Castlepollard's under 12 and 14 hurlers celebrated success in their respective age levels last year and gave a hint that the future is looking good for the Town. Manager Jody Murray explains how the wins were achieved. In a year when Castlepollard disappointed once again at senior level, the club's under 12's and 14's provided the season's highlight by beating neighbours and old rivals Lough Lene Gaels in the Feile Na Gael final and the under 12 decider. Pollard's 0-10 to 0-04 win over the Gaels in the Under 12 was all the more remarkable as it was their seventh final in-a-row at this level. This year's victory was the third success in that period and Jody Murray tells how it went a long way to healing the previous losses. "This was our seventh final on the trot. We won it in 1995 and '97, but have been beaten ever year since, which wasn't very nice. It was great to win it this year and especially to beat our neighbours makes it all that little bit more special," said Murray, who was helped by his selectors Ollie Boylan, PJ Boylan, Ned Flynn and Martin Fagan. "This team has been together since Under 10 level and they have worked hard to get to the stage they are at now. Their success is a huge boost to everyone involved in the club and hopefully it will lead to greater things in the years ahead." All teams in the Under 12 premier championship were in the one group with the top four going in to the semi-finals. Pollard's only blip in form was a loss to Castletown-Geoghegan in the early stages. A semi-final meeting with Crookedwood was where the competition began in earnest and despite a battling performance by the 'wood, Pollard ran out comfortable victors in the finish. The final was between the neighbouring parishes of Collinstown and Castlepollard. Having met each other so often in the last number of years in both senior and underage finals, no other two clubs have a more intense rivalry in the county than these two and that was evident with the large crowd that turned out to see the final. Played in Robinstown on October 6, this was a keenly fought contest with Pollard's first half display being the decisive factor. They lead by 0-6 to 0-0 at half-time and despite being under pressure for long periods of the second half, the youngsters held out for a famous victory 0-9 to 0-3. Castlepollard got off to a great start and an early Stephen Boylan point settled any nerves, before Stephen Bardon and Keith Boyce increased their lead further. Both teams exchanged wides before Philidias Murtagh added Pollard's fourth. Then Captain Stephen Bardon and centre-back Paul Dermody completed the first-half scoring and left Lough Lene Gaels with a mountain to climb in the second half. To their credit, they did try just that, but not before the outstanding Bardon showed his array of skills by scoring two excellent points. Stephen Grace and Sean Og Doyne did give the Gaels a glimmer of hope with a point a piece and Grace doubled his tally with minutes to go to leave five points between the sides. The elusive goal would not come for the Collinstown side and a point by half forward Graham Rynne sealed the victory for the blue and golds as captain Stephen Bardon collected the Under 12 premier shield from Minor board Chairman Ger Kenny. The under 12's were not content with winning just the championship, they went and did the double by also claiming the league title. "It was a great occasion and we had some excellent performances from Stephen Bardon, Paul Dermody and Andrew Dowdall to name but a few. Stephen was our captain and he definetly led by example, he was outstanding all year." The Under 14's were successful in the Feile Na Gael final at the expense of Lough Lene Gaels and this was a closely fought contest with the town just edging out their rivals by a solitary point 1-9 to 1-8. Pollard had excellent performances from Alan Devine, Paul Dermody and Andrew Dowdall and they went on to do the county proud in the national competition. "The Feile final was very exciting and it was hearts in our mouth's stuff near the end, but thankfully we held on for the win. If we can keep all these young lads together, we will be very strong the whole way up. But it is something that is very difficult to do, these days. The youngsters seem to have so many distractions, it's hard to keep them together, but I suppose if you can keep make sure some stay with it until senior it's not so bad." It was a case of the same old story for Castlepollard senior hurlers as once again they lost out to Lough Lene Gaels, this time in the semi-final of the SHC, despite showing some excellent form early in the year. Things started very brightly indeed and the introduction of well respected coach John Davis was seen as a major coup for the club and Davis's training techniques were soon to pay dividends. A resounding 0-17 to 1-6 victory over Raharney was probably not the most surprising result of the year, but the manner in which they went about it was. They only black mark in the performance being the dismissal of Alfie Devine, following an altercation with Brendan McKeogh, who was also shown the red card "John came in at the start of the year and told us what he wanted from us. Training went well and there was good crowds turning out. I suppose we would be expected to beat Raharney, but there also a tough side to play against. Some of the points we scored against them were excellent and we couldn't have asked for a better start," said Murray. If Pollard were surprised by their performance against Raharney, they must have been shocked by the way they preformed in their next two matches as the 2001 champions Clonkill and old foes the Gaels were totally outplayed. A ten point victory over Clonkill was the talking point of the season as Davis's men gave arguably their best performance of the year to win 3-16 to 2-9. The goals coming from Aaron Farrell, Robert McLoughlin and Barry Kennedy. In their last group game against Collinstown, they clocked up an impressive 2-13 to 4-3 win. Two of the Gaels goals coming from defensive errors as they totally dominated their opponents. A win for Lough Lene Gaels in the quarter-final against Brownstown set up another showdown with Castlepollard in the semi-final and Murray feels that they were was no complacency in the camp despite the win over them in the group stages. "Everything went well before the semi-final. I don't think you could say we were too cocky going into the game, because we knew they would be very hard to beat. We expected a hard game and that's just what we got. Sean (McLaughlin) was injured for most of the year and with him not being not fully fit we knew we would be up against it." Exchanges were close from the start and both swaps swapped points early as Brendan Williams and Sean McLoughlin were on target. Lough Lene then went in front by two points from Joey Williams and a Daniel Carty free, before Ollie Devine scored an excellent point after he worked hard to make room for himself. Carty was once again accurate with the dead ball and McLaughlin showed that he is still the master from place balls with a well taken seventy. Both sides were guilty of poor shooting towards the end of the first half but McLaughlin was keeping Pollard in it with another free to leave the scores 0-8 to 0-6 at half time. Pollard's start to the second half was to be their demise as Lough Lene Gaels full forward Gary Briody began to stamp his authority on the game and a goal and a point during a nine minute spell left Pollard trailing by 1-9 to 0-6 points. Two further points for the Gaels saw them take a seemingly uncatchable lead, but Castlepollard were not going to give up without a fight and a Kevin Brazil goal was soon followed by a Barry Kennedy point which gave them hope. John Kennedy then stretched Collinstown's lead before Kennedy fired home goal number two with only minutes remaining. Lough Lene Gaels made sure of their place in the final when captain John Gavigan fired over the last score of the match. So back to the drawing board for another year for Pollard but with their underage teams showing their senior counterparts how to win, it may not be too long before Castlepollard claim their next SHC title. The victorious under 12 team were: Brian Melia, Terry O'Neill, Andrew Dowdall, Glenn Flynn, Kerri Flynn, Paul Dermody, Ian Kennedy, Stephen Bardon, Cion Murtagh, Graham Rynne, Philidias Murtagh, Shane Fagan, David Higgins, Keith Boyce, Stephen Boylan. The Feile Na Gael squad that represented the county at the National feile were: S Bardon, J Ward, S O'Neill, A Dowdall, P Dermody, G Rynne, N Sheridan, S Egan R Halpin, A Dermody, A Devine, C Montgomery, K Dermody, G Rynne, C Harten. Tweet

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