One of the biggest surprises in the 2005 Meath Senior Football Championship was the failure by defending Keegan Cup custodians Skryne to reach the quarter-finals. The Blues won just three of their seven group games and the third enabled them to avoid the embarrassment of figuring in a relegation play-off. By Noel Coogan. That was a very disappointing showing from the side which did the county proud by advancing to the Leinster club final where they lost out to Portlaoise the previous year. But they obviously sorely felt the loss of influential midfielder John McDermott who hung up his boots after the 2004 campaign. Long-serving club member Ray Mooney, who again a senior selector as well as continuing in the position of secretary in 2005, acknowledged that McDermott was a huge loss while another experienced player, Donegal-native Paul O'Donnell, who won two SFC medals with the Blues, decided to quit after figuring in the early rounds. "As well losing John and Paul, we were hit by injuries to Trevor Giles and Mick O'Dowd. Both were missing for crucial games. After winning out the year, maybe there was not the same hunger on the part of some players although there were very good attendances at training sessions," said Mooney. Mick O'Dowd was again the player/manager and his charges looked to be some in some trouble when losing their first two games, to St Patrick's and promoted Wolfe Tones, but with the big group, most of us felt that they would recover sufficiently to sneak into the top four in their section. They did recover a bit but not nearly enough. But Trevor Giles, who had gained a dramatic reprieve which enabled him to play in the previous year's final against Simonstown Gaels, sustained a shoulder injury near the end of the Wolfe Tones clash at Walterstown which ruled him out of all Meath's championship games. However, the twice national Footballer of the Year only missed one local SFC match. He had to sit out the third round but Skryne overcame his absence to get their first points with four to spare over neighbours Dunshaughlin. Giles returned for the second half of the two goals win over Seneschalstown but was unable to lift his colleagues sufficiently as defeats at the hands of Walterstown and Simonstown Gaels sent the holders tumbling to a surprise exit from the title race. St Patrick's were being thought of as relegation candidates but they showed an indication of things to come with a 1-9 to 1-6 win over Skryne in the first round clash at Ratoath. Although there was a long way to go, a match report suggested that the game showed up certain limitations. They had wing back Martin Mulvaney sent off at the end of the third quarter and shortly after that were eight points in arrears. Although Kevin Mulvaney drove a shot to the net and O'Dowd and Giles sent over good points, it was a bad start for Skryne. It was strange to see the defending champions listed at 10/1 in one betting list (joint sixth favourites with Wolfe Tones) before the start of the 2005 Meath SFC and after a couple of rounds they could be backed at odds of 16/1. Skryne were involved in an exciting second round tussle with the emerging Tones which the title custodians lost by the minimum margin (0-10 to 2-5). Mick O'Dowd popped over six points and while Trevor Giles got on target twice, he was off the mark with a couple of frees. Although he did not retire, the Meath captain in the 2001 All-Ireland final picked up a shoulder injury near the end of that outing which kept him out of action for a number of weeks. But he did not miss much local championship action, sitting out the third round Sunday evening tussle with Dunshaughlin at Pairc Tailteann which Skryne won by 1-12 to 1-8. It was a third win from four outings against the men in black and amber with the other clash ending level. The Blues were behind by four points in the opening quarter but they recovered well with O'Dowd scoring 1-4, the goal coming from a penalty. 'Skryne and Giles back in title race' read one headline a week after the Tuesday evening victory over Seneschalstown, by 3-8 to 1-8 at the county ground. The Meath forward came on at the start of the second half instead of the injury hampered Mick O'Dowd and although not getting among the scorers, he came through the test well. While the return of Skryne's best known player was the main story to emerge from that game, Jamie Jordan make a big impact by contributing 2-1, a goal in each half, while Brian Smyth sent over four points. At the end of his report of that tie this writer suggested that Skryne could be strong Keegan Cup contenders again. But how wrong I was as the defending champions tumbled to defeat in both of their next two games and fell out of the championship running. Skryne were quite awful in their next outing as Walterstown comfortably out-pointed them on a 0-13 to 0-5 scoreline. The Blues had slipped down to fifth place in their group. The sixth round clash with Simonstown Gaels was a 'do or die' outing for both sides and it was the men in the royal blue jerseys who died as they tumbled to a 1-10 to 3-13 drubbing. One report of that game said that Skryne were a pale shadow of the team which won the title the previous autumn and that they were completely outplayed. They were 1-4 to 3-6 to the bad at half time and although James Hegarty was a constant attacking threat and Trevor Giles came more into the play in the second half, there was a sad exit for the proud club. Again O'Dowd was unable to start and full back David Donnelly was also an absentee. The player/manager came on as a substitute but missed a penalty. 