Outgoing selector with the club's intermediate team, Martin McGovern believes that Killinkere have the talent to recapture the championship title they last won in 1982. Like a whole plethora of GAA clubs up and down the country, it was a case of what might have been at adult level for Killinkere in 2004. It was a hit and miss kind of season, unfortunately mostly of misses. The east Cavan club's finest under-achieved and under-performed last year and few within the club could deny that their 'seniors' got what they deserved out of the season.. Still, the cloud which coloured so many of the club's performances in the intermediate championship and in division two of the ACFL did have the proverbial silver lining. Staring relegation from division two in the face, the club's premier team showed a large measure of pride to pull out the stops at the tail end of the year to avoid the drop. "The lads put in the sort of effort and commitment at the end of the year that we would have liked to have got all season. "We had to win three out of our last four games in the league to avoid the drop and the players produced the goods, repeating what they had done to keep us in the intermediate championship for next year," explains Martin McGovern, team-selector. Joined by fellow selector Tom Duff and team-manager Tom Keague, Martin says 2004 was disappointing but nonetheless an enjoyable one for him personally. He is quick to praise the efforts over the course of 2003 and 2004 (part of) of Mullingar resident and ex-Meath player Keague. Unfortunately, because of an illness in the family, the aforementioned McKeague had to withdraw his services early in '04 which was upsetting for all concerned. "When Tom bowed out, the training suffered and the spirit in the camp did go down a bit until we brought in Eamon (Barry)." Barry, a Meath star of the 'eighties, got to work with Killinkere from August onwards and Martin contends that the players responded positively to the new man's exhortations. Sadly, the players - minus the retired Tommy Smith and the injured Gavin Fitzsimons - failed to hit the high notes in a consistent manner and the team experienced a rollercoaster ride through the league and championship campaigns. "The unfortunate thing is that the players were capable of winning the intermediate championship; they have the talent - no doubt about it. "We beat Drumalee by something like five points at Crosskeys in what was probably our best performance of the year. "The game with Ballyhaise was played at a time when they were on fire but they only beat us by a couple of points after we had led them by seven points at half-time. "We had a disastrous start to the second half and within five minutes of it beginning, they were on level terms. I think that game had a big effect on our year overall. "Against Ballinagh we gave as good as we got. There was very little in it for most of the match but then we allowed them to get a couple of sloppy goals. "One of the goals came on the stroke of half-time and the other straight after the start of the second half and that was that," explains Martin who figured as a squad member during '04 and 'got a run' in the games against Ballyhaise and Laragh among others. The Mullingar-based Sales Manager and father of two kids under the age of nineteen months, Martin acknowledges that the constraints on his time in 2004 did put added pressure on him in his role as a selector. The word enjoyment nevertheless remains part of his lexicon and he jokes about "having got his P45" at year's end. "I was there for 2003 and 2004 and I enjoyed it overall even though it was a big commitment having to be about every second evening and then at the weekend. "When we went on a 15 game unbeaten run in 2003, after a couple of bad years, the time and effort you put in becomes all the more worthwhile. "Even though we didn't manage to get any silverware in either 2003 or 2004, they were still enjoyable years - hard work but enjoyable." Martin is an optimist at heart and he believes that the club can get back on its winning ways and rekindle the all-too rare glory days of 1982 when the IFC was bagged. Though he seems to have been around the local senior football scene for decades and is very much a veteran within the Killinkere camp, Martin is still only thirty. It's only fifteen years since he featured on the Cavan team which played at Croke Park in an All-Ireland county vocational schools semi-final. But no better man to advice on the brevity of youth and of the need to strike while the iron is hot. In this respect, Martin reckons that the current Killinkere team needs to play to its optimum ability today, not tomorrow. "Most of the fellas who are playing with the seniors at the moment have several underage medals so they know what winning is all about and they don't lack for self-belief. "I think the time is right for the club to do something again at senior level and I think the crop of players we have now are capable of winning the intermediate championship. "There's a good few of the team who were on the team that won the minor league division one title in 1998 and they're definitely not in awe of anyone or any team." Certainly players like Declan Fitzsimons, Gavin Fitzsimons, Sean McGovern, Declan Shankey and Brendan Stafford have proven their mettle down the years and only a foolish person would write that troupe off as a potentially successful unit in '05. "The way the intermediate scene is at the moment, nearly anyone of nine or ten teams could win the league or championship - it's that even. "Lacken won the championship last year despite getting well beaten in a couple of matches and it was possibly their win against us in the championship in Killygarry that turned their season around. They got their act together after beating us and never looked back. "I think they (Lacken) also realised that the championship was there for the taking and that was something that our lads didn't realise. "We played Lacken in the league in the last game of the year and there was only a point in it at the end. "A lot of times the winning and losing of matches, especially in the championship, comes down to an attitude of mind among the players and, unfortunately, we didn't have the attitude needed until the very end of the year." Convinced that the landscape is so even at intermediate level that practically all the runners and rides boast the same degrees of skill, fitness and potential, Martin is cautious about fingering a possible champion among the bunch this year. However if Killinkere are to be kept off the podium, he believes that the likes of Ballinagh, Ballyhaise or Cootehill Celtic could be the ones to do it. Martin knows that few clubs can boast the resources that Killinkere can, in terms of administration/financial support and player strength. The strides made by the club's second and third string teams over the last couple of years in making a succession of finals and semi-finals points to a healthy competition for places at the club. "On and off the field, the ingredients are there for success but it's getting the mix right for long enough that's our problem. "Hopefully this year, everyone will be focussed for the full year. "You only get out of something what you put in but the talent is definitely there and I wouldn't be surprised if we came good this year." Tweet

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