The life of Reilly
December 31, 1999
Charlie Reilly, a selector with the Moynalty Intermediates this year and former player, reflects on a poor year for the north Meath club. They narrowly escaped relegation to the junior grade but off the field they continued to make progress.
Moynalty's Intermediate campaign this year ended in celebration but the basis of these celebrations was relief rather than joy at a long awaited championship success. The club's relegation play-off victory over north Meath rivals St. Brigid's, Ballinacree maintained their intermediate status during a year, which selector Charlie Reilly describes as a disappointing one.
"Disappointing would be the optimum phrase," he acknowledges. "We only survived in the Intermediate grade with a three point victory over St. Brigid's in a relegation play-off. We beat the same opposition in the earlier rounds of the competition and our only other point came from a draw with Donaghmore/Ashbourne."
Charlie doesn't beat around the bush when asked why Moynalty followers were left biting their finger nails all year.
"There was a serious lack of commitment by the players. The frustrating thing is that there are talented players in the club who, if they were willing to put in the effort, could go places. It wouldn't be realistic to be talking of winning Intermediate championships but we'd comfortably avoid relegation battles and get out of Division 4 of the league.
"That's the disappointing thing from our point of view. If you hadn't the players then there could be no complaints, but we've lads who have played on Meath minor/U21 teams in recent years as well as a lot of other good footballers. Still we only managed to stay Intermediate by the skin of our teeth."
Charlie inherited his passion for gaelic football from his father, also named Charlie, who played with the local club for a number of years.
This was his second year as selector of the Moynalty premier XV. Last year he was part of the management team assembled by former Cavan player John Mulvaney while this year Gerry Hennessy was at the helm. David Farrelly was also a selector while Meath player Jody Devine attended a couple of training sessions during the year in his role as 'coaching advisor'.
Charlie's career with the red and white's stretched from 1977 to 1998 (he lined out with the Junior C team having last played with the Intermediates in '95). His medal collection includes a Junior championship medal from 1987 as well as a Division 4 league souvenir.
Charlie, who incidentally runs a construction company, Chamar Construction, along with his brother Martin, wore the number six jersey for that memorable junior success over Cortown at Kells. Others who played prominent roles in that win include Michael Casey (current club chairman), Gerry Curran. Seamus McEntee, Joey Curley and Thomas Og Lynch.
Charlie's performances with Moynalty attracted the attention of the county minor selectors and he was chosen to represent the Royal County U18s in 1980. Under the guidance of Mattie Kerrigan, provincial honours were garnered before they lost out to Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.
He was corner forward on that occasion and team-mates included future Meath senior stars Liam Hayes, Finian Murtagh and Colm Coyle. One Tom Spillane was a central figure on the conquering Kerry XV.
Charlie renewed acquaintances with the green and gold jersey in 1988 when he won a Leinster medal with the juniors.
He has also served as secretary of the Moynalty club until a two year suspension brought his participation at administrative level to an end.
Charlie explains: "I was serving my third term as secretary in 1992 when some of the underage mentors were found guilty of fielding overage players. As a result myself and Eddie McCormack, who was chairman at the time, were suspended for two years. Obviously, it also prevented me from playing for two years. I haven't been involved on the committee since."
The former county minor/junior player is fulsome of his praise of the work being carried out by the current Moynalty committee.
"Things are going well on that front, the committee is working well. We're building dressing rooms at the moment, £80,000/90,000 is being spent on building them and putting up lights around the pitch. The committee is doing their bit . . . all we have to do now is get the players to buck up!"
Pointless to say, Charlie, who is married to Leitrim native Helen and has a one and half year old son, Cathal, was delighted with Meath's march to a seventh All-Ireland title this year. At the beginning of the year, bearing in mind the team's poor showing in the National League semi-final against Cork, was he confident that Sam Maguire would be touring the schools of the Royal County in the month of October?
"I fancied them to win Leinster and after that I knew they would be hard to beat," he replied. "They fully deserved to beat Cork in the final, they were the better team on the day and finished the stronger. There was a few nervous moments in the second half but I was always confident we were going to win."
The officers elected at the 1999 Moynalty AGM were as follows;
Presidents - Fr. P. O'Reilly, Mattie Gilsenan, Paddy Gaynor, Owen Farrell; chairman - Michael Casey; vice-chairman - Gerry Carolan; deputy vice-chairman - Ken Nevin; secretary - John McCabe; asst. secretary - David Murtagh; treasurer - John Sullivan; asst. treasurer - Kevin Donnellan; registrar and insurance officer - Joe McKenna; PRO - Pat Cussen; delegates to Co. Board - Willie Govern, John Sullivan, Audrey Bennett; minor chairman - Willie Govern; secretary - Sean Sheridan; juvenile chairman - Gerry Carolan; secretary - Ken Nevin; community council delegate - Sean Sheridan.
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