In fairness, Aghabog could hardly have come much closer to winning the 2011 Monaghan junior football championship. Gerard O'Brien's well-drilled team played a total of SEVEN matches in the competition, losing narrowly to the two sides that would go on to contest the decider. It was a frustrating campaign for all concerned, including long-serving midfield ace Aidan Brady.

As has become customary, 34-year-old Aidan Brady was a colossus at midfield for Aghabog Emmets in 2011. But disappointment was his lot as the club failed to achieve its prime objective of winning the county JFC. That they came so close to booking a return to the middle rung is scant consolation for the long-serving Brady:
"I'm very disappointed personally because I had set my hopes on winning the championship this year," he confirms. "I'm not sure what next year holds for me so it would have been nice to win a championship. As you get older, it gets more difficult to combine the farming with the football, so I'm not sure if I'll even be able to give the commitment again next year…"
No doubt a few of Aidan's colleagues will be bending his ear over the next few months to convince the midfield stalwart to stay on for at least one more year!
In the 2011 Monaghan JFC, Aghabog produced some great football. They drew their opener with Oram on Sunday May 29th before winning the replay by 2-9 to 2-8 a fortnight later. Both those games were played at Ballybay and they were the first of many close encounters that would epitomise Aghabog's year. Near neighbours Clones were next up at Scotstown on Friday, June 24th and the town side prevailed in a closely-fought game by 0-7 to 0-6. Clones would go on to contest the final.
Following victories over Killanny at Corduff on July 2nd (0-14 to 0-10) and Toome in Monaghan on July 15th (3-6 to 1-8), Aghabog took their place in the last four. They had already played five times. Their opponents - Cremartin - had been out just twice previously in the championship (and one of those games was a routine win over Fergal O'Hanlons)!
So, while the Shamrocks were the fresher side, Aghabog were more battle-hardened. A riveting battle ensued. At Clones, on Saturday August 13th, the teams played out an exciting 0-9 to 1-6 draw. At Emyvale, six days later, the concession of three goals proved to be the decisive factor as Cremartin advanced on a 3-3 to 0-9 scoreline. The following weekend, Cremartin won the final. For Aghabog, it was a case of so near and yet so far…
The side that drew with Cremartin at Clones was: David Norris; Stephen McPhillips, Shane Brady, Martin Fox; Patrick McCabe, Gary McBride (0-5), Mark McBride; Aidan Brady, Francis Dolan; Gregory Treanor, Sean O'Brien (0-1), Shane O'Brien (0-3); Dermot Smyth, Paddy O'Brien, Damien Smyth. Subs: Ciaran Logue for G Treanor; Pauric McPhillips for M Fox; Darren Kelly for P O'Brien.
Considering that Cremartin had won the JFC inside five games, it was tough luck on Aghabog to play seven and not even make the final. Winners of the 2008 junior football league, they had left themselves with too much to do in the bread-and-butter competition this time around, so their season was effectively over. There would be no instant return to the middle grade for the side relegated at the end of 2010.
Aidan admits that the whole thing left him feeling a bit down: "We especially made hard work of the championship. We played a lot of games; you'd usually have a championship won at that stage but it just didn't happen. I honestly thought we'd go on to take it but Cremartin caught us in the end. It was close and we gave them a good run, but we couldn't push on."
Former county player Gerard O'Brien (Rockcorry) took charge of the team in 2011, with Bugsy Malone from Ballybay in as trainer and local lads Joey Kelly and Seanie McPhillips serving as selectors. Preparations went well and Aidan enjoyed his football to the full. "I would have a lot of time for all of those lads. They are all mad football men and they put their lives on hold for football. You couldn't say a bad word about any of them. They gave 100% and we definitely wouldn't expect any more from a backroom team. You have to give them a lot of credit for the work they put in.
"Bugsy is a very good trainer and it is refreshing that he involves a lot of ballwork in the sessions. I hate all that running just for the sake of running. That's not why I play football. I like to get my hands on the ball; that's what football's all about at the end of the day. So training was enjoyable and we had excellent turn-outs because of that. I think all the lads enjoyed it. When you are just running around it takes all the fun out of it. I'm convinced that you end up doing more running anyway when you've the ball, so it was proper training and there was a real buzz around the club this year."
Aidan himself was a bit of a late developer, breaking into the Aghabog first team at the age of 21 and playing his first senior game at 21. He has played at all grades with the club during the intervening 13 years or so - senior, intermediate and junior - and says the 2003 intermediate championship success was the highlight of his career to date:
"That's my main memory," he recalls. "Especially the semi-final against Inniskeen. We had to play them three times [after back-door wins over Eire Og, Tyholland and Drumhowan]. We eventually got the better of them [0-11 to 0-5] and then went on to face Doohamlet in the final [winning by 1-12 to 1-11]. That was an unbelievable campaign and it sticks out in my mind more than any other.
"When we went up senior, we didn't do great, but we had a lot of injuries etc. after that IFC win. We could have probably done well in senior football if we'd kept our team but we had seven lads missing for most of the year through injuries and suspensions and you can't afford that when you're a small rural club. It was still nice to play senior football, though."
Though Aghabog have tumbled down the rankings since the heady highs of 2003/04, midfield warhorse Brady is convinced they are still good enough to play at intermediate level and hold their own: "I would say they are more than good enough, if they can keep the panel they have there at the moment. This year was great because we had so many young players and they were all getting a good bit of football. The flipside of that is that there is no minor or U21 football in the club at the minute due to lack of numbers, but for the senior team it was a massive lift having those lads at training.
"We had 25 at training most nights during the year and on a bad night we'd still have 15. So it was great this year, even though at the same time maybe not great for the lads who have no underage football. But we have the numbers now for junior football and some of the young lads have experienced junior championship football already. The likes of Shane O'Brien, Stephen McPhillips and Darren Kelly have staked their claims for regular football already, so that's good for the future of Aghabog."
With some promising youngsters coming through and maybe - just, maybe - one more big push from Aidan Brady, the Emmets will be in the shake-up again in 2012. Tweet

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