With a number of retirements and players on their travels around the globe, it proved a year of transition for Naomh Mairtin in the senior grade, but the club is in a healthy position at all levels and hopes are high that success is just around the corner once more. Few clubs in County Louth could do without the formidable services of JP Rooney, and when his absence - he travelled to Australia for part of 2008 - coincided with the retirements of several of Naomh Mairtin's most experienced players, it was always going to be a difficult campaign for the Monasterboice men. As such, then, safety in the senior grade was paramount and achieving that goal, as well as bringing through a number of promising minors to adult level, meant that the year can be deemed a success. Given the level of upheaval on the playing front, club chairman Mick Fanning insists that the club can be relatively satisfied with the campaign. He says: "The main thing was that we retained our senior status. I think that was really the aim from the year. We had to take part in a fair bit of team rebuilding. A few lads retired, such as James and Paul McDonnell, Eddie Martin and Barry Murtagh, and we lost a couple of others too, with JP Rooney and Paddy Loughran going to Australia for a while. "So it was definitely a case of trying to rebuild for much of the year. But the lads bounced back well when the chips were down, and I don't think there was a team in the county that finished the year in the sort of form our lads did - they put up a score of 5-14 against Sean O'Mahonys and 6-16 against the Joes [in the final rounds of the League]." Having consolidated its senior spot, the club will be hoping to put together a challenge for honours in 2009, when former county star Nicky Malone is again expected to be in charge of team affairs. And Fanning expects several of Naomh Mairtin's highly promising minor and under-21 players to make an impact at adult level in the coming years. He said: "We have a strong base. The under-21 team was very good this year, beating Glen Emmets and Young Irelands before going out to St Brigid's, the Dreadnots-St Fechin's combination, after a replay in the quarter-finals. "There's a very good underage structure in the club, and that's bringing through a good flow of players. There were seven minors on the senior team by the end of the year, and young lads like Brian Berrill and Paul and Shane Campbell look very good prospects for the future." James Howell, the club's juvenile chairman, takes up the story. There are, he says, dozens of people involved in the making the club the success it is at underage level, with several former players and club members taking up coaching courses in a bid to help the next generation to realise its potential. Naomh Mairtin lifted the county minor league in 2007 and bounced back from a slow start in '08 to emulate their senior colleagues by running up some impressive tallies by the end of the year. Says Howell: "We won the minor league last year and were beaten in the final of the league in 2006. We weren't just as strong this year but there are still a few good sets of lads coming through. At under-15 and under-16 level, too, we've really improved over the last few years. "A lot of people deserve a lot of credit for the way things have gone. Aidan Berrill, Micky Smyth and Frank Keenan have been over the under-21s, Paul McCarville, Eugene McQuillan, Aidan and Micky at minor and Ray Lambe and Paul Harrington have been in charge of the -15s and -16s. "Fergal Costello and Johnny Culligan have done a good job at under-14, Martin Morgan and Paul Clutterbuck are over the -13s and -12s, Donal McCormack, Paddy Holcraft, Pat Cheshire and Pat Matthews were in charge of the under-11 team which won the Drogheda Shield. The under-10s were runner-up in the Mid-Louth competition. Martin McCullough, Eddie Martin, Stephen Holt and John McGrane are involved with them. We have a very strong team of players at under-9 level under Ciaran Holcraft, Ray Morgan and Thomas Whelan. Thomas Clarke, Tom Rooney and Neil Cooney are over the under-8s and Paddy and Ann-Marie Holcraft, Damien Lynch, Danny Campbell and Aileen Joyce look after the under-7s - we have about 140 kids from minor down to under-7, so all in all the juvenile side of things is a major operation. "Many club members have done coaching courses or are in the process of doing them. At every age group we have people who have past experience in football and someone who might not have played but might be very good at organising things. And they're good coaches, so we're very lucky. We have nearly every lad in the parish kicking a ball, so things are going well." Frank Keenan, a native of Ballybay in County Monaghan, was Naomh Mairtin's reserve team manager in 2008. The club's second string struggled to make an impact, an extension of the rebuilding process which saw several players graduate to the senior side during the year. Nevertheless, Keenan feels the future is bright. He said: "We really had to rebuild to be honest. The team was decimated. With a few of the older lads on the senior team retiring, and a couple more going to Australia, we ended up with a second team with a very young average age. Selectors Colm Winters and Damien Lynch and kitman Paddy Winters were a great help to me all year, and hopefully things will be better next year if we can continue to bring the players through." Keenan also has a few ideas which could significantly improve the lot of club footballers in the county, such as the implementation of a fixture list which would guarantee games throughout the summer, while he also feels all clubs should be required to publish an officials' list at the start of each year from which umpires and linesmen would be drawn for every game. He says: "All clubs should be required to provide a list of officials to the County Board. Maybe eight or ten people, then you'd have to take your three officials - two umpires and a linesman - from that for each game. It would stop the situation arising where you see a lad called out of the stand to do the line. That just isn't right, and can lead to all sorts of problems. At least if there was an official list, everyone would know where they stood." Naomh Mairtin also caters for ladies' teams on several fronts, with an intermediate team and four juvenile sides from under-10 to under-16 level. Sandra Callan, the chairperson of the ladies' club, says: "We're in a fairly good position. We have somewhere between 90 and 100 registered players in total, and we won the under-16 League this year. Several of that team will be overage next year so hopefully they'll be coming through at adult level soon. "We also had a number of players who represented the count at under-12, under-14 and junior level. The committee and members are a great help - there are probably 15 people giving their time to the ladies' teams - so all in all we're very happy with how things are progressing." *** Frank Keenan is Transport Manager with McArdle Transport, having been with the company for the past 22 years. McArdle Transport was co-founded 40 years ago by Michael McArdle, who is still the company's managing director. The company has built up an unrivalled reputation by putting our customers' needs as the focus of our attention. Acute awareness of detail and being attentive to our customer requirements often develop into partnership approaches which led us to tailor specific solutions in line with our customers needs. Over 40 years, McArdle Transport Ltd has become one of the leading specialists in Transport, Logistics, Warehousing and Supply Chain Management, offering a complete range of specialist services, sustainable for the long term. McArdle Transport Ltd currently operates a modern fleet of 30 vehicles, and in excess of 125 trailers ranging from Mega Trailers, Euroliners, Box Vans, Box Fridges and Skelly Trailers. The firm is committed to providing an efficient, flexible service, utilising integrated satellite tracking and communications solutions in order to ensure peace of mind to our customers; ensuring the correct goods are delivered to the correct location, at the correct time, in the correct condition, at the correct cost. 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The company offers advice and solutions to every aspect of materials sourcing, just in time services, value added solutions, door-to-door services, and direct dedicated vehicles that offer daily departures to all major cities throughout Europe. Warehousing & Storage McArdle Transport operates a secure 13-acre site consisting of 120,000 square feet of warehousing and a new 30,000 square feet CCTV monitored warehouse facility with access control. This fully racked warehouse with a capacity for 6,000 pallets increases the firm's capacity to 14,000 pallet spaces. The site is a customs approved and department of agriculture approved premises, finished to the highest standard, and is suitable for pharmaceutical, blue-chip, food grade products or general palletised cargo. McArdle Transport Ltd have a total of five warehouses on site for a range of clients across pharmaceutical, specialist furniture and precision engineering sectors, while an in-house Warehouse Management System is used for control of all stock movements. Tweet

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