in mid-winter. Oldcastle secured some silverware for their season's efforts when they ovecame Syddan in a very competitive all-county Division Three B football league final at Moynalty on Sunday November 24th. The decider was a thrilling affair by all accounts and went to extra time before Oldcastle emerged the right side of a 1-16 to 2-12 scoreline. At half time, Oldcastle trailed by a point, 0-5 to 0-4, Pat Kevin and Niall Mangan each registering two first-half points for the winners. The north county men gradually got on top after the break and were four points clear with time running out. However, Syddan refused to give up the ghost and recorded four unanswered points to force extra time. A Paddy Kearney goal gave Oldcastle the perfect start to extra time and a point from Terence Farrelly ensured that they led by three at the end of the first period of additional time. Syddan came back with a goal of their own early in the second period and actually edged ahead only for Oldcastle to finish impressively with a three-point flurry to win the day. It was a dramatic end to the game and, indeed, to Oldcastle's season. While 2002 may have been a somewhat disappointing year for the north Meath club (their first team was relegated from the senior championship but earned promotion to Division Two of the league), they at least did finish the year with some silverware in the cabinet. And isn't that what it's all about ultimately? Oldcastle's victory was fully deserved. They were on top form all year in the 'Superspecs The Opticians' all-county B league Division Three competition, going through their entire campaign unbeaten. They won seven games out of eight, drawing the other, to qualify for the final in magnificent fashion. The reserve team was trained and managed by Eamonn Moore, with assistants John McEnroe, Gerry Coakley and Martin Halpin. The first-mentioned trio were in their second year with the team while Martin was brought in at the start of the '02 season. Cork-born Coakley reflects on the glorious voyage: "We tried to get the whole panel training together at the start of the year. It worked for a while but it just faded away after that. It was very hard to find a medium - the senior players found it difficult to give the commitment and the younger lads found the training a bit too severe. Our goal for the coming year will be to try and get all the lads training together on a regular basis." While some might scoff at the very idea of reserve team football, this certainly wasn't the case with Oldcastle, who gave the competition the respect it deserves and endeavoured to put together as strong a team as possible. In the end, they harvested the fruits of their labours. "The team was essentially backboned by six or seven seniors and the rest were minors. Then there were a couple of lads who live outside the area and couldn't give a commitment to play for the first team. We ended up with a panel of about 30 or 31, maybe eight of whom were seniors, which leaves 22 or 23 lads who were reserve team players." Oldcastle's first competitive game of the year was in April against Seneschalstown and a 4-5 to 1-9 victory was duly recorded. That kind of form was maintained right throught he year, the only blip being a solitary point dropped in a 1-8 apiece draw with Duleek. The irresistible Pat Kevin scored 3-3 in the 4-9 to 3-9 defeat of Drumree on June 25th and Eugene Smith chipped in with a personal return of 1-3 in the comprehensive 2-13 to 1-4 victory over Meath Hill on August 20th. It was a real team effort all year, and Oldcastle produced a different hero in virtually every game. In addition to their league exploits, oldcastle also reached the quarter-final of the junior C championship but (shorn of their 'seniors' for that game) were beaten by Rathkenny by 2-8 to 1-8. Victory in the Division 3B league came as a welcome fillip at the end of a trying season, as Gerry admits: "It was a bit traumatic to be relegated from senior to intermediate, so the win was a boost, in particular for the younger lads coming through. It was nice for them to get a medal and they'll have an added incentive to push for a place in the intermediate team next year. We had a good year all round at league level and the seniors moving up to Division Two is also a step in the right direction for the club." What are Gerry's recollections of the Division Three B final? "There was little between the teams and it was a very entertaining match. We were very happy to shade it in extra time. "Donaghmore-Ashbourne gave us a bit of a fright in our last league game. They had nothing to play for and we expected a comfortable win but they put it up to us and we had to fight for the points. In hindsight, that was probably the best thing that could have happened to us before the final. There was no danger of any complacency for the final after that. "We had a get-together the Friday evening before the final and everybody was focused on the Syddan game. On the day of the match, Eamonn [Moore] had everone at the pitch in Moynalty a full hour before the throw-in. The preparations were meticulous and he made sure everybody was ready for the game and relaxed. You could see that they were really up for the game from the start: nothing was going to stop them. "Paddy Kearney's experience showed at a crucial stage when he fisted an all-important goal - most other players would have tried to field the ball. The influence John McEnroe had on the game after coming in as a substitute was also a critical factor. "It was a good hard game of football, and was very clean. It was played to a very high standard with some exceptional fielding, especially from Eugene Smith. Syddan really put it up to us on the day, in fairness, and they provided worthy opposition. They were the team to beat. They were getting on top and our lads were becoming a bit erratic until John went in and steadied the ship. It was a great performance from everybody and it would be very difficult to single out any of them for individual praise." Victory represented a great end to the year for the club, who can now go into the 2003 term on a high. Looking ahead to the new season, Gerry notes: "I think we can have a good year. The main goal of the club will be to get up back to senior and they're well able to achieve that. They have a good blend of experience and young fellas coming through, so there's every reason for optimism." Oldcastle also qualified for the Division Three league final proper in 2002, but the Cummins Cup was controversially awarded to Wolfe Tones after the north Meath club's request for a postponement was denied. It was a sequence of events that upset a lot of people in Oldcastle and at the time of writing the club was still holding out some hope of a change of heart from County Board level. Promotion to Division Two has been secured regardless by virtue of a top two finish but Oldcastle would love to have had the chance to compete in the final at the end of a long and engaging campaign. And, as their reserves proved on November 24th, they take a bit of stopping when it comes to finals! Oldcastle, 2002 Division Three B football league winners: Camillus Smith; PJ Smith, P Sheridan, M Farrelly; P Galligan, N Fitzpatrick, J Caffrey; Thomas Farrelly, E Smith; N Mangan (0-6), P Kevin (0-5), J Pakenham; P Shortt, C Smith, P Kearney (1-2). Subs: Terence Farrelly (0-1), M Caffrey (0-1), J McEnroe (0-1), O Burns. Tweet

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