'Skryne facing a battle for senior status' was one headline after that Pairc Tailteann encounter. They needed to beat Kilmainhamwood in their last group game to avoid going into a play-off for survival. Imagine a club which has been in senior ranks since the late '30s being in such a situation. They had slipped to sixth place in their group and had a score difference of minus 11 points. That was improved with a 2-12 to 1-10 win over Kilmainhamwood at Seneschalstown to avoid the dreaded play-off. Mick O'Dowd was back in a starting role and, lining out at midfield, he scored 1-5. Wing forward James Hegarty, who found the net against Simonstown, repeated the act. After Skryne won the title for the 12th time in 2004, Mick O'Dowd remarked that under the two groups of eight system, teams are aware that they can slip up once or twice and still be in the hunt for the title. He hardly expected four defeats in the defence of the trophy. While some people including former Meath senior football team manager Sean Boylan are opposed to the system which has been in operation for the last three years with the man from Dunboyne suggesting that it instills a belief among players that losing is acceptable, Ray Mooney is in favour of the two eights. "The present system gives players more games and teams can lose two or three games and still be in contention for a place in the knockout stages. Regular games make football more attractive for players," he said. "The team was lacking a bit in physical strength this year and John McDermott contributed a fair amount of power. Towards the end of the campaign Mick O'Dowd was moved to centre field and he made his present felt there in a big way in the last game against Kilmainhamwood. While Mick and Trevor have been around for a long time, we would hope to get more out of them," added Ray. Skryne had a few young players who were feeling their way in senior football in 2005. Lads like Aidan Tuite, David McGoldrick and James Hegarty, who was still in minor ranks this year. Ray Mooney pointed out that Tuite and McGoldrick formed the midfield partnership in one of the games and all of those inexperienced players should be better next year. Skryne will obviously be very anxious to pick up the pieces and get back up nearer to the top in 2006. "It was a big disappointment not to qualify for the knockout stages this year and we are certainly capable of a better showing in the next championship. The lads will be very keen to atone," said Mooney. John McDermott has not gone from the club and a few months after quitting the playing side of the game, he was back along the sideline in charge of the Skryne under 21s. A number of those will again be on the senior team in 2006 as the side sets out on a recovery mission. They don't make them like Ryan anymore Thirty years ago Mick Ryan helped Meath to a National Football League final success over then All-Ireland champions Dublin, today he is one of a committed group of people promoting underage talent at his native Skryne. Coached by Mick O'Brien, Meath created a bit of a stir by emerging from Division 2 to claim league honours after also seeing off Kerry and Mayo in the knockout stages. Ryan, who won a Leinster MFC medal in 1972, made his senior championship debut against Westmeath at Pairc Tailteann two years later. Later that same year he suffered the first of three Leinster SFC final defeats at the hands of Dublin, who subsequently went on to lift the Sam Maguire Cup on each occasion. Dubs legend, Jimmy Keaveney who is now a great friend of Mick's, reckons that once they got over Meath, Kevin Heffernan's charges were more than halfway to another All-Ireland success. The wider public began to sit up and take notice of Meath when they shocked Kerry by 0-11 to 0-6 in the NFL quarter-final at Croke Park on March 23. Fourteen of that Kerry team were back six months later to claim the All-Ireland title. "We wore the Duleek jerseys that day against Kerry and they wore blue. The County Board couldn't get the Leinster jerseys on the day. We borrowed the green ones from Duleek and we wore them for the remainder of the league," recalls Mick. Next up for Meath, who retained Jack Quinn, Pat Reynolds and Mattie Kerrigan from the 1967 All-Ireland success, was a meeting with Mayo. The semi-final clash was fixed for Croke Park on the last Sunday in April during the height of a petrol shortage. "We had a small filling station at home at the time and I got petrol for most of the lads for their cars," Ryan points out. Meath went on to score a comfortable win to set up a first league final appearance since their 1-3 to 2-12 defeat by Dublin twenty years earlier. An official attendance of 40,853 (though visual evidence suggests many more were present) watched the final at Croke Park on Sunday, May 18 and things began swimmingly for the Dubs who went six points clear just after half-time courtesy of a Bobby Doyle goal. Displaying trademark resilience, Meath responded to win their fourth NFL title and the first since 1951 on a 0-16 to 1-9 scoreline. The Meath team was: Ronan Giles (captain); Mickey Collins, Jack Quinn, Brendan Murray; Pat Smyth, Pat Reynolds, P. J. O Halloran; Joe Cassells, Mick Ryan; Eamon O'Brien, Ken Rennicks (0-2), Pat Traynor (0-2); Matt Kerrigan (0-2), Cormac Rowe (0-2), Ollie O Brien (0-8). "We had great celebrations afterwards, but the County Board had absolutely nothing organised. We came back