Time on their side
December 30, 2010
Losing two county finals in the space of a couple of weeks was a bitter pill for Cremartin to swallow this past season, but club chairman Brendan McNally is staying positive heading into 2011 after a young Shamrocks side proved that they were well capable of mixing it with the best in their section.
2010 went up in smoke rather abruptly for Cremartin Shamrocks, with defeats in the junior football championship and league finals bringing such a positive season to a bitterly disappointing end by October's end.
After suffering relegation in the league in 2009, Cremartin used this season as an opportunity to bounce-back under the new management of Donaghmoyne native Paddy Martin, who would be ably assisted by Shamrocks club men Enda McNally and Noel Marry.
In his first year as chairman, which he described as both "tough and exciting", Brendan McNally backed the appointment of the trio and come the opening rounds of the league it would start to pay immediate dividends as Cremartin crawled up the table with some early winning results.
"We had Paddy Martin over the senior team this year and his selectors were Enda McNally and Noel Marry," McNally confirmed.
"The objectives they set for the team was to get to the championship final. The team were disappointed with going down in the league in 2009 and were keen to make up for it this year and Paddy would have brought a fresh voice if anything else.
"He certainly brought team bonding and a very professional approach to the whole thing. In training there was nothing left to chance with Paddy.
"None of the players had emigrated and we would have had 22 to 24 lads available at training. Players travelled from Galway, Donegal and Dublin to train so anyone that was in the country was available to train."
After a shaky start away to competition rivals Sean McDermotts, Cremartin truly got their season up and running when they Clones by a resounding 1-14 to 1-4 for their first away points in April. Victory over Killanny (1-10 to 0-7) followed, as did wins against Killeevan (1-10 to 1-3), Toome (2-5 to 0-10) and closest challengers Corduff (3-9 to 0-11) to move to the summit of the Junior Football League by the close of May.
Two goals made the difference when Seans visited Cremartin a month later and went back home on the receiving end of a 2-6 to 0-10 defeat, before the Shamrocks cruised to a 3-10 to 0-8 triumph over Oram to stay out of reach at the top. A blip at home to Clones (0-12 to 0-8) was made up for when Martin's men put up another bid score away to Oram to take two more points on a 0-14 to 2-4 score-line. After that Cremartin underlined their dominance with a huge 3-14 to 0-1 win at home to Killeevan in Round 16, before a narrow victory over Toome 2-8 to 1-11 maintained their first place position going into the Junior Football Championship.
"Out of luck and determination we got off to a good start in the league and we never really looked back after that," said McNally. "We finished top of the table and I think we were only beaten twice during the entire league campaign, which was enough to get us into the final."
Cremartin brought their good form with them into the championship, taking "the straight route", as McNally describes, on their pathway to the last four of the competition, where it would be very much 'do or die' as Martin's side looked to achieve one half of their objectives which they set out at the start of the season and book their place in the last four of the JFC final.
The chairman stated: "We took the straight route in the championship and beat Blackhill in the opening game in Castleblayney. We probably should have had the game wrapped up by half-time, but they came back well and we only ended up winning by three points or so.
"We played Sean McDermotts next and it was a real dogged affair in Monaghan town. It was point for point and it was obvious that we were two teams fighting it out for silverware. Thankfully for us Shane Burke got a late point which proved the winner and that put us into the semi-final."
In the last four Clones awaited got Cremartin and in a well-attended game at Oliver Plunkett Park in Emyvale, it was the Shamrocks that proved the much stronger side on a day where "they just clicked", according to McNally, to seal their place in the decider alongside Corduff.
As could be expected, the excitement around the parish in the build up to the big showdown with Corduff on September 26 was immense and the team were confident that they could deliver the Packie Boylan Cup to the club.
"There was certainly a feel-good factor and a good community spirit heading into the final," explained the chairman. "One of our goals was to get to the final and now we just wanted to win it.
