Johnny Flood's reminiscences on the travails and joy experienced as a player with his native Moylagh in times past are redolent of an era when football was a synonym for religion. After being on the wrong end of decisions in three county finals in 1968, '71 and '73, the feeling among Moylagh gaels in the summer of '75 was that defeat in the upcoming county intermediate championship decider against Dunshaughlin would spell the deathknell of arguably the most prodigious panel of players ever to come together in the club's short history. Losing out to the since extinguished Flathouse (Clonee) crew (after a replay) in the 1968 blue riband junior decider left a sour taste in the mouths of all belonging to Moylagh. Similarly, defeat in the intermediate championship final of '71 to Ballivor (again after a replay) was a bitter pill to swallow also. However, in the best tradition of sporting cliches, the north-Meath club's reversal of fortunes at the hands of rank-outsiders Bohermeen in the 1973 intermediate final put the proverbial tin-hat on Moylagh's misfortunes. Those hat-trick of mind-numbing defeats cut to the very quick of the Moylagh club and searching examinations of self-belief, confidence and ambition riddled local quarters for a period thereafter. Indeed, if someone had dumped a tonne of glass in the middle of Moylagh's pitch on the morning of the village fete, morale could scarcely have been hit with such thunderous effect. As such, the '75 intermediate championship final bore all the hallmarks of a do-or-die clash for club stalwards. In particular, for some of the battle-weary troops who had been soldiering gallantly since 1968, a berth in the losers' dressing-room didn't bear thinking about. It is said that nothing is black and white in football but in Moylagh's case circa September 1975, victory over Dunshaughlin was everything, especially to the likes of Johnny Flood: "That would have been it if we'd been beaten by Dunshaughlin. I don't know if the club would have recovered from another final defeat. After losing three finals, the lads showed a lot of character in getting stuck back into things but I don't know if they'd been fit to take another defeat in '75. "After '73 we could have nearly convinced ourselves we were never going to make a breakthrough but I always felt we had the stuff to come good. The worry was though that time was running out for a few of us, including myself!" But what were the missing pieces in the jigsaw, pre-1975? "Bad luck. I'd say we were too nice of a team as well. We played too nice football - there wasn't enough steel in the team. A lot of people from different parts of the county would comment on the nice, attractive style of football we'd play but, at the end of the day, it didn't win us any cups." No cups. And that was even with the likes of county material such as Paddy Traynor (a senior national league medallist), and John Joe Farrelly and Kevin Hanlon (both county junior players). As for Johnny himself, he might have made the county scene if modesty was a pre-requisite but he was just not good enough, he maintains. "Let's say I was missing the finer arts of football!" Still, he was a tremendous servant for Moylagh. A good clubman, as they say in the vernacular; a glue-like defender, committed and tenacious. Of course, football matters coursed through the Flood household like news of a sudden death in the parish. His brother Frankie would share in Moylagh's success. Meanwhile another brother Pat won a couple of national league medals with New York and actually captained the provincial title-winning Cavan minor team of 1959. Meanwhile, Mickie Flood featured on the Moylagh team which lost out in the 1968 final against Flathouse. Ironically, in 1974, Johnny, Frankie and Pat played in the same match for Moylagh against Oldcastle in Kilskyre while other brother Mickey lined out for Oldcastle. Oldcastle put their rival parishoners ot of the champioship that wet Sunday afternoon. Down the line, Johnny revelled in coming up against the likes of top notch outfits at that time such as Bohermeen i.e. the Rennicks bros. et al and Ballivor. So what went wrong against the Rennicks-powered Bohermeen in the '73 county decider? "I remember we were leading coming up to half-time when we had a goal disallowed. If that had been given, we would have been ahead by seven points." A bad call by the ref then? "Definitely. Their goalie and one of their corner-backs collided and the ref got the colour of the jerseys mixed up and he gave a free out. We all knew he was wrong and it was proven afterwards on the video but it was no good to us then," the popular victualler opines. With more or less the same squad in place from 1968 to '73, Moylagh were always there or thereabouts come championship time. Emigration wasn't part of the landscape back then and any migration was confined to the N3, Dublin-bound, which conveyed the away-based lads back home for the twice weekly training sessions during the summer. By '75, a new buzz was back in Moylagh. The arrival of Alo Donoghue - hitherto associated with Ballinlough and Ramor United but who was working as a teacher in Oldcastle and living there also - was to be crucial in charting Moylagh's odyssey to the promised land. "Before Alo came along, I think we lacked a figurehead, someone who could instill a bit of steel into our play and make us more aware, tactically speaking. I