Lady luck goes missing
December 31, 2009
It has been a year of contrast for Oram Sarsfields. From the ridiculous to the sublime and back again, Damien Kavanagh's team could defeat Clones one day, then lose heavily to the same team the next.
A final league position of 7th and just nine points is unlikely to satisfy those at the club, but as is usually the case, statistics tell only half the story.
With much less numbers than their rivals to begin with, injuries and other enforced absences eventually took their toll.
A run of seven loses midway through the season left morale at a particularly low ebb.
In such circumstances, the Championship offers a perfect means of escape.
This was certainly the case for Oram as they traveled to Inniskeen in late August for a meeting with near rivals Toome.
Despite their poor form, a victory would send the Sarsfields into the semi-finals of the Packie Boylan Cup.
Oram looked destined to do just that, as a great performance saw them lead by three points heading into the final 10 minutes.
Fate had other ideas, and instead rested its cruel hand squarely on Sarsfield shoulders.
It's conjecture whether Oram would have gone on to win the game, but it's simple fact that the floodlight failure certainly didn't favour them.
Luck hasn't been a virtue of the club this year.
Not that 2009 has been all doom and gloom. A number of games proved that the raw materials for success at Junior level are already there. Moulding those materials into a Championship worthy side will be the responsibility of manager Damien Kavanagh.
The Tyrone native previously guided Aghloo to an Intermediate title in his home county, before enjoying a prosperous time with Cremartin in 2007 and 2008.
This season saw a move east, in what proved to be a difficult first year for the new boss. Difficult, but not disheartening, Damien Kavanagh took plenty of positives from the campaign.
"We were working with about 20 players or so. It's a small club, but they are a good bunch of lads. I would have been hoping for a top four finish at the start of the year. I wasn't sure of the strength of Junior football, but I expected Emyvale to be the top team in the division. From my time with Cremartin I knew them well, so for me I thought they were a very strong side for this level."
His predictions for Gerry McCarville's team were well founded, but Junior football in Monaghan has plenty of other threats. Their opening day opponents in the league for example.
"We lost our first game against Currin. Dick Clerkin was the difference that day - our boys just couldn't handle him. Our first win was against Killany; we were going well at that stage. The Championship was just around the corner, so we one eye on Clones. I always looked at the Championship as the short route up. With the back-door it is a different ball game here than other counties. The Championship in Tyrone for instance is a straight knock-out."
With three loses and one win from their first four games in the league, the Championship offered a release for the Oram players. Their opponents were Clones - the same team who defeated them a week previously. This time out would be different, as Oram prevailed 1-13 to 2-8 in Clontibret. Damien Kavanagh recalls the game as a high-point for the season.
"The Championship game against Clones; I thought that was one of our best displays of the season. They had beaten us fairly handy in the league the week before, but the boys got their act together after that. Maybe it was a case of Clones underestimating us a bit too. Following the Championship we put together a bit of a run together in the league, beating Blackhill and Killeevan and drawing with the Seans. Then came Currin, and we were badly under-strength that night - Jone Mone, Cathal and Declan Crowe, Ryan McGuinness - they were all missing, so we ended up losing heavily."
The defeat to Currin began an unfortunate series where Oram went seven games without a win. It was a difficult period for the club, one where Damien Kavanagh's resources were stretched to the limit.
"That was a bad spell for us. With such a small panel, any time we had injuries it really hampered us. Cathal and Declan Crowe also missed a few games with the county minors and the hurling team."
With their league form plummeting, it had become crystal clear that the Championship offered Oram its only realistic chance of silverware. For this reason, the defeats to Emyvale, and particularly Toome, stung that bit more.
"We had the bulk of the team back for Emyvale, but losing two boys to a sending-off was the killer. PJ Flanagan got a straight red in the first 10 minutes; then Mickey Mone with 20 minutes gone. Playing with 13 men for 40 minutes, it left us with an uphill battle. Even with that, I don't think the score-line did us justice - Emyvale got a late goal and that made it look worse than what it was," said the Sarsfields boss.
He added: "We were going well against Toome the first night. We were three points in front, and I definitely think we would have come through that game. There was no stage I thought we might lose, but then the lights went out. In the replay there was a goal between us until the very last minute, but Toome got another goal with the last kick of the game. We didn't play as well in the second game. Toome are a big, strong side, so I wanted the boys to move the ball quickly. Instead they were taking the ball into tackles too much. It was still anyone's game up until the very end though."
Both those losses had more than a touch of misfortune for Oram. Had those red cards been avoided, or had the floodlights stayed on, then the season could have taken on a dramatically different appearance.
This offers hope for 2010 according to the manager, although in his opinion, Junior football in Monaghan can never be taken for granted.
"If we can keep injury free and keep our discipline, then there's no reason why we couldn't reach a final. Again it will depend on the teams that come down. Corduff and Cremartin will be very strong at Junior level. Both of those teams have some fine footballers, so beating them will be a tough job.
"We have some good players here ourselves - Stephen McBride, Declan and Cathal Crowe. Then there's PJ and Mickey Mone - there is potential there. The work has to be put in. For a club like Emyvale - they have a far bigger pick than us. For Oram to be successful, the work has to be put in."
One area where the hours were clearly put in this year was with the Reserve team. The Oram B's captured the Division 4 title back in October. Defeating Sean McDermotts in the final 2-11 to 1-1, the victory offered redemption after the narrow miss of 2008.
