Good, but not quite good enough
November 30, 2005
St Ultan's launched a two-pronged attack on silverware in 2005. Though they lost only four competitive matches over the course of the season and were in the shake-up for honours in both the league (Division Three) and the JFC, the Bohermeen Black & Green finished the year empty-handed, much to the frustration of gifted attacker Paul Murray.
Having developed an admirable winning habit over the course of the year, St Ultan's might have expected to garner at least one piece of silverware in 2005. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way, even though the Black & Greens weren't too far away from recording a memorable league/championship double.
Along with Syddan and Ratoath, they set the pace in Division 3 'A' of the all-county league all season but were edged out in what proved a very tight race for promotion and a place in the division decider. Just two defeats were enough to deny the Ultans promotion to Division Two.
Meanwhile, the two defeats sustained in the junior football championship proved even more costly. St Ultan's breezed through the group phase of the competition, finishing joint-top of the Group C table alongside St Michael's. While the Carlanstown men went on to book a return to intermediate football, St Ultan's were left licking their collective wounds after slipping to a surprise quarter-final defeat to Longwood on August 28.
St Ultan's involvement in both league and championship came to an end inside a week, spelling bitter disappointment for a team that many had had predicted big things for in '05. The failure of Jody Devine's charges to accumulate trophies has left some perplexed and others bewildered, with even the players themselves struggling to make sense of it all.
Paul Murray is heading into his seventh year as a St Ultan's first-teamer. He's hoping the Bohermeen men can prove their doubters wrong by finishing the job in 2006. After all, no point knocking on the door if you're not prepared to stick around and see if someone answers it!
Casting his mind back on the season in general, Paul concedes: "It certainly wasn't as planned. We set out to win the junior championship but it didn't go our way.
"We did well in the group stage but possibly weren't completely focused on the task at hand in the quarter-final. As a team, I think we were guilty of looking ahead to the semi-final instead of concentrating on the Longwood game, and that was a big mistake. It was disappointing because we had done well up until then…"
St Ultan's opened up with a 0-9 to 0-6 victory over Ballinabrackey and followed up with four more wins at the expense of the Three Ds - Dunshaughlin (3-13 to 2-5), Dunderry (3-10 to 2-5) and Drumbaragh (2-6 to 1-6) - and St Vincent's. In Round Six, the Ultans suffered a 2-7 to 0-7 defeat to St Michael's but they bounced back from their only setback of the group stage to beat Bective by 1-12 to 0-8 at Dunsany on Sunday August 14, thereby progressing to the business end of the JFC.
It all went pear-shaped much sooner than expected, however - a fortnight later to be precise: Longwood offered stubborn resistance in the last eight and deservedly claimed a surprise 0-11 to 0-10 win, thereby ending St Ultan's involvement in the 2005 junior championship. St Ultan's trailed by 0-7 to 0-3 at the break and, despite the assistance of a strong breeze, were unable to get back on terms thereafter. They closed to within a point but ran out of time.
A familiar story. Once again, St Ultan's took the group stage of the JFC by storm but failed to deliver in the latter stages.
"The first sign of things going wrong was when we lost to the Michaels, but we were missing some key men for that match and were close to full strength again for the quarter-final," Paul reflects. "We thought we would beat Longwood and there was definitely a complacent approach to that game. It was almost as if we felt we just had to show up.
"We had Colm Travers and Eugene Brady back and both made an impact after coming on as substitutes. Maybe we should have brought them into the game earlier, but who knows? We lost by a point and it was hard to take.
"It was the same in 2004. when we got to the knockout stage easily enough but lost to Ratoath. We were favourites again at the start of the '05 campaign and it's hard to know where exactly it went wrong. Apart from the Michaels game, we were very consistent in the group, but a few of the games were probably too easy and that doesn't help. Some of the matches were no use to us at all. If we'd had a few more hard games, we might have been better prepared for the quarter-final."
Jody Devine was over the team again in 2005, with Dessie Murtagh and Vincy Rennicks as selectors. "Training went really well," Paul says. "I was with the county U21s myself in the early part of the year and missed some of the club training, but all the lads seemed to be very fit and raring to go. I never heard any complaints from anybody. The team was very well prepared and there was a great attitude in the club. Everything was positive right from the off.
"We had a team meeting at the start of the year and we said that our aim was to win the junior championship and maybe get to a Division Three final. The championship was definitely our priority. We achieved our aim of escaping from Division Four in 2004 and we were determined to stay on track.
"The outcome in the league was also disappointing. If we had beaten Donaghmore/Ashbourne in our second-last game we'd have made the Top Two but Syddan and Ratoath got in ahead of us. It wasn't a nice feeling because we won a lot of matches over the year and only lost three or four times altogether, yet we had nothing to show for it at the end. That can be hard to take. We didn't even get to play in a final. We have a lot to prove next year"
Paul was 16 when St Ultan's won the JFC in 2000, coming into the fray as a substitute in the final against Dunboyne. That was his first season on the panel and he's been a regular fixture ever since. The Ultans clubman lined out at centre forward for Meath in the 2002 All-Ireland minor final and featured at Croke Park again - for the county juniors - the following year. He was with the U21s in 2005 and would in all likelihood have featured with the Royal juniors once more only for injury.
He is convinced that St Ultan's have the stuff to claim some serious silverware: "We've won nothing for five years now, but we have potential. This is a very young side with a lot of good young lads coming through. We should be getting a lot stronger over the next few years. Nearly the entire team are under 25 and most of us aren't long out of minor, so we can become a force.
"The lesson we learned from 2005 is that we have no divine right to win games. We can't just turn up and expect to win. We have to concentrate on every game as it comes, rather than looking ahead or getting carried away."
What's the plan of attack for 2006, then? "To win the junior," comes the matter-of-fact reply.
"Jody is staying on and that will be the main aim. If we get our act together, we should win it. Maybe the pressure of being favourites this year got to us. We received some criticism after the Michael's and Longwood games and we can't take that lying down."
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