Mark Mone is a veritable role model for the young and aspiring players and administrators at Oram Sarsfields. Mark Mone isn't one for beating about the bush. Shooting from the hip as Secretary of Oram Sarsfields is his style. He calls it as he sees it in the same sort of direct fashion that he plays the game of Gaelic football. The fact is that no matter what hat the 28-year old is wearing, a directness of approach comes with the package. Those who work alongside him on the field of play, in the world of GAA administration and in his duties as a Cavan town-based accounts handler (Cavan star Anthony Forde among them) know and appreciate that Mark honesty is at the nub of everything he does. It's no surprise then that the very able dualist pulls no punches as he describes the lie of the land at the club at the close of 2004 at the tight-knit Oram club. "2004 was very disappointing 'cause of the fact that we got relegated. Overall last year was probably our worst year at senior level for about ten years," Mark unhesitatingly states. Certainly it's been a tale of woe for Oram for the last couple of years, if the truth be told. When the club careered to the junior league title in 2002, things looked ever so rosy. It was felt by all and sundry in the club at that juncture that consolidation at intermediate ranks was well and truly within their compass. However the 'loss' of bulwarks such as Declan McBennett, Gareth Mone and Joe Laverty fairly upset the apple cart and Oram's position at intermediate level died a sorry death at the first time of asking. "We needed to bed ourselves in at intermediate level but having finished with fourteen points in the league we lost out to Eire Og in a play-off and that was that. "Then 2004 came around and we were on the backfoot from the very start of the season and we hardly ever got off it," the wholehearted defender recalls. Indeed. Four straight defeats, including particularly morale-bursting setbacks against Killeevan and Toome (Oram's first defeat to Toome, Mark suggests, since 1980) was not what the doctor ordered as the 2004 league season gathered pace. And when team-manager Frank Brady and the club parted shortly afterwards, it seemed the club seniors were on the cusp of going into freefall. Loyal clubman Gerry McCoy stood into the breach however and things picked up. "Morale had been poor from the start of the season but after Gerry came in, things improved and by the middle of the season we were closer to the top of the table than the bottom. "By the end of the year, we were unlucky not to have qualified for the play-offs. " If we had beaten Cremartin in the last ga me of the season, we'd have made the play-offs." Sadly the McCoy/John Mone inspired recovery at Oram proved to be a classic case of too little, too late for the Sarsfields. Once again the whole yo-yo syndrome which has bedevilled Oram's cause over the last four or five years kicked in. Mark understands that consistency is something which appears to out of the grasp of the club's premier side for far too long and too often. "We've lost a few players through work commitments and retirement over the last few years and that definitely hasn't helped us. "It's been an up and down kind of existence for us in recent times and we're really lost for a few fellas between the ages of 28-31. "The game has got very intense and you need everyone on board and rowing in behind one another to be successful. "Unfortunately just when we think that we've got a squad that can go places - like the one in 2002 - we end up losing players instead of picking them up. "It's come to the point where we really need our best players to stay around, stay put, if we're going to really make an impression and progress instead of going backwards," says Mark a JFC winner in 1998 and a league medallist in '95 and 2002. Mark is a half-glass full man though and he genuinely believes that 2005 can see an improvement in fortunes for Oram at the top level with morale being much higher into the bargain. There's talk of a couple of significant and valuable additions to the squad, he tells us, and there is a rich crop of underage fellas on their way up through the ranks. As an outgoing selector at under 14 and under 15 levels at the club, he should know what he's talking about on that last score. And yet the sheer disappointment of what went on in '04 can still be detected in Mark's voice. He speaks of the angst of losing out to Cremartin in the first round of the Intermediate Championship last Summer and then to Corduff thereafter in the second chance saloon. "We lost to Cremartin by two points in a game we could have won even though we had a few injuries for that game. "We got hammered by Corduff in 'Blayney; there was no excuses for what happened that day. "Oram has, traditionally, had the better of things against them (Corduff) over the years but last Summer they were the better team and they proved that by beating us three times during the year," explains Mark whose father and four uncles all distuinguished themselves in Oram's colours during the 'seventies. His Uncle Tommy was even good enough to play for Monaghan seniors. Ironically it was at the end of the year that Oram showed something of their true ability and potential in careering up the league table only to narrowly miss out on a play-off place. So what's needed if Oram's finest are to consistently put together the sort of impressive displays such as their end-of-year home win over Aughnamullen? "I think everyone in the panel will have to do a lot of soul searching before the start of the new season. "There was a lack of bite in most of our performances in 2004. A lot of fellas just weren't willing to push the boat out in terms of giving it their full commitment. "We need to recover the sort of form we showed a couple of seasons ago when we beat Tyholland twice and beat Doohamlet, two teams who went onto contest finals that year, and when we drew with Aghabog who went up senior," the husband of local lass Sonia remarks. Mark regrets that Oram don't boast the same physical presence of times past. Being top heavy in lightweight players is one of the team's weaknesses at this point in time apparently. The McBennett and McBrides of this world are players Oram can scarcely do without in that regard while, on the other hand, injuries to key men like Mark's aforementioned brother John plus Stephen Mone are something the club can certainly do without. So what does the coming year hold for Oram's premier football side? "I think we'll give it a determined effort to get back into intermediate ranks. "There's a lot to put right but I'd be optimistic overall and I definitely think we've enough talent to show that we're better than a junior team and that's no disrespect to any of the other junior teams because in my opinion, the competition at junior level in Monaghan is tougher than at intermediate level. "You've got the Harps and Drumhowan and Corduff and Aughnamullen there as well so it'll be a very level playing field," Mark forecasts. Significantly, the administrator 'cum defender can't see himself continuing to hold down both the roles of defender and secretary in the coming year. "I didn't think there was so much to do as secretary and when you combine that with training as a player for two evenings a week and a match at the weekend, it can add up to a lot of time and energy. "Training for even club players has become very professional and you have to give it 100% all the time to be successful. "So I don't think I'll be keeping on the job of secretary. I intend concentrating fully on being a player for the club and helping out at underage with the coaching." Bad news then for the forwards at all aspiring junior clubs in the coming year! Tweet

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