1998 was supposed to be a good year for St. Ultans after a promising '97. Vincent Rennicks explains to Royal County where things went wrong and offers the opinion that dedication will bring success. On the 4th of July, when everybody in America was waving flags and smiling, Vincent Rennicks resigned as manager of St Ultans. It would be erroneous and unfair to call it Vincent's Independence Day, but such had been the litany of let downs and frustrations in 1998, the catalogue of disappointing defeats, that it was indeed something of a relieving liberation. While the club's second team reached the Junior C final, the intermediate side floundered, winning only one championship game, a record which disheartens Rennicks when bleakly off set with the buoyant expectations that greeted the beginning of the season. Having reached the quarter finals of the championship last year, when they succumbed to Blackhall Gaels, St Ultan's regarded the 1998 campaign as an opportunity to at least consolidate, or better, to impress again perhaps and reach the same stage or further. But it turned out to be a tough, unforgiving summer for St Ultans, beset by what Vincent, with initial reticence, describes as 'certain circumstances.' The first one of those concerned Sam Yore, a big dashing midfielder whose influence during St Ultan's progress to the knock out stages of '97 was pivotal. Vincent Rennicks describes him better, more clearly; "He was our top player." Yore emigrated to America at the end of the last season and his loss to St Ultan's who wouldn't have resources to provoke envy, was worse than incalculable; it was easily calculated: they had no one to adequately replace him. The other circumstances came later. It's platitudinous, but Vincent Rennicks really does come across as a St Ultans man to the marrow: he is affable and talkative and sincere, able to crack a joke. But that he is disheartened with events in '98 both on the field and off, is quite detectable. "It was a very disappointing season," he says, " a backward step. The thing that makes it disappointing is that we had made such progress last year. The five years previous to '97 we didn't win a game at all, and then last year we came along and won four and reached the quarter finals. We had hoped to build on that this year." The season did begin well, if expectedly, with victory over Ballinabrackey. It was the lonely road of loss from then on. They next played the Blackhall Gaels who, having just lost to Castletown, were in no mood for dispensing favours. "For them it was do or die," declares Vincent. "We held them for a good while but once they got away we were unable to catch them. They showed the form of eventual champions; they were well organised and they did the simple things right. They had beaten us the previous year in the quarter final and you could see the progress they had made since then; progress we hadn't made." St Ultans next championship match couldn't have come at a worse time for the club: in fact, it came at such a bad times that it eventually didn't take place. It was the weekend of the Offaly/Meath match and only three intermediate games were scheduled, one of them was St Ultans against Castletown in Kells. "The match came out of the blue for us," says Vincent. "We had three players on holidays and three doing exams in Limerick, Cork and Dublin. That was six we were missing from the team. We tried to have it called off - but the County Board, in the week prior to the match wouldn't give us a clear cut decision. On the night before the match, we sat down and had a meeting at the club and decided it would be best not to travel. That's a decision you never take lightly but we felt we didn't have a team that would do us justice." It was the weekend which shaped St Ultans season. "That put us four points down and virtually out of contention. I was very disappointed about it." A terminal blow for morale. With the juniors performing so well, the intermediate became a secondary concern. The first team fragmented. Against Donaghmore/Ashbourne, for example, there were three or four fellows lining out that hadn't even played for the second team. Being unable to lose players from the second team was a precipitating factor to Rennick's resignation. But this devolution of talent is something he believes will end once the relegation system is introduced. "Then the first team will be forced to put its best team out," he says. "Nobody likes to be go down; it will add interest right to the end of the season." The new man in charge now is Colm Coyle. Like all club members, Vincent is delighted St Ultan's have landed one of the county's best footballers of the modern era. "It will definitely add a bit of buzz to the club. Hopefully, the players will give their full commitment because it should be a privilege to have a man like Colm Coyle coaching them.| And despite the fallout of '98, Vincent remains sanguine when considering the final summer of this millennium. There's a couple of good minors coming through," he says, "like Kevin Rogers, Gary Rogers, Conor Martin and Tomas Coyne. Hopefully they can make the step up. If they do it will add a bit of competition for places. I think the knock out stages next year is certainly within reach. Vincent Rennicks played in the Leinster minor final in 1970. In 1998, he was still playing junior with St Ultans. He didn't intend to do so at the beginning of the season, but as these things invariably happen, one thing led to an other and before he knew it he was lining out in each match at full back. Had he not got injured in the last group game against Simonstown, he would have probably played in the final against Cortown too. He's always been as fit as a fiddle. In 1974 he was the All-Ireland (NACA) 800m champion. A couple of years later, alongside his brother Colm, who is also a prolific runner and the late Mattie McGrath and John Boyle, Vincent won the All-Ireland club cross country championship down in Cork. He also scopped the All-Ireland county championship the same day for the third time in his career. He regards the All-Ireland club win as the highlight of his career, and it just goes to show that he can run all day on the football pitch - even if at full back he doesn't choose to. Most of his playing with Martry and the Harps and St Ultans were in the Intermediate ranks. After three defeats in finals (Summerhill '72, Nobber '80 and Kilmainhamwood '82) he eventually won one with the Harps in 1985. They beat St Mary's, but Vincent feels by that stage the team was a little too much the elderly side to make an impact at senior level - which is what they were expected to do. "If you're going to win an Intermediate," he says. "It's best to do it with a young team so you can build on it. We got to the semi-final in our first two years but we lost a few players and it was a rather short stay for us in senior. If we'd have won the Intermediate earlier it could have given us a breeding space to develop at senior - and then go forward, more settled." Vincent looks upon football as a simple game (brother Gerry was a well-known referee and club official) - but one which is quite difficult to get right. "The most important thing in football is to be competitive," he states. "Winning is a bonus. If you can be competitive and get the structure of the club right - such as the facilities, the training, the atmosphere, all the little things - then success will eventually come." He looks upon Bohermeen parish and offers some perspective on success: "When you're a small club," he says, "it's hard to remain at the top. I remember when we were doing well, Cortown were in the junior ranks; Dunderry were intermediate and there was talk of them dropping down - they've since gone on to win the Keegan Cup and Cortown have made great strides. It comes in cycles, success. That will never change. Good generations of players always come along eventually." And the message of that is clear. Hope never dies. Tweet

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