A mixed bag
December 31, 1999
Nineteen-ninety-nine was a strange year for Carnaross, a season tatooed by ups and downs. First of all, their star player Ollie Murphy inspired Meath to their seventh All-Ireland; then they lost their senior status; finally, they bounced back to finish the year on a high note by winning the Division Two league title.
Under different circumstances, 1999 would have been a near-perfect year for the north Meath club. But the fact that they lost their senior standing takes most of the gloss off what had the potential to be one of Carnaross's greatest years ever bar none. Looking back upon the eventful season just ended, club Secretary John Cahill has to force a smile.
Yes, he's pleased about the big part Ollie played in bringing Sam back to the Royal County; of course, he's happy that the Cavan Main Road XV finished their season on a high note by winning the Division Two league final; but the one thing that sticks in his mind and won't go away is the fact that Carnaross lost their hard-earned senior status. Boy, does that hurt . . .
Its erratic unpredictability is at once the beauty of and problem with gaelic football. Carnaross were on the wrong side of it in '99 . . . they could just as easily have retained their senior status, but it wasn't to be. As a realist, John Cahill knows only too well that - from the club's perspective, at least - the most significant event of the year was slipping back down to intermediate grade.
When it was put to John that it was still a good enough year for Carnaross, he was quick to put the record straight: "We dropped from senior to intermediate and that was very disappointing. At the end of the day. Carnaross lost their senior status because of a rule change . . . a rule change which, incidentally, I don't agree with. I don't see any reason why the County Board should be reducing the number of senior teams in the county from 19 to 16. To the contrary, with the growth of a lot of areas in the south of the county in particular - Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin and Dunboyne - I believe they should have actually increased the number of senior teams in the county to 20.
"Carnaross were relegated because of a change in the rules and we have no choice but to take it on the chin. I suppose winning the Division Two league at the end of the season softened the blow a little bit and playing in Division One next year will be nice. But it's the senior championship you really want to be playing in."
It was ironic that three of Carnaross's most important games of the year were played against local rivals Gaeil Colmcille. The Div. 2 league final was on Saturday November 13th at Carlanstown and Carnaross persevered by 1-13 to 1-9. The Kells team led by 0-6 to 0-5 at the short whistle, Carnaross being kept in the game by the accuracy of Ollie Murphy (still obviously hampered by injury) and the Yores, Stephen and Ciaran.
Carnaross had by far the better of the second half exchanges, with Conor Woods and Brian Comaskey coming into their own in the middle of the park. Points from Murphy, John L McGee, Stephen Yore and Aidan Ward edged them in front and a lovely goal from Sean Donegan gave them a seven-point lead. There was no way back into it for Kells against a team well served on the day by excellent performances from Thomas Farrelly, Thomas Nugent, Ollie Murphy, Conor Woods, Stephen and Ciaran Yore, Brian Comaskey and - in particular - Gavin Murphy at centre half back.
After the game, the league trophy was presented to Gavin Murphy who was stand-in captain on the day. The winning team was: T Morris; I Kerins, D Yore, S Reilly; T Farrelly, G Murphy, T Nugent; B Comaskey, C Woods; JL McGee (0-3), S Yore (0-2), S Donegan (1-0); A Ward (0-2), O Murphy (0-5), C Yore (0-1). Sub: P Nugent.
For some reason, this game suffered from a local print media blackout. There were no reports in the following week's local papers, although a small token piece did appear a week late. "There was a dispute between the County Board and the press in Navan and we got caught in the middle," John notes. "I was very disappointed that neither paper attended. Regardless of what the problem was, it's very disappointing when a league final isn't covered. Everybody knew the game was on so for anyone to say that they weren't told officially is a very lame excuse."
Still, Carnaross won and nobody will be able to take that away from them: "It's nice to win and to know that we'll now be playing the top senior teams in the league. But it's just not the same as the championship. We have a very young team and hopefully they'll be able to win back their senior status. We aren't a senior team on the downturn but one that was caught up in a rule change. We were well able for senior football - we beat Ballinlough in the championship and they only lost to the eventual champions Skryne in the quarter-final by a point. That shows that we weren't too far off the mark. When you measure it that way, you can't possibly say Carnaross were a bad team."
For the group stage of the 1999 SFC, Carnaross were in with Seneschalstown, Ballinlough, Summerhill and Gaeil Colmcille. They recorded a solitary victory (over Ballinlough) and finished joint bottom of the table with Kells which meant the two sides had to meet to see who would go into the relegation play-off against Trim. Had they enjoyed more luck, Carnaross would not have been in this position . . . they pushed Seneschalstown all the way but were undone by a controversial late decision and Ollie Murphy missed the crucial group match against Kells when his car broke down (a game they lost narrowly without their county star).
When Carnaross and Kells met for the second time, the county selection had both Dominic Yore and Ollie Murphy sent off and were never really in the running thereafter. Against Trim, they drew, then finally lost their senior status after a replay. Even the fact that PJ Gillic had agreed to put the boots on one final time to try and save his injury-and-suspension-hit club from going down didn't get them out of the woods. "Ultimately, Carnaross paid a big price for Meath winning the All-Ireland," says the club Secretary.
How will Carnaross do next year? John Cahill is optimistic: "Well, we were 500/1 to win the senior in '99 and I don't think the bookies will be giving anything like 500/1 on Carnaross winning the intermediate. Of course, the intermediate championship is going to be very difficult against the likes of the Pats, Slane and Ballivor but we're good enough to do it if we get the breaks. Once you get the Christmas over and go into the New Year, football lives on irrespective of any of us. The players will always want to win because that's the nature of the game but, unfortunately, there will always be more losers than winners because that's the nature of the game as well."
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