think he got us to get rid of our 'soft touch' label. He brought a bit of professionalism about the place and was definitely the best man I ever trained under. "In fairness too, the arrival of Ollie 'The Fan' Gilsenan from Ballinacree was a big help at that time as well. He was county senior standard but because he was from the wrong end of the county, he never got a chance to show what he could do with Meath. I'd say we'd have won the finals in '71 and '73 if we had those two on board then." The feel-good factor was very much abroad among the drumlins in Moylagh ahead of the intermediate championship final of '75, Johnny testifies. Moylagh's brio ricocheted southwards from the training ground. If Donoghue was to be the catalyst, it still needed herculean efforts from Flood, Gilsenan and the rest to put the plan into action. After all, Dunshaughlin went into the final as favourites and with the Jennings brothers, Noel Curran (father of current Dub Paul Curran) and Jimmy Walsh in their ranks, the bookies didn't expect Moylagh to save them a few bob. In the end, the green and whites decided to run with the script and do things the hard way. They allowed Dunshaughlin engineer a seven point cushioned lead with all but about ten minutes remaining in the final. Fortunately for Johnny and the rest of the Moylagh crew, a goal apiece by Kevin Hanlon and Richie Colgan served to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. For Moylagh, the long-awaited title success was as sweet as it was dramatic. Thereafter, Moylagh had an uneasy relationship with the top flight in Meath. With the help of Ballinacree additions, namely Peter and Gerard Farrelly, Moylagh did actually make it into the playoffs for the semi-finals of the senior championship in their very first year up but after earlier walloping Navan O'Mahonys in the championship proper, Moylagh collapsed in the play-off and lost by three points. "Well before that episode against O'Mahony's, we had a team capable of winning the senior championship in '71. I think if we had won the county final in '71, we'd have went on to win the senior title. It was the best Moylagh team I was ever a part of. We had the likes of Michael O'Shea playing with us then. He was a former Kerry senior player and an outstanding talent who also played with Westmeath. Johnny says he loved every minute of his football career, even allowing for the aforementioned setbacks. At the age of 41 in Centenary Year 1984, he called it a day with just the 1975 championship medal, an intermediate league souvenir from '72, a senior league medal from 1976 and a division two medal from 1981 to remind him of his time with Moylagh's finest. Father of current Moylagh stalwart Declan, the affable Johnny owns and runs Flood Butchers in Oldcastle town. Bet ya his meat is as tender as Moylagh's football once was!! Moylagh GFC It was a quiet year for football in Moylagh. We held on to our Division 3 A League status but had a disappointing championship, having drawn with Dunsany in round one, and then defeating Navan O'Mahonys in round 2 we lost all our remaining matches. Coach Donal Smith had a difficult task with three players going to the States at the start of year, Danny O Growney, Declan Traynor and Dara Flood while Eugene Coyle and Eamon Campbell retired so we had a young team out, so we would be hopeful for next year with young stars Joe Melia, Peter Fox and Justin O'Reilly playing a big part. Underage was something similar with our minors losing out to Dunshaughlin in Division 2 semi final. We have a new Chairman and Secretary this year in Gerry Grall and Brendan Dolan, plus three new selectors JJ Brady, Martin O'Reilly and Paddy Traynor. So here's so the future. Players to represent Meath this year . Justin O'Reilly - minors Peter Fox, Joe Melia - Under 16s Moylagh HC A fairly successful year with our juniors going out to Dunboyne narrowly in a tough semi final and our minors also going out in a semi final to St Martins by only one point. Our under 16s went down to Dunderry in the final in Kilskyre, it was the first time in ten years that we got out of our group in Junior 2 championship. Having suffered a heavy defeat to Boardsmill in first match we went on to defeat Kells, St Pat (great game with 14 men for 55 minutes), Longwood and Na Fianna to qualify for semi. A lot of credit must go to our chairman Matty Nolan and secretary Paul Foley for trojan work done at all levels of coaching underage, and especially fundraising. What about our coaches, Noel Briody and John O Farrell from Lough Lene Gaels these two men eat, drink and sleep hurling, two incredible men and a major boost to Moylagh hurling. Our junior team is made up of old stagers and some young pretenders, the old guys include Michael Burke, Brendan Dolan, Eugene O'Growney, James McShane and Pat Reilly, the young stars would be Michael Corrigan, "Dippy"Smith, Joe Melia, Eamon Boyle and Enda Mulvaney. Some of these young guys played hurling for Meath in 2001 - Joe Melia, Enda Mulvany and Damien Smith. Team Selectors; Div 2 Junior - Ned Boyle, Packy Clinton, Oliver Melia and Brendan Dolan Minor - Ned Boyle, Oliver Melia, Brendan Dolan Under 16 - Matty Nolan, Paul Foley Under 14 and Under 12 - Eugene O'Growney and Ollie Reilly Looking forward to 2002 and putting hurling in north Meath on the map. Moylagh GAA Tweet

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