Having failed once again to make an impact in the Intermediate championship, Donaghmore/Ashbourne have reinforced the notion that they are a club unable to reproduce their best league form in the most important competition. Back before Dunshaughlin finally made it to the senior ranks, after many many seasons of frustrating close calls, the tut-tuts, the head-shakes were many and vehement. "How could a town of Dunshaughlin's size not be home to a senior club?" wondered thousands, as if it was an eternal mystery. Well, it eventually happened, the Dunshaughlin boys finally gained promotion in 1997 and have since never looked more at home than catching and kicking in the senior ranks. So now, without Dunshaughlin, we look around Meath for a club to fill the void in our wondering, solicitous affections, and after not much looking we happen upon Donaghmore/Ashbourne, a still developing club but arguably a club from an area much too prosperous and populous not to be operating at the highest level. The thing is, people haven't been wondering as much about Donaghmore as they did about Dunshaughlin, and the reason for that should escape nobody. Dunshaughlin, before being promoted, were an annual fixture at the business end of the Intermediate championship. They were always in the light if not the limelight and they shed enough tears as a result of near misses to water the grassroots for a couple of decades. Donaghmore, on the other hand, haven't been in the championship light since full back Mick Beggy's first season with the adults in 1993. It was a shadowy candle light too with the club only reaching the quarter final of the competition and no further. And since then, well, it's been consistent championship failure. Not what Beggy expected. "It was a good year for the club and even though I was mostly on the bench, I remember being quite excited and nervous. Playing in a quarter-final in your first season you'd have expectations that every season is going to be the same, perhaps even better. But championship football isn't like that; it's tough and extremely competitive. Every year is a clean slate. "Now," says the 26 year old club captain, "I'm no longer one of the young lads but one of the senior players who the young lads look to. Times have changed and the years have rolled by. We haven't had a championship run since Kilmainhamwood beat us that day." Long and arduous would be the struggle to recount the ins and outs of Donaghmore's perennial shortcomings - championships ones, that is. Best to confine ourselves to contemporary events. Last season, unquestionably, the hopes were high. They might have lost manager Brendan Murray to the Meath U21s but his replacement wasn't half bad: Dublin legend Charlie Redmond. Plus having secured promotion to Division 2 towards the latter part of 1999, they would be meeting better football teams in the secondary competition, sharpening their appetite. All in all, the signs that Donaghmore were capable of mounting a substantial challenge in the Y2K championship looked better than good. But proceedings couldn't have got off to a worse, or indeed low-scoring, start for the south Meath club. Meeting newly-crowned Junior champions St Pauls in Dunshaughlin, Donaghmore put in a quality defensive display conceding only four points. But, in wet and windy conditions, they scored only two. The sense that the opening game still rankles with Beggy is palpable. "In the championship the first game is a must-win game," he stresses. "If you make a bad start it's very hard to recover and that's the way we found it." A lack of panel depth, believes Mick, fostered another lack: that of consistency. Games won were followed by games loosely allowed to slip away. Sometimes the inconsistency manifested itself in a single game. "One of our big problems throughout the season was poor first halves," says the captain. "We would then go out and have an outstanding second 30 minutes. It was rare that we could play consistently throughout an entire match. Sometimes we got away with it, sometimes we didn't." They didn't against St Pats though almost did. Nine points adrift they relentlessly hauled their opponents in only to run out of energy when the catch and kill was required. Two points they lost by. And from where originated this erratic nature? Beggy considers a moment before replying. "I think maybe some of the young players were nervous before the championship and couldn't get going in the early stages. We never had the same problems in the league as much. Experience counts for a lot in the championship." Victories arrived against Bective, Slane and Laytown Colmcilles. The latter, who eventually reached the semi-final stage, they beat by seven points. No need to expand on the significance of that. But significance begone! Rather two victories over St Pats and Rathkenny and a place in the semi-final than a late summer of league game fillers and thoughts of what might have been. "They were big losses at crucial times," recalls Mick Beggy. "Against Rathkenny we were missing a couple of players, our full forward Timmy O'Regan and James Heavy. And we just didn't have the depth in the panel to adequately replace them." A timely second-half goal by Donal Curtis was the game's most telling strike. Rathkenny's county man was one of the more dangerous full forwards Mick Beggy faced last season. Thanks to Division Two football there were other tough ones too. He allowed Tommy Dowd three points in Donaghmore's clash with Dunderry, and felt he performed well in general. "It was the first season I faced that calibre of player week-in week-out. As a full back you have to be consistent in that sense, and reliable. "St Pat's Daithi White," he continues, "was one of the trickiest [full forwards] I came up against last season. He liked to drift out a lot. Some full backs don't like to follow full forwards who go out the field but I was confident to do so, knowing that our corner backs Noel Woods and Davy Gaughan were well capable of covering the back line." Alas then, only one of Donaghmore's pre-season objectives was realised: survival in Division 2. No mean feat in itself but the priority next season remains the championship and, more precisely, qualification to the knock-out stages. "There's no doubt we have underachieved as a club. Ashbourne is a big town so realistically we should be stronger than we are," contends Beggy. "But we're getting stronger. We lost one great manager in Brendan Murray but we got another one in. We have all learnt from Charlie Redmond. He brought not only our fitness levels up but improved our tactical awareness. Hopefully Charlie will stick around because another year with him will bring us on in leaps and bounds. I think some of his ideas were only being bedded in last season and will come to greater fruition next. Plus we have a couple of very good young players who are developing well. Another year will give them added strength and experience." Two years maybe after that and Donaghmore/Ashbourne could be well on the way towards solving their big town/intermediate status conundrum, if they haven't already solved it by then. The club is in the process of developing brand new facilities on a site situated in the centre of Ashbourne town. The move will see them abandon their current home two miles outside the town. Mick Beggy foresees nothing but good things arising from the new project: "Good facilities promote a good image and now that these facilities will be in the centre of the town I think it will be easier for us to attract more and more players. "A town Ashbourne's size," he adds, "needs a senior club. Hopefully that need will soon be satisfied in the not-to-distant future." Tweet

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