Corduff Gaels reached the business end of both the 2008 IFC and the McAviney Cup, but their two-pronged promotion quest ended at the quarter-final and semi-final stages respectively. Club captain Raymond Byrne hopes they can go a step further in '09. Corduff's objective in 2008 was to gain promotion to senior ranks. They made a brave double effort in both the intermediate league and championship, reaching the knockout stage of both competitions, but came up marginally short in the end. For team captain Raymond Byrne, who was a member of the club's most recent IFC-winning side back in 1998, it was a disappointing season. In the championship, Corduff made it as far as the quarter-finals but were eliminated by neighbours Donaghmoyne. In the league, they lost to intermediate champions Ballybay at the semi-final stage, having led convincingly two-thirds of the way through only to run out of steam at a crucial time. Thus, despite reaching the latter stages of both competitions offering promotion to senior football as prize, Corduff ultimately finished 2008 empty-handed. The reality of this scenario is not wasted on the club captain "It's very disappointing," Raymond reflects. "You always set out your goal at the start of the year to win either the championship or the league. We were looking at the championship first and foremost, but the league would have done nicely as second-best. Unfortunately, we fell short big time." In the knockout, Corduff's campaign was a tale of two derbies, both of which they lost. Those are the kind of games they need to be winning if they're to step back up to the top table. "It was a major disappointment to lose to Aughnamullen [2-8 to 0-10 at Drumhowan on August 18, after a 0-7 apiece draw at the same venue three days earlier], but we then got another go at it and ended up playing another big derby match, against Donaghmoyne. We thought we could put things right but were very disappointed to lose again." The league still offered a chance of redemption and Corduff found themselves only two wins away from promotion. Things went smoothly in the first half of the McAviney Cup semi-final against IFC winners Ballybay, but the wheels came off the wagon after the resumption. "We worked hard in the league and we played particularly well at home," Raymond recalls. "We set our stall out with some decent home form and that carried us through. Our away form let us down a bit and that was why we had to play the semi-final away from home. We had Ballybay there for the taking at half time - but I think the injuries that affected us all year told in the closing stages of that match. "We were missing two or three important players for most of the year and that certainly didn't help. We have a panel of 23 or 24 at most and you're down to the bare minimum once you're missing a few lads. We had injuries to key players and those injuries weakened us." Training went exceptionally well all year and Raymond was hugely impressed by the input of the backroom team: "We had two great clubmen in Ciaran Connolly and Brendan McEneaney looking after training and they did a fantastic job. Peter Fitzpatrick from Dundalk was over the team and the two local boys made sure we were in good condition. Nothing was spared. Anything we wanted was provided and those two men looked after us extremely well. They did everything possible for us." Of course, an unexpected cessation of activity in the height of the season doesn't help anybody and, to this end, Corduff were one of the teams affected by the unacceptably long break. The wonderful momentum the team had built up over the spring and early summer was lost, replaced by cobwebs "We had a great run at the start of the year," reveals Ray, taking the story up. "We had something like twelve or fourteen points on the board early on in the league and we beat Truagh in the first round of the championship [2-9 to 1-9 at Cremartin on May 11]. We were flying at that stage and confidence was really high after the Truagh game. But we then had to wait twelve weeks for our next championship game, which is ridiculous. The break definitely disrupted us. It's very difficult to stay composed and keep your consistency when you're waiting around that long for another championship game." What can Corduff do differently in 2009? Where can they make the necessary changes to ensure that their potential is turned into silverware? "That's a very good question," Raymond muses. "Well, hopefully the three injured players will make successful comebacks, because we need everyone if we're going to challenge. There's some good young talent in the club, too, so I'm hoping a few of the younger lads will break onto the panel and increase numbers and improve competition for places. "We should be in with a good shout next year but it's not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination and we are under no illusions. When you see two big teams like Tyholland and Monaghan Harps coming down from senior, it leaves things very tight in intermediate football. The teams coming up from junior are strong as well - Drumhowan are coming up as Ulster junior club champions and Aghabog were only down for one year - so it's going to be a very competitive grade next year. We'll be aiming for promotion but, if a few results go against you, you could find yourself at the bottom of the pile as easily as at the top of it. "So we'll have to work hard. I'm hopeful we can do better than 2008, though. A new manager will come in and bring in fresh ideas and it'll be a new start for us all." Raymond had been on the Corduff first team for 13 years. The highlight of his career this far was the intermediate championship win in 1998 - a success that he says will live forever in his memory. Junior championship and league triumphs followed in 2003 and 2005 respectively, but it's the top grade that Corduff are eying these days: "It's been a long time since '98 and we really want to test ourselves at senior level again. We thought we might give it a good rattle last year. It would have been nice as it was the tenth anniversary of '98, but it didn't work out. "When we went up senior last time, in 1999, we were very unlucky. We lost five of our games by one point and we drew four and we ended up missing out on survival by just a single point. It was frustrating because we felt that maybe we could have stayed up if we'd managed to get that first year behind us. From there, we ended up slipping back down to junior. There's not that much in it - a couple of points here or there can make all the difference. You have to make the most of your opportunities when they come around." Having beaten Cremartin by 1-8 to 0-9 in Castleblayney on August 24, Corduff played Donaghmoyne in the quarter-final of the 2008 Monaghan IFC at Drumhowan on Saturday September 4, putting in a competitive effort before losing a tense derby battle by 0-13 to 1-8. It was their FIFTH game in the competition - winners Ballybay played four times. The Corduff team that day was: Darren Byrne; Gerry Mee, Ciaran Brennan, Alan Mee; Shane McNally Snr, Louis King, Gareth King; Shane Connolly (0-1), Lee McArdle; Shane McNally Jnr (1-0), Declan Larkin (0-1), George McKitterick (0-2); Martin Mills (0-1), David Marron, Mark Gilsenan (0-3). Sub: Fran Monaghan. In their intermediate football league semi-final at Pearse Park in mid-November, Corduff led by five points ten minutes into the second half but lost to strong-finishing Ballybay by 0-13 to 1-6. Corduff: 2008 McAviney Cup semi-finalists: Darren Byrne; Shane McNally Snr; Ciaran Brennan, Alan Mee; Gareth King, Declan Larkin, George McKitterick; Fran Monaghan, Shane Connolly; Shane McNally Jnr, David Marron, Lee McArdle; Martin Mills (1-1), Raymond Byrne (0-1), Mark Gilsenan (0-4). Sub: Aidan Marron. Tweet

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