St Mary's are still struggling to make it back to the Intermediate ranks they departed four years ago. Niall Craven believes the club has to get a few things right before that situation will change. Tus maith leath na hoibre - a good start is half the battle. As Donore club St Mary's prepare for the upcoming season they could do worse than keep that old Irish maxim in mind. Although a stuttering start failed to prevent the north Meath side eventually reaching the knock-out stages of the Junior Championship, it did leave them playing continual catch-up in the league. And more importantly, it left them with an air of vincibility throughout the year. They might have been - once more - touted as one of the teams to beat in the championship, but rarely did opponents approach them tremulously. Rather they fancied their chances. And in the end, it all caught up with the Donore side. Defeat in the quarter-final of the championship coupled with an unimpressive league campaign consigned another season to the realms of the unremembered. How it could have been so different: the bad start is not entirely culpable. If circumstances were kinder St Mary's might have went closer to junior championship glory and a return to the ranks they decided to departed in 1996. But to that later. The bad start is what defender Niall Craven first makes mention of in conversation with the Royal County. "Before the season started," says defender Niall Craven, "we would have hoped to go a lot further than we did but things just weren't happening at the start of the season. We drew with Wolfe Tones , we lost to St Ultans. We weren't putting the required commitment in and it was showing. It wasn't until the latter part of the group stages that we started to get going." Their league form throughout the year reflected their turgid start. But then, more seasons than not, the club's league form reflects poorly on them. Craven, the Meath minor goalkeeper in 1993, believes an improvement is needed there. "We were lucky to stay up," he states bluntly of their Division 4 campaign. "One thing we've never really put mind to is the league and I think that should change. A positive attitude in the league could benefit us in the championship." He remarks that the opposite happened in 2000. "We got off to a poor start in the championship and then we struggled in the league." For a small club with limited resources and in an era when so many counter attractions exist, the conundrum of how seriously to take he league is a hard one to solve. But mention of the league would hardly be made now in the Yearbook had events unfolded more favourably in the championship. And they nearly did. Towards the end of the group stage, the Mary's started employing a few more cylinders. To book their place in the quarter final, they beat Moylagh, last year's beaten finalists, by ten points. They were widely tipped to advance against Dunboyne to the semi-final. "We were really coming into form," says Niall, "but on the day a number of our players picked up injuries which made it difficult for us." Those included half forward Cormac Drew and corner forward Tony Grifferty. To make matters worse, the Mary's star attacker full forward Alan Fulham picked up an early knock and was a shadow of his usual self throughout the sixty minutes. Robert Victory was another casualty. Not the only victory St Mary's missed out on. "In the end we lost by a point," says Craven who rotated all season between full back and centre back. "A lot of fellas say that Brendan Reilly was the difference between the teams. I reckon though that had we got over that game we would have went all the way to the final. "We weren't as disappointed the day we lost the final against Drumree in '98. You'd know by the way they reacted afterwards that Dunboyne were really delighted to beat us." Craven rotated all season between full back and centre back, swapping intermittently with Brian Lynch. He's always been an outfielder for the Mary's, never a goalkeeper which is where he lined out for the Meath minors in the 1993 All-Ireland minor final against Cork. It was his second year involved with the county minors: along with fellow clubmen Gareth Bell and Tony Grifferty, he picked up an All-Ireland winners medal in '92 when Meath defeated Armagh in the final. A year later, Cork prevented Meath completing a two-in-a-row. "It was disappointing to lose and, from my own point of view, to let in two goals. But it was a special occasion regardless. It just flew by. Impossible to take in on the day. "I remember growing up, seeing the lads [Meath minors] play in 1990 and wishing you could some day be out there as well. That's what every young lad wants to do, play for his county in Croke Park." A young lad then, but now for St Mary's one of the older gang. With the likes of Liam Smith and Paul Dunne retired the onus is on Craven and his experienced ilk to bring through the club's promising youngsters of which there are quite a few now. "It would have been nice to have had another year or two out of Liam and Paul who were two great players. We've got a number of promising young forwards now like Cormac Drew, Eoin Craven and Eoin Morris who would have benefited greatly from their experience." With new players coming through though, and with recent U16 success, things must be looking up. "They are," says Niall, "but unfortunately two of our players will be in America next season. So while we get one or two new players we seem to lose players as well. We're always chasing." Joint-managed by former Meath selector Tony Craven (Niall's uncle), Francis Gogarty, Ollie Clinton and Johnny Smith and trained by Shane Mulroy, St Mary's will again be one of the teams to beat in next year's Junior Championship. But as Niall states there are so many X factors involved. "First of all though, we should be trying to get out of Division 4," he stresses. "And then the championship, obviously that's a priority. We still feel we're one of the better teams in it but once you get out of the group stage anything can happen: that's when you need a little bit of luck - which last season we didn't get. "We can only hope that next time, after all the hard work, everything will fall into place." Tweet

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