Life hasn't exactly been a bowl of cherries for Aughnamullen Sarsfields lately. However, 2001 captain Liam O'Neill is backing them to bounce back sooner rather than later. Aughnamullen have seen better days. Of that there's no doubt. With the club now struggling to make an impression in junior ranks, the days when they rubbed shoulders with the best of the rest in the county's top grade now appear to belong to the distant past. [And, hopefully, to the not-too-distant future.] They've been force-fed humble pie and made swallow some very bitter pills indeed in recent seasons. Aughnamullen's fall from grace has been at best an embarrassment; at worst a disaster. Many's a lesser club would have buckled under the pressure and perhaps folded altogether. Not so Aughnamullen Sarsfields, however. To their eternal credit, they are swimming manfully against the tide, determined to overcome even the seemingly most insurmountable odds and to one day restore pride in their great club. If applied to the man, the sheer spirit, pride and resolution epitomised by the club's 2001 captain Liam O'Neill should see them through. The plan is to turn things around; to prove that what many are terming a crisis is really nothing more than a temporary setback - a blip, if you like. All clubs - even the most celebrated - go through transition. Surely the least we owe Aughnamullen is the chance to lick their wounds, regroup and bounce back. Over the years, they've established themselves as an intrinsic and essential part of Monaghan GAA . . . it just wouldn't be the same without them. In the 2001 junior championship, Aughnamullen were decidedly unfortunate. They defeated eventual champions Doohamlet first off but then fell to Cremartin in the next round. Coming through the back door, they lost narrowly to Killeevan in the quarter-final, finishing on the wrong end of a 1-11 to 0-11 scoreline, a goal from Dermot Lynch at the start of the fourth quarter ultimately proving their undoing in a scrappy and low-key affair at Clontibret on Saturday August 18th. Sarsfields had appeared to be on their way towards certain victory when dominating the first half. Alan Duffy was demonstrating unerring accuracy and the mid-Monaghan men held a six-point lead after 25 minutes. However, Killeevan finished the half stronger and grabbed three late points to slice the deficit, 0-7 to 0-4, by the short whistle. By the end of the third quarter, Killeevan had drawn within two points. They took the lead for the first time with the game's only goal in the 47th minute and Aughnamullen never quite recovered from the blow of losing that major . . . nor indeed from the loss of talismanic scorer-in-chief Alan Duffy through injury. A firm believer in the adage 'As ye reap, ye shall sow', captain Liam O'Neill looks back on the year philosophically: "As we didn't win any trophies, we'd have to admit it wasn't a great year from that point of view, but appointing Mick O'Dowd as manager was a positive move and we made great progress under him. We have a very young team and, looking at things objectively, maybe another year in junior football won't do us any harm. "The year started well. We felt before the start of the season that we'd be there or thereabouts, but we had a very young team and perhaps some of the players didn't fully realise the amount of commitment and dedication that's needed to succeed, even at junior level. It's a hard wee league and there's some good teams in there. Even this year, there are some good sides coming down, so we know we won't get anything easy. "You have to put something into it if you want to get something out. We expected to make the Top 4 in the league but I think the lesson we've learned is that these things don't just happen - you have to make them happen. Hopefully, we can take that on board and all the players will realise that we have a good chance of giving it a real rattle next year if everybody puts in a bit more effort and is prepared to shoulder a bit of extra responsibility. Work ethic is going to be very important." Lack of consistency was possibly Aughnamullen's biggest problem. But they did at least show at times during the year that they have the capacity to undo anyone. Their first round championship defeat of Doohamlet was a prime example. "We beat them in Drumhowan and then they came back and ended up winning it out. Things hadn't been going particularly well for Aughnamullen before that game, so when we won we thought it might kickstart our season. But we slipped up against Cremartin and then when we came through the back door we had a few lads missing for the Killeevan game and ended up losing by a goal. It was disappointing but we're looking to the future and we'll see what happens next year. "We've been boosted greatly by the return of Paul Mulligan from Australia which is a big help and we have a lot of good young talent at our disposal. There are plenty of good young players coming through and they're ready to step out of the shadows of previous generations as good players in their own right. "The key to our future prospects is in the youth. Our minor teams of the past three or four years have made great progress under PJ Forde and his work gives us a solid foundation to build from." A former county minor and under 21 under Kevin Treanor and Eamon McEneaney respectively, Liam O'Neill emerged onto the Aughnamullen first team at the age of 18, six years ago, when Aughnamullen were still senior. They've slipped through the grades since but, as he observes: "Every club goes through change and you have to deal with what you have . . . you can only play the cards you're dealt. "I still believe the talent is here. Mick O'Dowd has done a lot of good work with us - his training techniques were excellent and he's an astute reader of the game. He took a fresh approach to the whole thing and gave us good direction." A realistic objective for next year? "I honestly believe that if the lads put in the effort we could do the double - but I'd be happy with one. Sacrifices will have to be made. If the players give the commitment, then we can turn the corner. For the record, Aughnamullen's 2001 junior championship quarter-final team against Killeevan was: Alan Gilliland; Michael Murtagh, Aidan Duffy, Damien McConnell; Seamus McCabe, Liam O'Neill (capt, 0-1), Barry McGeoghegan; Colm Reyburn, Paul Mulligan; Terry O'Neill, Mark Meegan (0-1), Francis Duffy; Alan Duffy (0-6), Andrew McNally, Ciaran Duffy (0-2). Subs: Robbie Duffy (0-1), Paddy Markey, Aidan Flanagan, Val Duffy. Tweet

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