and we finished up at a dance in Beechmount," Ryan remembers. "There was on fantastic photograph in the Irish Press the day after and it shows Jimmy Keaveney striking a ball towards goal. Joe Cassells is coming diving full-length one side and I was coming full-length on the other side," Ryan remembers. That Meath team was coached by Mick O Brien and Ryan is full of admiration for the Walterstown man. "One of the greatest footballing men of all times," he adds emphatically. "Mick O Brien taught me an awful lot about football. He was brilliant and it was an awful pity that he didn't stay with our team, because if he had I think we could have went better places." Five weeks after that league success, Meath came unstuck against neighbours Louth in the Leinster SFC quarter-final at Croke Park losing by three points, 1-9 to 0-15. "Muckle McKeown and Peader McParland beat us that day," he sighs. "The whole team froze on the day. That team was good enough to have a right rattle at the Leinster that year. The whole thing just went pear-shaped." Louth ran Dublin to four points in their next outing before an official attendance of over 34,000 at Pairc Tailteann and the Dubs easily disposed of Kildare in the Leinster final but were caught cold by an up-and-coming Kerry side in the All-Ireland final. The following year wins over Wicklow, Offaly and Wexford propelled Meath to another Leinster final meeting with Dublin on the last Sunday of July. "We should have won it in '76. We got a penalty in the second-half and we were only a point down. Gerry Farrelly was after being taken off and so was Mattie Kerrigan. Colm O'Rourke was the only one left to take the penalty. O Rourke was new to the team at the time and in a spot of gamesmanship Paddy Cullen clung to the side of the net until the very last seconds and Colm just sent it wide of the left hand post. They went down the field and got another point and that was it." Meath lost by 1-9 to 2-8 that day in 1977, with Colm O Rourke absent with a career threatening injury Dublin won their fourth Leinster title in a row beating Meath by 1-9 to 0-8. "If it was Aussie Rules, we were right," is Ryan's succinct summation of a possible Leinster title kicked away by a succession of wides.  Not surprisingly his two biggest footballing regrets are that he never won a Leinster SFC medal or a Meath SFC title with Skryne. At club level he had to be content with six Feis Cup medals. "We were always the bridesmaids. One year (1981) we had seven inter county players on the team including Kevin McCabe (Tyrone) and we got beaten by O'Mahonys in the final that year as well." Ryan lined out at centre-half-back for Meaths sole championship outing in 1978, a 1-12 to 3-14 defeat by Kildare that also saw goalkeeper Mickey McQuillan make his Leinster SFC debut. The following year he was at right-half-forward for Meath s three championship outings, but they still failed to reach the Leinster final. The replayed quarter-final clash with Kildare was notable for Mick Ryan's 1-7 contribution to a 1-20 to 3-9 success. "I scored a goal after a couple of minutes. I remember Padraig Finnerty got a ball in the corner and I headed for goal. He gave it a soccer flick back across the goal and I was coming in at a hundred miles an hour and I was going that fast Paddy O' Donoghue couldn't get near me and the ball went into the roof of the net," he recalled Six of those points came from a string of long range frees with a '45 thrown in for good measure. Meath's championship odyssey ended with a 2-6 to 0-16 defeat by Offaly in the Leinster semi-final. Mick was back at midfield with Joe Cassells in 1980 for what proved to be his last championship campaign that began with a 4-12 to 1-5 win over Westmeath at Tullamore on June 15. Three weeks later came his last Leinster SFC appearance in a Meath jersey and also the last time the Royal County side faced Dublin in a championship game at Pairc Tailteann. It was also Kevin Moran's last competitive appearance for the Dubs. Home on holidays from Manchester United he was introduced as a substitute in his side's 3-13 to 2-7 success. Injury brought Mick's career to a premature end and that league medal was his sole major award for his county days. "I would have loved a Meath senior championship medal. It was also a huge disappointment not getting a Leinster medal. I'm 99% sure that if we had got over the Dubs in any one of those there years that we would have had a great chance of winning one of those All-Irelands," Ryan adds ruefully. Nowadays his is doing his bit to promote underage talent (including his son David, who was called up the county under 15 and under 16 panels) at Skryne. This year under the guidance of Mick Ryan and Martin Freyne, they came close to winning the Under 14 FL Division 2 title, losing by 1-9 to 2-8 to Donaghmore/Ashbourne. "We were four points in front and we had a goal disallowed. They went down the field and got a goal. It makes no difference, it's all history now," he reflects. Skyrne may not have the population resources that nearby urban centres such as Ratoath, Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin and Navan have but they are working hard with the talent at their disposal. "A lot of great people are involved at underage level. We have a lovely bunch of young lads between the ages of 13 and 17," Mick adds enthusiastically, confident in the future of the longest serving senior football side in the county. Tweet

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