Manager John Mone reflects on a fantastic season for his side.
"The big aim at the start of the year was to win promotion out of Division 4. We have been in three finals in the last five years - we lost to Seans and Cremartin in our first two, so it was great to finally win one."
He continued: "Seans beat us in last year's final, so it was good to meet them again and win this year. We played Currin in the semi-final and won handy enough. In the league we had 16 games and won them all. I think the highlight was the victories over Blayney. We expected to meet them in the final, but Seans surprised them in the semi-finals. The league games we only won by a point, so beating them was memorable."
As for the panel, the reserve coach made optimum use of some of the senior team. This led to a 16-0 record in the league - something they would do well to repeat in Division 3. Jone Mone concludes with his thoughts for the new year
"The panel was small enough for us. About eight of the boys play on our senior team, so the B's had about 24 players. It was a mixture of youth and experience. We had Justin Mone and Tony Graham there, who both have medals from winning the reverse league and championship in 95. Then there was Cathal Crowe, who is a county minor, Ryan McGuinness, Roy O'Neill, Pauric Graham - they will all be minor again next year. Stephen McBride, Big Tom's grandson, was our captain. With the grading system we will probably lose a few of those players. Those that were in the Championship with the senior team won't be able to play with us in 2010. Even with that, I think we'll be strong enough to compete in Division 3 next year."
Emerald Sarsfields win McCarey Cup
Preparation began for the Oram-Blackhill combination on Monday 23rd of February with the amalgamation first get to together. Training continued one night a week until the league commenced in late March. Our Preparations were somewhat hindered by the county VEC march to the All-Ireland title, and later Castleblayney College strong run in the Markey cup, but the fact that both teams were backboned by a strong contingent from both clubs was evidence in itself that we were going to be a formidable outfit in our upcoming campaign.
The Jimmy McCarey cup campaign began with a home game against the Cuchulainn combination (Toome & Doohamlet). The game was in the balance with fifteen minutes remaining and was ultimately decided by the introduction of Ryan Courtney and Philip Donnelly, two players who were later to have match winning contributions in the latter end of the competition. The win also marked a memorable debut for Dara Morris who scored 2-01. In round 2 we recorded a 1-10 to 1-09 win over Carrick despite struggling for long periods we grinded out the win, our unbeaten run continued when we defeated Emyvale and Cremartin finishing strong on both occasions although still far from impressive. The Mullach Sarsfields (Eire Og - Killeevan) combination was dealt with ease in round five. The final game before the break saw us play our best football to date when we defeated Killanny by 3-14 to 1-11, with the game effectively ended in the opening ten minutes with Ryan McGuinness running riot at full-forward.
The league re-commenced in late June when we travelled to Clontibret with a depleted team for a variety of reasons. The locals were determined to lay down a marker and we suffered a 2-17 to 0-3 defeat and left O'Neill Park under no illusions of the enormity of the task which we faced in order to beat Clontibret latter in the summer.
A month later we returned to O'Neill Park Clontibret for a preliminary round game in the in the championship, both sides knew that the winners of this game would go along way to ultimate glory in the championship. In what was an epic battle which was decided by a late brace of scores by Clontibret in twenty minutes of extra time. We could have no complaints as we played second fiddle for most of the night, although we finished normal time strongly with Aoran McArdle holding a vice-like grip on midfield and Ryan McGuinness scoring what looked like a match winning goal. With the championship now gone we could concentrate on the McCarey Cup. Our last game pitted us against a strong Seans outfit which contained four county minors. A win would secure top of the table and a home semi-final. The win was duly secured and perhaps more importantly it saw the return to scoring form of Pauric Graham who hit five points in the second half.
The result paired us with Cremartin in mid-August in a tricky semi-final were we dominated for long periods but struggled to put the Shamrocks away. The tactic of isolating the inform Pauric Graham worked a treat as hit 1-05 to eventually secure a final slot.
The final paired us against Clontibret in the well appointed Drumhowan venue. The Emerald Sarsfields pack was shuffled one last time with versatile county minor Ryan McCourtney designated a marking role on Clontibret danger man Ryan McGuigan and perhaps more importantly the final saw the return to action of Phil Donnelly who had not being available throughout the summer. Clontibret were the more economical outfit in the first half and lead 0-6 to 0-3 at the break despite the mid-field dominance of Aoran McArdle. The second half saw Cathal Crowe show his class as he began to stamp his authority on proceedings, games of this nature are often decided by moments of magic, thankfully we had Donnelly on board and he broke Clontibret's resistance with two memorable goals to secure the McCarey Cup on a score line of 2-9 to 0-10.
A long campaign ended on a high note and a significant win for Oram- Blackhill combination against a strong Clontibret outfit with a tremendous pedigree at minor level.
The full panel in 2009 was Berat Turker (Oram), Chrise McGuinness (Oram) Mattie McArdle, (Blackhill) Ryan Courtney (Blackhill), Anthony Courtney (Blackhill) Dean Mc Dermott (Blackhill) Roy O'Neill (Oram) Aoran McArdle (Oram) Cathal Crowe (Oram) Dan Mc Mahon (Blackhill) Ryan Mc Guinness (Oram) Ciaran Costello (Blackhill) Phil Donnelly (Blackhill) Pauric Graham (Oram) Donal Courtney (Blackhill) Dara Morris, Eoin Leonard, Kevin Irwin (all Oram) Stephen Connolly, Ciaran Courtney, Ryan Burns (all Blackhill)
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