Ten years of waiting came to an end for Duleek this year as the club finally managed to shrug off its nearly-men tag to lift the Intermediate Football Championship. Selector and club secretary Oliver Cudden spoke to Royal County. For the outsider, it's difficult to quantify the meaning of October's Intermediate Football Championship success for Duleek. Such has been the depth of their disappointments over the last decade that the celebrations were undoubtedly magnified many times over. But all those gloomy days, three final defeats, three more semi-final exits, could also have elicited an emotion more akin to relief than joy for those involved. Oliver Cudden, the long-serving club official and team selector, knows how much the 2004 final defeat to Wolfe Tones affected the players, was still affecting them throughout 2005. To many, Duleek went into the 2004 decider - against a Wolfe Tones team who scorched through the championship in their first year after Junior success - as underdogs, despite their long status as Intermediate contenders. But the final itself suggested there was nothing between them, and Duleek came within a single, painful kick of victory: Kenny McDonnell's late, late burst through the middle, Derek Meehan's miraculous, match-winning save. Cudden says: "Last year really affected us, and it was still having an affect on us right up to the final this year. Kenny had a brilliant effort for a goal right at the end that would have won it for us, but their goalkeeper saved it. I still don't know how he got to it. "We were down right through the winter, and we started slowly in the championship this time around. Rathkenny caught us on the hop the first day and we were lucky not to lose, and we drew with Kells after that. We beat Ratoath but then Syddan beat us so that left us up against it going into the last few games of the group." One win from their first four games made qualification a battle, but they came through in style, defeating Slane, Na Fianna and, in the last group game, neighbours St Colmcille's, who they would meet again in the last four after a hard-fought quarter-final win over Castletown. "Castletown was a very tough game," Oliver recalls. "They had beaten us the year before and we knew it wasn't going to be easy. They've a good coach in Kit Henry and it was always going to be close, but we managed to get through it by a couple of points. "After that we had St Colmcille's in the semi-finals. We played them a few weeks earlier in the group, when we needed to win to go through and we did, by four points. "The clubs were combined up to minor level so a lot of the lads were playing against fellas they knew well and would have played with over the years. But we probably had that little bit of experience against them. It was a poor enough game, and Cilles didn't really play to their potential." So, after starting the year with a headache from the hangover of 2004, Duleek were spruced up and looking forward to the session again. Three final defeats in the nine years since their Junior win of '95, three semi-final defeats between 2001 and 2003. Those days had left their mark but they had not been fatal wounds; they had lived to fight another day. And this time they would grasp their chance. A six-point earlier defeat to Syddan, in the group stages, added incentive where none was needed. Duleek started well with the aid of the wind, but failed to build a sufficiently substantial half-time advantage; Syddan fought back to lead before Duleek took the game to a replay in injury time through a fisted point from substitute James Devereaux. Says Oliver: "We went 0-4 to 0-0 up early on playing with the wind, but we were lucky enough because Syddan had a few bad wides . There was only five points in it at half-time and I kind of had a feeling it wouldn't be enough, we really needed seven or eight. "Syddan are very physically strong and they kept plugging away and plugging away. They got a goal to level it and then a point to go ahead, but James Devereaux caught a long free kick and fisted it over for the equaliser to give us a second chance at it. "We had a few problems. Karl McDonnell is an important player for us but he had to come off in the semi-final with a calf injury and he wasn't right for the final. We were also missing his brother Kenny all year - he had a groin operation. "Ciaran and Aodhghan Byrne were both out for most of the year, but they were back for the final. They came on as subs in the first game and the replay, and they played well in both games so it was great to have them there." Two weeks later, they were at it again, back at Pairc Tailteann, the scene of so many disappointing days since the last silverware. But perhaps the injury-time revival in the first game had instilled a new sense of belief, for the team displayed thorough resilience throughout the replay, standing up to be counted when the game called for a trench-battle, and possessing the skill and the will to win to close it out in the end. "It was hard work," says Cudden. "Some people might say we were lucky, but we held on. They kicked five or six wides in the last few minutes, but looking back at the video, any kicks they had they were under pressure and they were playing against a bit of a wind as well." The final had required two days, 120 minutes and more of football and drama and skirmishes, after which a single point separated them. Had the replay gone on a minute or two more it could have needed extra-time, but this time Duleek held on, grimly, for their day in the sun. "The weight over managers and teams has been amazing over the years," he says. "The last time we won it was in '78 so it was long overdue. The celebrations in the village were huge. I suppose a lot of people realised that if we hadn't won it this year we might never have won it." Eamonn Barry, the new county manager, also played his part in Duleek's long and winding road to the top division of Meath football. Barry was at the helm for the Junior win of '95 and guided the club to their first two Intermediate finals in the next two years. He went on to achieve great things with Dunshaughlin to emerge as a realistic contender to replace Sean Boylan, and finally landed the job when Boylan stepped down after 23 years in September. And Cudden, who himself served as a selector for the Meath minors in 2002 and 2003, feels the time was right for the Walterstown clubman to get an opportunity at the top job in the county. He says: "We were promoting Eamonn for a couple of years and we're delighted to see him get his chance. That's nothing against Sean Boylan. He deserves every bit of respect and applause for what he did as Meath manager, but Eamonn deserves to get a go. "He took over us in '95 and won the Junior in his first year, and then helped us to the Intermediate finals in '96 and '97. "He left us early in '98 on very good terms, so he made a serious difference in three years. He then went on to take over Dunshaughlin and everyone knows what he achieved there. He has a very good pedigree and it's great to see him get an opportunity with the county team." After Barry's departure from the Duleek job, the club endured a spell in the doldrums, but Barney Rock took over three years ago, and the trend has been steadily upward ever since. "Barney has been great," says Oliver. "To sit and listen to him talking football, he just talks sense. He's been there and done it all, so he commands a lot of respect. "His philosophy is fairly straightforward - football's a simple enough game if played properly, and it's all about limiting your errors. He's been great for us over the last three years." The road to the top table has been arduous, but with some of their key players having missed much of the Championship-winning year, there will be plenty with a point to prove in the year to come. Collectively, though, they will all be pulling in the same direction: to demonstrate the club's ability to become a force in the Senior Football Championship, after all these years. ** Oliver is Procurement Director with Balfour Beatty Ireland, which opened in April 2004. A subdivision of the renowned international firm Balfour Beatty, which provides rail, road and utility systems worldwide, Balfour Beatty Ireland started with six employees but has expanded to employ a staff of 40 at its City Junction Business Park headquarters in a little over 18 months. It has undertaken a number of major projects over the past two years, including the contract to renew the Over Head Line Equipment (OHLE) contact wire and other OHLE works as part of the DART upgrade for Irish Rail. Tweet

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