Barry Crosson is one of Drumgoon Eire Og's stalwarts on and off the field of play. He's looking forward to better times for the club in '08. With all the vim and vigour that has characterised Drumgoon Eire Og over the years, Barry Crosson acted out the roles of player and PRO down Boyle Park way in 2007. An archetypal stalwart clubman, the 32-year old defender 'cum erstwhile club officer experienced a whirlwind year on and off the playing field in his duel roles. Reflecting on what was a rollercoaster year for his beloved club; Barry acknowledges that it has proven difficult for the club in recent times to maintain hugely high standards of yore. Most GAA fans in the county will recall that Drumgoon Eire Og annexed the JFC (2000) and IFC (2001) titles before going onto terrorise the rest of the province and Ireland. Those were heady days but they're also fast becoming distant memories which, though outstanding, need to be reprised sooner rather than later. Certainly Barry accepts that after a 2006 season best forgotten and a heartbreaking '07 campaign, better times in '08 would be most welcome: "Like every other year, the aim in the coming year will be to get among the silverware and the priority has to be the intermediate championship title," Barry avers. "I'm confident that if we can reproduce the same effort that we did last year and a little more luck goes our way we can be there or thereabouts at the business end of the season in both the league and championship. "For all the swings and roundabouts encountered last year by Drumgoon, perhaps the words 'league' and 'promotion' have most resonance of all. " We were rampant in the first half of the league campaign, losing only one of the first 11 league games played and winning nine of them," Barry explains." We had some outstanding performances, including home games against Killygarry, which we won by 13 points, and Knockbride and a spirited fight back to win from an eight point half time deficit away in Shercock." Any suspicions as to the cause of Drumgoon Eire Ogs plummeting form in the league at the tail end of 2007? "I suppose you could put it down to tired limbs and some injuries to key players such as Niall McIntyre, Colm Hannon and Mike Hannon which saw us just come away with a draw against Ballymachugh and losses to Redhills and near neighbours Cootehill. "The resulting three way tie at the top of the table resulted in us going into a play-off against Lavey; leaving us facing them for the fifth time in the season. "Preparations went well, turnouts at training were good and management tried different things to make a difference but we lost the play-off to them. "Maybe in hindsight you could say that the wheels began to come off the wagon towards the end of the season with the championship defeat to Lavey after a three game epic." "We don't want to see Lavey for another while at this stage because they definitely were our bogey team in 2007 - they were the only team to beat us in the league when we met them early on and at that time we were short our county players. At the time, neutral observers wondered whether Drumgoon Eire Ogs finest had lost that hunger which was so apparent in the early part of the noughties. Was it missing in 2007? "I'd say along with the injuries and tiredness towards the end of the season, it's possible that complacency could have been a factor when we found ourselves on top of the table for so much of the season. "The team were four points clear at the top and just needed 2 points from the last 3 games and we would have been home and dry. "The final promotion play-off against Lavey in Kingscourt was a great game and probably one of our best performances of the year but they edged the result which meant that we narrowly missed out on promotion which was very disappointing." The league campaign followed on, off course, from a no less disappointing championship campaign which included the aforementioned trilogy against would-be finalists Lavey. Barry accepts that the club were offered a golden opportunity to bounce right back into the senior championship maelstrom for 2008 but blew the opportunity. "I suppose it was a year full of promise that just didn't work out the way we had hoped or planned. "Of course morale wasn't so good at the end of the championship, especially the way we bowed out but that's football and there's no point really in looking back and wondering why things didn't go our way." No fault of the management then? "No, none at all. Even though he may not have had that much experience in Cavan football coming into the job, I found Eddie Kelly (team-manager) very good, very enthusiastic with lots of very good ideas. "He did his best as did Peter Hand and John Joe Lennon as selectors and Patrick Moynagh, as team trainer and club chairman, had the team in great shape throughout the season." The club's intermediate championship campaign had begun so swimmingly. A facile victory over near-neighbours Kill at the tail end of last August was just what the doctor ordered to ease the angst and pain carried over from the 2006 season. Sadly the buzz generated by the opening round win was difficult to maintain and build upon as it would be a further month before the championship came calling again. By the time of Drumgoon's quarter-final tilt with Lavey, the Eire Og men weren't at their best. "I don't think the long break between the Kill game and the Lavey match helped us," Barry opines. "It can be difficult to remain focussed for over four weeks and definitely the break came at the wrong time." And yet Drumgoon were afforded three occasions to work the oracle against Lavey. Their initial encounter ended in a 0-11 to 0-11 draw, the second affair saw Drumgoon's 1-13 countered by Lavey's 2-10 before the Kelly-managed crew lost out by 0-9 to 1-9 in the second replay. "We just didn't finish them off when we had the chances," Barry recalls. "In the second game, we were seven points ahead but I think a lack of a killer punch let us down. "All credit to Lavey; they showed their resilience in the championship and their ability to go the distance in the league." "Lavey went on to narrowly miss-out in the championship final, by one point, to Ulster Club Championship winners, Ballinagh. "We will have learned a lot from the 2007 campaign, and will look to put this experience into practice in the new season." Brother of fellow Eire Og players, Colm, Niall, Paul, Adrian, Ronan and Darragh and second cousin of former Drumgoon stalwart of the 'seventies Eamon McArdle, Barry was captain of the club's reserve senior team last year which narrowly missed out on the shake-up for promotion to division four, a role his brother Adrian will be playing with the clubs senior team in 08. Not that Barry has been starved of medals down the years! In tandem with most of his peers, our man Crosson is endowed with a crate load of medals with under 12, under 14, under 16, minor and a JFC and IFC gong. As regards his time with the juniors over the course of the past season, he remembers some notable performances, including wins against Shercock and Cootehill and comebacks in games against Lavey and Laragh which saw the team secure a share of the spoils on both occasions. Meanwhile Barry and his team-mates performed well in the championship too, reaching the semi-final only to lose out after a replay. Barry says he hopes to contribute to the Drumgoon cause as much as possible this year again although his efforts will primarily be confined to togging out. Based in Monaghan town, the software engineer reluctantly stood down from the position of PRO at the club's recent AGM as he envisaged work commitments, college courses combined with training and matches draining him of sufficient time to do the job of PRO the way it should be done. He doesn't begin to underestimate the importance of good public relations: "The GAA should be at the centre of a community's activities and in order to achieve that a club's PRO needs to work hard to put its message across to all sections whether that is via the internet or the local media. Tweet

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