Shock. Horror. Gowna have gone two years without winning the Cavan senior football championship! While this slight aberration would hardly worry most clubs in the Breffni County, it's nevertheless a source of frustration for one as accustomed to success as the Green & Reds have been in recent times. Upon scooping their second-ever SFC in 1994, Gowna went on to enjoy a decade of dominance, winning six blue riband titles in nine attempts, culminating in an emphatic 2002 league/championship double to bring their overall SFC haul to an impressive seven. In the past two years, however, they've failed to strike gold in either the league or championship. In 2004, Gowna reached the semi-final stage of the senior football championship, falling to a narrow 0-11 to 0-9 defeat at the hands of fierce rivals Mullahoran (whom they had beaten earlier in the competition). Defeat in that match meant that - for the first time in a decade - Gowna went two successive years without landing either of the two major senior trophies. Frustrating and disappointing? Yes. The end of the world as we know it? Hardly. Gowna are anything but a spent force. To the contrary, they have many positive factors working in their favour. What club wouldn't love to have a man of the calibre of Dermot McCabe at its disposal? Or the experience of Bernard Morris? Then there are the younger mainstays of the senior team - the likes of Gerald Pierson, Mark McKeever and Paddy Brady. These players have come through the ranks together, winning all possible honours along the way. They've already attained SFC-winning expertise with Gowna and have represented the county with distinction at all levels. One is tempted to quip that there's life in the old dog yet … but it would be a serious disservice to refer to Gowna as an old dog. The latter-mentioned of Gowna's trio of emergent young stars, Patrick Brady, is a footballer of immense ability and vast potential. One of the stars of the Cavan U21 side pipped by Tyrone in the 2004 Ulster championship, Paddy has also featured prominently for the county at U16 and minor levels. By the start of 2005, he was part of Eamon Coleman's intercounty plans, featuring on the county senior panel. Yet another product of Gowna's unbelievably prolific conveyor belt of talent, Brady is adamant that the men from the south west of the county still have plenty to offer. Looking forward to the forthcoming domestic season, he is confident that Gowna will be very much to the fore: "I still think we're good enough to win a county championship and we should be in the shake-up again in 2005. Men like Dermot [McCabe], Mark [McKeever] and Niall Madden all carried injuries during last year and that didn't help our cause. But we're hoping that all the injuries will have completely cleared up for the new season and we'll give it a good shot if we can stay injury-free." Unquestionably one of the most consistent senior sides in the county in 2004, Gowna went close in both the senior football championship and the Division One league. In the league, they finished third on the table, with 19 points, just one adrift of Denn and four behind Cavan Gaels, narrowly missing out on a place in the final. (There were no quarter-final or semi-final games in the '04 league competition.) Gowna were also very much in the shake-up for championship honours. They reached the last four, before coming unstuck against neighbours Mullahoran, losing a tense semi-final clash by two points. Indeed, the story of Gowna's championship season was of six victories followed by a narrow defeat to Mullahoran. Ironically, Gowna had sneaked the decision when the two clubs clashed in their '04 championship opener (1-9 to 1-8), and they went on to make it six SFC wins on the bounce, seeing off Killygarry (1-14 to 0-3), Castlerahan (3-16 to 0-7), Ramor (2-7 to 0-9), Drumgoon (3-12 to 1-11) and Kingscourt (2-11 to 1-9) to book their place in the business end of the competition. At this stage, an enthralling re-run of the 2003 county semi-final and 2002 final was on the cards and the county drew its breath in anticipation of the latest instalment of the Gowna/Cavan Gaels rivalry. But Mullahoran spoiled the party. Reflecting on that semi-final tie against Mullahoran, Paddy accepts that the result was a fair one: "We can have no complaints. We went into the game believing we could get through to the final and it was a close match. But Mullahoran wanted it more than we did on the day. We can point to the fact that we had a few injuries, but that's part and parcel of football and the better team won on the day." Needless to say, for a team with the ambition and recent track record of Gowna, defeat at the semi-final stage of the SFC came as a bitter pill. Paddy admits that the Gowna men were somewhat crestfallen when their championship aspirations came crashing down: "We were very disappointed. It was our second year in a row without even reaching a county final, and that's a real blow. After losing at the semi-final stage in 2003, we were hoping to get back to another final, and then to go on and win it, but unfortunately that's not how things worked out." Staying injury-free could be the key to Gowna's hopes in 2005. Injuries have certainly curtailed the team of late and a run of better luck on that front would work wonders with the team's confidence. Paddy Brady knows a thing or two about the woes of injury. He was out of action himself for nine months up until April 2004, but soon returned to his brilliant best, reclaiming a place on the Cavan senior panel (he had also been involved two years previously). How are things going with the Breffni Blues? "We made a bad start against Tyrone in the McKenna Cup, but it's early days and the team is only starting to come together again. Cavan had a good year in the championship in 2004 and we're hoping to build on that. Anything can happen on the day and we feel that we're good enough to win an Ulster championship, so we'll see…" As for Gowna, Paddy believes the age profile of the team is perfect for a SFC heist: "Five or six lads are under 21, Gerald Pierson is also very young and Dermot is still in his prime. There are some older lads over 30 but they have a lot to offer the team in terms of experience. "We started very early in 2004, at the beginning of January, and it was the first time in a few years that we'd started so early. We took part in the Ulster league but we were under strength for that as well as for some league matches. "I definitely think there's a championship winning side here in Gowna. Next year, we'll be going all out to win it and hopefully we'll not pick up many injuries. We have a good manager in Davy Nelson and a good management team, as well as a new chairman in former player Terry Hartin, so there's cause for optimism and we're looking forward to getting back to winning ways." It WILL happen. Could 2005 be the year? Hurling in Gowna Gowna is well noted for their football but now they have a second love which is hurling. The Gowna club started off hurling in 2003. Mark McEntee, a hurler himself who played with Kilmacud Croke's (Dublin), was keen to get hurling up and running in Gowna. Mark now living in Gowna, sought the help of Ray Hourican as a selector. The two boys got the training and coaching going and in their first year went to an U12 shield final and won it. 2004 was to be an even better year. After winning the U12 shield the previous year and the hurler's showing a keener interest in the game they decided to go one step further and that they did, they won all their matches that year and went on to the final but it wasn't to be their day. They played a strong Ballymacugh side in poor conditions with both teams finding it hard to score, Ballymacugh came out the winner. The U14's had an even better year. They only lost one of their matches all year which brought them up to the championship final against six time winners Mullahoran. All the training and coaching paid off and it was said on the day it was the best game of the year. Gowna came out winners, final score Gowna 2-05, Mullahoran 1-07. Gowna hopes to field an U16 team this year so much Mark and the boy's are going to have a busy year with U12, U14 and U16. We wish them the best of luck in 2005. Tweet

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