A second All-County League Division 3 title in three years provided only scant consolation for Kilbeggan Shamrocks in 2003 according to half forward Keith Gorry. While many clubs would welcome an All-County League Division 3 title with open arms, the success was hardly acknowledged by expectant Kilbeggan Shamrocks supporters last year. The records show that Kilbeggan have won two of the last three Division 3 titles, but neither success led to celebrations on Brosnaside. Long-serving player Keith Gorry admits that it will take more than a Division 3 triumph to meet the club's lofty expectations. "While it was nice to be able to finish the year with something to show for our efforts, it was only really a consolation prize," he says. "A club of Kilbeggan's size and tradition should be aiming a lot higher than winning Division 3. Our aim at the start of the year was to win the intermediate championship and to get back up into the senior ranks. But once we failed to achieve that, the year suddenly became a failure. "With the amount of good young players we have, we're seriously underachieving in Kilbeggan and it's time for that to stop." Gorry, who has represented Westmeath at minor and under 21 level and is also a noted hurler with Castletown-Geoghegan, bemoans Kilbeggan's lack of consistency since he first came onto the scene as a 17-year-old in 1992. "In my first year on the Kilbeggan team, we won the junior championship and things were really looking up," he recalls. "But since then, we haven't been able to put a consistent run together. We won the intermediate championship under Pat Flanagan in 2000, but unfortunately we were relegated from senior after just one year. Had we stayed up - and we were desperately unlucky not to - I'm sure we'd be a decent senior side by now. The likes of St. Malachy's and Tubberclair adapted to senior football very well and I can't see why we wouldn't have done the same had we been playing at that level long enough." In capturing the Division 3 title last year, Kilbeggan recorded wins over Shandonagh, Mullingar Shamrocks, The Downs, Castledaly, Milltown and St. Loman's. They lost two games to Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall and Tyrrellspass, but when their only other rivals for the title, Mullingar Shamrocks, gave Tyrrellspass a walkover in their final game, Kilbeggan were confirmed as champions. Of course, the big prize which Kilbeggan were after was the intermediate championship. They opened their campaign with an impressive 2-18 to 0-6 victory over Mullingar Shamrocks at Tyrrellspass on April 25. In their second outing, Kilbeggan were surprisingly held to a 0-13 to 2-7 draw by newly-promoted Caulry and their hopes suffered a further setback when they lost to eventual champions Ballymore by 0-10 to 2-7 on June 24. But back-to-back victories over Rosemount and Ballynacargy put Kilbeggan back on course for championship honours. A Stephen Conroy goal proved decisive in the 1-9 to 0-9 win over Rosemount, while a great second half surge saw them pip Ballynacargy on a 0-11 to 1-7 scoreline. Kilbeggan were denied a third successive win when they lost by 1-10 to 2-8 to Maryland in controversial circumstances on July 19. Maryland held a 0-6 to 0-5 advantage at the interval, but Kilbeggan fought back to lead by four points midway through the second half. But then disaster struck when star forward PJ Ward was harshly sent off and Kilbeggan were unable to hold out against a young and fit Drumraney outfit. The Brosnasiders bounced back to beat neighbours Ballinagore by 1-11 to 2-6 in their final group game, but their hopes of reaching the knock-out stages were dashed when they lost to Ballymore by 0-8 to 0-7 in a play-off. Gorry believes that Ballymore may have been more fired up than Kilbeggan after the original fixture was postponed because the appointed referee failed to turn up. Ballymore made no secret of their unhappiness at Kilbeggan not waiting around, but Gorry insists that the maroons broke no rules for doing so. "Possibly, Ballymore had a slight edge on us in terms of motivation. But we don't regret walking off the pitch the first day. We had waited over 20 minutes for a referee to turn up and we honestly didn't think the game was going to be played. "I think the Ballymore game came at a bad time for us because we had just lost a game we should have won against Maryland and we were also missing a number of important players, including John Brennan and PJ Ward. "It's a pity things had to go so wrong for us against Maryland because before then, we had put in a couple of great performances against Rosemount and Ballynacargy. We could have won the championship if we had been able to maintain that form," he adds. Encouragingly, 2003 was another successful year for Kilbeggan Shamrocks at underage level. The club joined forces with St. Joseph's and Rosemount to win the under 14 'premier' championship. They also combined with St. Joseph's to capture the under 14 'A' championship crown. Following impressive wins over Millmore Gaels (5-13 to 2-4) and Mullingar Shamrocks (6-9 to 2-4), Kilbeggan/St. Joseph's/Rosemount staged a remarkable recovery to edge out Tubberclair by 4-3 to 2-8 in the final at Moate in November. Tubberclair held a seven-point lead after 22 minutes, but gradually the combination side battled back to trail by just three points at the break. Within 18 seconds of the restart, a goal from man of the match Fiachra Fox had restored parity before David Tone fired Kilbeggan/St. Joseph's/Rosemount into a dramatic lead. Tubberclair looked to have weathered the storm when Colin Ryan pounced for a goal in the 43rd minute and they remained in front until five minutes from the end when Kilbeggan clubman Fox grabbed his second goal to give the combination side the win. There was further drama a few weeks later when Kilbeggan and St. Joseph's once again combined to defeat St. Paul's by 3-4 to 1-8 in the 'A' decider. Scores were not easy to come by in the first half, at the end of which Kilbeggan/St. Joseph's held a 1-3 to 1-2 lead. On the resumption, St. Paul's surged into a two-point lead, only for Susan Kiernan to reply with a goal for the south county outfit. St. Paul's hauled themselves back onto level terms before Fiachra Fox repeated his feat of the 'premier' final by scoring the winning goal in injury-time. "There is great work being done at underage level at the moment and that must augur well for the future," notes Gorry, who intends to get involved with the under 14s this year. "In Kilbeggan, people like Mal Keenan, Aidan Reid and John O'Brien have been doing tremendous work with the underage teams and there also seems to be very good people working with the underage in Streamstown. Both clubs are already benefiting from playing together." Gorry, whose younger brother Aidan captained Kilbeggan to their intermediate championship success of four years ago, is convinced that the maroons have what it takes to win back the Peter Geraghty Cup this year under new manager Mattie Kerrigan. "Our two main aims for the coming year are to win the intermediate championship and Division 2. It's going to be difficult because we did have problems with discipline and commitment last year. But the players are there and I've no doubt that there is an intermediate championship in us if we all pull together," he concludes. The Kilbeggan/St. Joseph's/Rosemount team which captured the under 14 'premier' championship was: Shane Farrell; Patrick Boland, Gerry Gleeson, Wayne McCormack; Cathal Johnson, David Malynn, Darina Keenan; David Keenan, Colin Draper; Susan Kiernan, David Hannify, Declan Mullen; David Tone, Fiachra Fox, Alan McManus. Sub used: Triona Geoghegan. The Kilbeggan/St. Joseph's team which defeated St. Paul's in the under 14 'A' championship final was: David Carr; Peter Lynch, Gerry Gleeson, Malachy Lynam; Wayne McCormack, Sam Whooley, Cathal Johnson; Colm Draper, Darren Lynch; Simon O'Neill, David Keenan, Susan Kiernan; Don Scally, Fiachra Fox, Danny Gardiner. Subs used: Peter Murray, Tadhg O'Gorman and Craig Arthurs. Tweet

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