Simonstown celebrated a long overdue Under 12 championship success in June of this year. Eddie Maguire was joint-manager, along with Brian Moran, and here he recounts the team's road to glory. The Simonstown trophy cabinet was reunited with a long-lost friend in June of this year. The Under 12 cup had all but taken up residence in the north Navan club's pavilion during the second half of the eighties and early nineties, but, for some reason or another, hadn't paid a visit since 1992. But old acquaintances were renewed when captain Alan Watters accepted the cup from fellow Simonstown man, Juvenile Board vice-chairman Michael McMahon, following his team's 4-10 to 4-7 victory over Round Towers in a thrilling decider which was played in Gibbstown. Eddie Maguire was co-manager of the team, along with Brian Moran, and according to the former Mayo, Meath and Walterstown player, the seeds of this year's success were sown when these players were just six years of age. Even back then, he says, it was clearly noticeable that they were blessed with the type of talent that gets teams noticed in Royal County GAA circles. "Joe O'Dwyer, Michael Walsh (who is now in Tipperary), myself and others have looked after this group of players since they were six years of age and we knew that they were capable of going on and achieving big things," remarked Eddie whose son Paul was the team's centre-half forward. "Two years ago they won the Meath U10 blitz in Pairc Tailteann while last year they won a county U11 tournament which our own club organised. We knew that if we could field a full team we would take a lot of stopping." Fielding a full team proved to be much more difficult though than Eddie had originally anticipated. For example, in the opening game of the campaign, against Round Towers also, seven of their first choice team were unavailable for a variety of reasons. Not surprisingly they got off to a losing start but comfort was gleaned from the fact that they only lost by four points despite being so understrength. "We found out that day that we had a very strong panel at our disposal. The players that came in performed very well." Never was the importance of strength in depth in a panel more clearly illustrated as it was with this Simonstown team as they found themselves in a similar situation in the build-up to the decider. Holidays and injuries combined to deprive them of some of their most influential performers. Regular full-back Brian McKeever, a model of consistency throughout the campaign, was away in Portugal, Shane Carr, son of ex-Meath minor manager Paddy and the team's centre-half back, was in America while 'keeper Stephen Moran was in Ibiza. Fluid on the knee placed question marks over Shane O'Rourke's participation - where did we hear of an O'Rourke with knee problems before! - while Denis Morgan was ruled out of the starting XV with a similar complaint. "We were in a state of near chaos!" laughed Eddie. "Round Towers would have been overwhelming favourites as a result of all we were missing as they had several of the team which won the competition last year still available." A reshuffle of the deck saw Paddy Kearney, brother of Simonstown senior star Ned, take over the goalkeeping duties having featured as a forward at different stages of the campaign. A number of fine performances for the reserves earned David Wall a call-up to the first team and the left-corner forward produced a display full of guts and determination - incorporating four valuable points - which belied his small stature. Full-forward James O'Dwyer, son of the aforementioned Joe, also graduated from the second team with flying colours. He started the semi-final against Trim and helped himself to a hat-trick of goals and a point. He maintained his impressive scoring rate in the decider with 2-1 and had a third effort disallowed. Shane O'Rourke, who, incidentally, also played with the Navan club's U14s this year, was switched to full-back and although quite obviously hampered by that knee injury, he battled bravely and made a telling contribution. "The switches we made worked out perfectly for us, we couldn't have hoped for better. The moving of captain Alan Watters from the half-forward line to midfield for the semi-final was particularly important to the win. He played brilliantly there." The large Simonstown contingent who were present in Gibbstown for the decider would echo those sentiments as Watters certainly led by example. He received great support too from partner David Moran who cracked home a spectacular goal in the first half. That goal, in the 20th minute, gave the men in sky blue and navy a 1-4 to 0-1 lead and that was extended moments later when O'Dwyer pounced for his first three-pointer. The Kells lads responded swiftly with a well taken goal though, and the scoreboard read 2-6 to 1-3 at the interval. Left-half forward Darren Tolan looked to have wrapped the tie up for Simonstown after just 45 seconds of the second period when he burst through the Round Towers defence for his side's third goal but, to their credit, the opposition refused to lie down and subsequently embarked on a revival which set up an nailbiting finale. With just five minutes remaining, the north Navan outfit were 4-8 to 4-6 to the good - O'Dwyer grabbed his second goal in the 53rd minute - but Kells were laying siege to the Simonstown goal at this stage. Luckily, for the eventual winners, Paddy Kearney was in fine form between the posts and he pulled off a couple of match-winning saves in the closing moments. In front of him, Paddy O'Reilly, Gary McDonagh, Jason Walsh, Rory O'Connor, Po Sing Lam and Justin Flynn provided stiff resistance and their defensive efforts were rewarded when substitute Denis Morgan sent over the insurance point with practically the last kick of the game. Cue the celebrations! "A lot of Simonstown people turned up for the final and the majority of them were back in the clubhouse that night and we had a great outing, made all the more enjoyable by the presence of the cup. "The game itself was a wonderful advertisement for underage football in Meath. The Round Towers mentors have much to be proud of as their team produced an excellent comeback which made for a tension-filled final few minutes. Thankfully we held out for the win," added the Navan resident. "One of the most pleasing aspects of the win was the help we received from the boys' parents throughout the year. There was never an occasion when we had to hire a mini-bus to transport the lads to a game as there was always plenty of cars available. The parents were totally behind us, and have been since the boys started out. Paddy Carr did a lot of great work with the team before he went away to America for example. Thankfully the team fully justified all the expectations." Ominously for other clubs, the Mayo native is of the opinion that this year's win may just be the tip of the iceberg. "The underage structure which currently exists within the club is very strong and it provides us with a great opportunity to fully develop the skills of all our young players and field strong teams at all levels. "We were forced to endure a couple of lean years recently but I must say that I'm extremely optimistic about the future. The group of youngsters coming up behind this year's U12 team also look as though they can make a big impression. They've already won a couple of U10 tournaments." Don't say you haven't been warned! The Simonstown team which was on duty in the Under 12 final was: P Kearney; P O'Reilly, S O'Rourke (0-1), R O'Connor; G McDonagh, J Walsh, J Flynn; D Moran (1-1), A Watters (0-1), C O'Donoghue, P Maguire (0-1), D Tolan (1-0), B McDermott, J O'Dwyer (2-1), D Wall (0-4). Subs: PS Lam for McDermott, D Morgan (0-1) for Tolan, D Farrelly for O'Rourke. Tweet

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