"The first day we played Corduff in Aughnamullen it was very much a game that we could have won or lost. We missed chances towards the end that cost us, but I suppose that a draw was a fair result in the end."
Both sides would meet a week later at the same venue, where an early Darren Bishop goal looked to have Cremartin in the driving-seat but a strong response from Corduff saw their opponents hold the two-point lead by half-time.
In the second-half, Martin moved Niall Flanagan out to the centre of the field and it made a difference for Cremartin as Barry Carragher brought the difference down to the minimum four minutes into the restart, before Darren Bishop equalised after accepting a good pass from Flanagan.
The momentum looked to be with the Shamrocks to seize the advantage, but from there Corduff would take the lead which they would never relinquish as they built up the scores to pull six clear and not even a late Gary Boyd goal would be enough to salvage something for Cremartin, who fell to a 0-14 to 2-6 defeat come the full-time whistle.
Cremartin (JFC final replay v Corduff): Damien Lavelle; Ronan Burke, Niall Flanagan, Jonathan McGuigan; Fergal Mulligan, Patrick McGuigan, Declan Farrell; Barry Carragher (0-2, 2f), Christopher Farrell; Ciaran Carragher, Darren Bishop (1-2, 1f), Kevin Atkinson (0-1); Stephen Bishop, Gary Boyd (1-0), Kevin Brennan. Subs: Raymond Carragher, Liam McVicar (0-1), Michael Morgan, Conor Mulligan, Gerard Malone.
McNally gave no excuses over the team's final loss, as he plainly stated: "In the replay we just didn't turn up and Corduff gave a stronger performance. They were the better team on the day."
"Corduff, ourselves and Sean McDermotts were the three teams people expected to be there fighting for the title, but I suppose it was Corduff's experience that told in the end," he added.
Cremartin's final fortunes didn't improve any a few weeks later either when they clashed with Sean McDermotts in the Junior Football League decider at Ballybay, where a late goal would prove their undoing.
"We beat Corduff in the league semi-final a week after the championship replay which was a good win to get considering the lads would have been a bit deflated after losing the final," said McNally
"We played well in it and went on to play Seans in the league final in Ballybay. We didn't deserve to lose that game. They got a late goal with five minutes to go to put them a point ahead and we missed a few chances towards the end which would have put us back in control."
Reviewing this past season for the club, McNally stated: "I suppose 2010 was a year that was well prepared for, but at the same time we threw it away at the end.
"Our hopes for next year will be to get the foundation in again early on and try and put 2010 behind us. We want to get back to the semi-finals of both the league and championship in 2011, but we're going to be taking it one game at a time."
Success comes elsewhere
While Cremartin's seniors reached for the stars and just missed this past season, 2010 was by no means a total write-off for the club as they still managed to achieve silverware elsewhere.
After mounting a strong campaign in the Reserve Division Two football league, which saw them finish top of the table, Cremartin progressed to the semi-finals of the competition where they overcame an all too familiar Corduff side, who they had met five times in the space of three weeks between league and championship outings, to advance to the final.
Managed by native clubmen Gerry Brannigan and Pete Farrell, Cremartin took on Donaghmoyne in the final at Inniskeen and won by two points with a strong second-half performance.
While defeat in the JFC final lowered morale in the club, the club's Under 14 footballers resurrected things a bit at the end of September when they scored a huge victory over Killeevan in the Division Three league final.
Led by main team mentor John Malone, the young Shamrocks produced a five-star performance to record a comprehensive 1-17 to 1-7 victory and they would only be denied the double by Aghabog in the championship afterwards.
"We have a very good coaching system in place at the moment," stated the chairman. "Johnny McGuigan played on our senior team this year and he's only 16 so he's certainly one of the stars for the future. We have a very young senior team and about 80 per cent of them would be under 24.
"Time's on our side," he added.
"We had the disappointment of suffering relegation last year and tried our best this year to try and resurrect it and just missed out on silverware. 2011 is a new year."
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