St. Mary's have a passionate desire to experience that winning feeling in the Junior Football Championship again, but there was further disappointment in the campaign gone by when they were eliminated in a preliminary quarter-final by a Drumbaragh side which demonstrated considerable improvement on the previous year. The Donore club has to go back to 1979 for their last JFC triumph and, while it didn't happen for them in the 2005 campaign, at least they progressed further than in '04 and can look forward to next year's championship with renewed hope. An examination of Group B of the championship after the draws were made last spring suggested that St. Mary's should be capable of mounting a very serious challenge for a place in the business end of the battle for the Matthew Ginnity Cup, with just one team really appearing to stand out from the rest in the section. That was Dunsany, who had lost the final to Ratoath the previous autumn, and who have been one of the most consistent sides in the grade in more recent years, also going under at the last hurdle in 2002 when Nobber got the better of them. Also in the group were the Athboy/An Gaeltacht combination Clann na nGael, Kilbride, Curraha and the second string teams from Dunboyne, Skryne and Simonstown Gaels, so Mary's had to be very optimistic about their prospects of making it through to the knock-out stages at least. Clann na nGael provided the opposition in the opening round at Walterstown back in April and, while St. Mary's made the desired winning start, it wasn't exactly a clearcut success as they won by just three points on a 0-9 to 0-6 score line. However, a win is a win and getting their championship campaign off to a victorious start was mission number one and it had been accomplished. Simonstown's second string looked quite strong on paper and so it was to prove as they reached the quarter-finals where they were beaten by town rivals Navan O'Mahonys, but Mary's had four points to spare over them when the sides met in a second round encounter at Slane, winning by 2-7 to 1-6. The Donore side made the perfect start when Joe Moore found the net in the early stages. A Stephen Bishop penalty came back off the post and Moore was on hand to finish from the rebound. That goal helped them lead by 1-5 to 1-3 at the interval and a second goal from Robbie Callaghan essentially killed off the game as a contest. David Gogarty, Paul Scanlon, Bishop, Brian Lynch, Derek O'Brien and Brian Smith were particularly effective for Mary's and, with back-to-back victories under their belt, things were certainly looking up. Callaghan also managed to notch a goal in the third round meeting against the previous year's beaten semi-finalists Dunboyne at Skryne, but it didn't prove sufficient as Mary's winning start to the championship came to a halt. They looked quite capable of making it three wins from as many outings as the contest ticked into injury time, but Michael Reilly had other ideas as he scored two late points to snatch victory for the St. Peter's side. The alarm bells weren't exactly ringing after that narrow defeat, but there was obviously a desire to bounce back to winning ways and keep the momentum towards a place in the knock-out stages going. And that's exactly how it worked out for St. Mary's as they won three matches on the bounce to leave themselves in a strong position as the group stages of the competition approached their conclusion. Curraha were comfortably beaten by 0-13 to 0-5 in the fourth round and a 1-12 to 1-8 win followed next time out against Skryne's second string at Duleek. Mary's held a 1-7 to 0-4 lead at the break and did enough in the second period to secure both points. By this stage they had eight points from a possible 10 after achieving four victories and suffering that one loss to Dunboyne and their fifth win of the group stages came in the sixth round when they edged out Kilbride by 1-11 to 0-11 at Skryne. It was a victory that kept them at the head of their section and a second half goal was key to the triumph. The sides were locked together on 0-5 each at the break, but the introduction of Stephen Bishop as a substitute and a number of positional switches did the trick for Mary's. Bringing Bishop into the action was certainly an inspired move by the Mary's management team as he notched that vital goal which made all the difference in the end. David Gogarty, Derek Hughes, Joe Moore, Tony Grifferty and Eoin Morrison were other key figures in the victory. The meeting with 2004 runners-up Dunsany in the last of the group matches was always going to be a tricky assignment for St. Mary's and that's exactly how it turned out as they suffered their second loss of the championship when going under by double scores (0-8 to 1-13) at Skryne. Losing by eight points had to be a blow, but at least Mary's had done enough during their group campaign to keep themselves in the championship race and could look forward to that preliminary quarter-final against a Drumbaragh team that had surprised many people with their form in the competition up to that stage. And it was the north Meath side, who were later to exit the title race at the last eight stage against keen rivals Kilmainham, who came out on top, winning a tight contest by 0-10 to 0-7. Mary's appeared to have every chance of making further progress in the championship when they held the slenderest of advantages (0-5 to 0-4) at the interval, but the Drumbaragh men restricted them to just two points in the second period and that paltry return was never likely to be good enough. However, it still took two late points to secure a quarter-final ticket for Drumbaragh and St. Mary's dream of an overdue Junior Championship title was over for another year at least. Liam Smith, surely the greatest player ever to line out for St. Mary's and a vitally important and influential member of the team that last won the Junior Championship over a quarter of a century ago in 1979, was coach for the campaign gone by. "We got out of our division in the championship and made it into the knock-out stages, so I suppose it represented a bit of an improvement," said Smith who was a superbly skilful and accurate forward in his playing days, enjoying an inter-county career with Meath which was highlighted by the Centenary Cup success in 1984 when he lined out at left half-forward in the final victory over Monaghan at Croke Park. He was certainly in good company on that particular line of the Royal County attack as it also included highly talented Seneschalstown duo, Mattie McCabe and Colm Coyle. "Hopefully, we can now build on that progress and go forward from here," he added. "We were short a number of player, which didn't help our cause. Cormac Drew, who is one of our best forwards, injured his cruciate ligament back in February and we really missed him. He has had an operation done and it will be a big boost to have him there next year. "We also have Tony Grifferty back with us after spending a number of years with Newtown Blues. He won two Senior Championship medals with the Blues. He transferred back to us in mid-season." It's now a case of looking ahead for Smith and the St. Mary's players and with some progress made in 2005 they can contemplate the challenges of the 2006 campaign with renewed hope and optimism. "It will be a big help to us to have Cormac and Tony with us next year," Smith said. "With them there we would hope to make further progress. We would still be a bit behind some of the teams at junior level, the likes of St. Ultan's and Dunsany, who beat us comfortably this year. "But otherwise we would be happy enough. We just have to put our best foot forward, which we don't always do." Consistency of performance is a key factor in gaining success in any sport and it's something Smith would like to see more of in the St. Mary's displays, both in championship and league. "We need to find more consistency and that was definitely reflected in our form in the A League Div. 4 this year. We drew with Rathkenny in the league when we should have beaten them. They went on and won it out. "Rathkenny and Kilbride will be gone out of our division next year when we will set our sights on getting out of the division," he concluded. Hope springs eternal and when the championship draws are made next spring St. Mary's will be a side nobody will take for granted. Reaching the quarter-finals should be a minimum requirement. Tweet

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