Amidst the highly-vaunted, bright young football talent at St. Ultan's, Gary Rogers stands out as one of the brightest. A run with the Meath seniors and a central role with the Meath juniors reflects his innate promise. His club's sparkling Matthew Ginnity Cup win last year may still be fresh in his mind but young gun Gary Rogers is itching for more of the same sort of success, sooner rather than later. The flying forward delighted in experiencing the feel-good factor that swept across the bows of St. Ultan's in 2000 when all-comers were swept aside on the way to winning the blue riband junior crown. A Junior Football Championship title win can often be enough to sate even the hungriest club footballer but like many another young footballer hailing from a consistently successful underage stable, the St. Ultan's teenager is eager to get back into the winner's enclosure. "You can't beat winning to heighten your enthusiasm for the game. A lot of the fellas I have played with over the years have won a lot of medals up through the ranks and so we're all looking forward to adding to the haul we already have," Gary admits. As to whether the 'Ultan's crew will add to the club's trophy haul of recent times is a mute point but according to our man Rogers, it won't be for the want of trying if they don't succeed. Indeed, most objective commentators would tell you that the talent available to the backroom team at St. Ultan's is second to none in Meath's intermediate ranks. A wee break here, a slice of good fortune there and another championship title could well be theirs in the coming season, or two. "Most of the current team would have been part of winning teams at underage level so there's a tremendous level of self-belief in the panel. I don't think we'd fear any team in the intermediate grade although there are a few good teams and it's a pretty even standard which makes the competition very tough. "There's a winning pedigree at the club these days and even though we've time on our side as maybe ten or eleven of the intermediate side are still under 21, I think we could go very close in the coming year with regard to winning the intermediate championship," adds Gary who credits clubman Pat Duffy with nurturing a lot of the success gleaned by the club at underage ranks over the last ten years or more. On a personal front, Gary doesn't lack for a football pedigree, winning or otherwise as his father is Dessie, a 40-something staunch 'Ultan's clubman who captained Meath all the way to an All-Ireland Junior final in 1987. Needless to say, Gary admits that the staple diet at chez Rogers since he was old enough to walk has been football. The fact that he has been known to play a bit of the association version with Drogheda United and in times past, Shelbourne and St. Francis is neither here nor day. "It can be fairly demanding trying to combine both the Gaelic with St. Ultan's and the soccer but I seem to get by without letting anyone down or my form suffering and, as for injuries, I've been relatively lucky in that had a bit of a groin injury a while back but the fact that my father is a physiotherapist is handy in that respect." Despite the demands on his time, energy and undoubted natural talent, Gary is without doubt fully committed to the cause of the ambitious Saints. The degree of his disappointment as he reflects on the past season is genuine and heartfelt: "We were flying at the start of the year and we were very hopeful that things would go well for us in 2001 but it didn't just work out for us. "We came out with all guns blazing as the league got underway and then we went four games unbeaten in the championship. We beat Moynalty, Rathkenny, Ballivor and Drumconrath but then lost to Moynalvey and then drew with Na Fianna which left us a point behind Castletown in second place with one game left to play. "If results worked in our favour, we could win, lose or draw our last game but things worked against us after we lost to Castletown. We went out of the competition and that put a real dampener on our season as we felt we had a good chance of going all the way, especially after beating Ballivor." So why did things go so pear-shaped? "It's difficult to put your finger on it but I think heads went down a bit after the Moynalvey game which I remember came before the Meath juniors beat Wexford at Croke Park before the Kildare and Meath Leinster semi-final," explains Gary who was joined on the county junior panel in 2001 by clubmates Colm Travers and Alan Ball and at midfield specifically by Walterstown's Joey Farrelly. "I remember going out onto Croke Park before the Wexford game and thinking that the pitch wasn't as big as I had imagined. I can tell you I changed my mind when the game was over 'cause I was really tired." But how hard was it to combine involvement with Meath juniors and the club's bid to win intermediate honours? "I can't speak for the other two lads - Colm and Alan - but I don't think playing with the Meath juniors could be used as an excuse in terms of explaining why the club didn't go the distance in the intermediate championship. You couldn't say either that we were distracted by our involvement with the county." Still, Gary acknowledges that he thoroughly enjoyed his stint with the Meath juniors and his stints with Sean Boylan and co (he derived great enjoyment from playing under lights in goals for Meath seniors against Cavan in Simonstown for instance) but the club scene is something special. "You really can't beat winning something with your home club. Winning the junior championship in 2000 was a great boost to everyone in the club and I have some great memories of that win over Dunboyne in the final and it would be nice, very nice to get back into a championship final." In that aforementioned tussle with the Model County in the 2001 Leinster JFC, Gary came up against Wexford's Eric Bradley. It rekindled memories of when Bradley featured prominently in Wexford's shock victory over Meath in the minor provincial championship of a couple of years back. "It was nice to get one over them in 2001 in the junior game because they had also beaten us in the junior championship in 2000." Brother of Keith (a promising underage player with St. Ultan's), Gary admits that he has been spoilt somewhat on the club front with regard to the medals he's been fortunate enough to win over the years. The fact that he sports a brace of medals at almost every underage level from under12 right up to under 18 has only served to fuel his appetite for more. At 19 years of age, he knows that he should get at least another couple of opportunities to redecorate the mantle piece with a bit more silver before he hangs up his boots. "I think everyone will be disappointed if we don't at least make the semi-finals of the intermediate championship next year. We'll be looking to repeat the sort of form we showed early this year. You have to set your targets high. "The team as a whole will have benefited from another year of grafting together. The players will be a year more experienced and mature and we should also be able to give the county under 21 championship a good run for it." And his own personal ambitions? "Naturally, I'd love to be part of a consistently successful St. Ultan's team and if that happens maybe the chance of getting a run with the Meath seniors might arise. I'd love to be part of the senior squad just like most fellas." Watch this space! Tweet

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