Naomh Fionnbarra opened their 2003 season in excellent fashion when capturing the Grogan Cup on Sunday May 25th. Mayo native Brendan Healy played a key role in ensuring that the first County Board trophy of the year went to Markey Park. Relegated from senior at the end of the previous season, Naomh Fionnbarra made an ideal start to 2003 by marching to Grogan Cup glory. It was the perfect pick-me-up for the crestfallen Finbarrs and Patsy Matthews' team hoped to use the win as a platform for further success. While it didn't work out like that (a play-off defeat to O'Raghallaighs put paid to the Green & Golds' chances of reaching the latter stages of the IFC), the Grogan Cup triumph is nonetheless a noteworthy achievement. It confirmed that the Togher side can still compete at intermediate level and they'll derive plenty of encouragement from the victory going into the '04 campaign. After all, if they're good enough to win the Grogan Cup, then why not the intermediate championship or the Division 2A league? Full forward Brendan Healy played a vital part in the Grogan Cup heist. The former Mayo minor and U21 star was on top form throughout the campaign and gave a Man of the Match display against Sean McDermotts in the decider, wreaking havoc from start to finish. Indeed, it was a particularly poignant win for Brendan, who had already won two Grogan Cup medals with his previous club Oliver Plunketts. Some going considering that the Cup itself has only been part of the County Board treasure trove for about five seasons! Reflecting on the successful campaign, Brendan notes: "It was a big win for sure. It's not the most important competition on the Louth calendar but it's the first one of the year and it was a good note to start on. It was also the first piece of silverware Naomh Fionnbarra had collected since winning the intermediate championship [in 2001], so it gave us a bit of a boost. "We'd had a disappointing year at senior and everyone was a bit deflated going back down to intermediate, so it was important to get back to winning ways as soon as possible." And that's exactly what they did! The final was played in Stabannon on May 25th and the winners completely overwhelmed the McDermotts en route to a comprehensive 1-13 to 0-4 victory. Brendan Healy was a menace throughout, using his size and strength to win plenty of possession in the danger zone while engaging his considerable degrees of vision and skill to pick out the likes of Neil Hand, Peter Markey and Nigel and Aidan Shevlin for scores. Though he didn't get on the scoreboard himself, the big No.14 had a hand in the majority of his team's scores from play. Of course, Healy wasn't the Finbarrs' only impressive performer on the day - they were well served by a number of top-class displays all over the park. The prodigious John Doyle and his midfield partner Aidan Shevlin dominated exchanges in the central area while, up the central channel of the defence, Mark Devlin and Gerard Leonard, had answers to everything the Seans threw at them. Centre forward Nigel Shevlin led the attack superbly and finished the day with 1-4 to his credit. Corner man Neil Hand (0-5) also contributed handsomely in the scoring stakes, while Aidan Shevlin and Peter Markey chipped in with a brace of points apiece. Al in all, it was a magnificent performance from Patsy Matthews' charges. The extent of their superiority is best demonstrated by the fact that the game had gone three minutes into the second half by the time McDermotts registered the first score of their four-point tally. Naomh Fionnbarra qualified for the final when they topped Group B of the intermediate subsidiary league, with three wins out of four. This left them level with O'Connells at the head of the table (on six points apiece) but the Togher side qualified for the decider by virtue of a better scoring average. The key to this superior scoring difference was the Finbarrs' first-round hammering of the Kilsaran-Castlebellingham combination. On that occasion, Naomh Fionnbarra signalled their intent when winning a high-scoring affair by twelve points, 4-13 to 2-7. They pipped Dreadnots in the second round on March 2nd, 1-9 to 3-2, and followed this up with a 1-11 to 1-7 defeat of St Kevins. Going into the last-round against St Fechins, Togher were already virtually assured of their place in the final, so the 2-9 to 0-7 defeat that ensued was little more than another meaningless statistic in a crazy, crazy world. Naomh Fionnbarra went on to take the silverware and the impressive nature of their success - particularly their thumping of O'Connells and facile final victory - suggested they were the team to beat in the intermediate championship. Unfortunately, their championship challenge never quite materialised. Indifferent form saw the Finbarrs struggle to make an impression and the best they could do was force a play-off with O'Raghallaighs for a place in the business end of the competition. As it transpired, the Drogheda outfit came out on top and progressed to the knock-out stage, while Naomh Fionnbarra were left to concentrate on the league. "That was very disappointing", Brendan admits, "because our aim was to win the championship. We showed what we were capable of by winning the Grogan Cup at the start of the year and the idea was to build on that. "We made it through to the play-off against O'Raghallaighs but there were players missing for that game and we also had a few injury problems. It just didn't work out for us. It was disappointing because we feel that we didn't realise our potential in the championship. "We can go out against any of the intermediate sides in the county and match them. Of all the games we played in '03, we weren't badly beaten in any of them but we were just lacking that little bit of edge in the championship and never really got the breaks you need to progress." Still, only three County Board trophies are available to each intermediate club in Louth and Naomh Fionnbarra collected one of them. In style! "The Grogan Cup final was the best game we played all year," Brendan confirms. "We were delighted with our performance and were pretty close to our peak at that stage. But we lost something like five games by a point over the course of the year and that tells its own story. We didn't get the breaks in the big games." "But there's always next year," the dangerous attacker adds as an ominous afterthought. Two-thousand-and-three was Brendan Healy's second year as a Naomh Fionnbarra player. Having transferred from nearby Oliver Plunketts, he spent 2002 playing senior football with his new club and had a very good season, though he admits a lot of it was "getting to know the lads". The Mayo native is teaching at St Mary's in Drogheda, thus his inevitable transfer to club football in the Wee County (albeit via O'Dwyers in Balbriggan). The big targetman hails originally from Glenamoy, near Belmullet, and plied his trade with the local club there, also earning representative honours with the Mayo minors and U21s. He's worn the Louth jersey too - two years ago he lined out for the Wee County juniors. Though the Grogan Cup wasn't ideally the prize Naomh Fionnbarra sought most in 2003, winning the competition certainly raised the collective spirit around Togher way. As Brendan concludes: "It was a campaign that went well and we got the little breaks, so we were delighted. "We're hoping it will give us a lift for next year. There's an excellent set-up here and a lot of very talented young lads coming through. We have the players, so with the right attitude and a few breaks along the way, hopefully we'll give the intermediate championship a good shot in 2004..." Naomh Fionnbarra, 2003 Grogan Cup winners: Diarmuid O'Reilly; Shane Fanning, Gerard Leonard, Trevor Dolan; Fergal Leonard, Mark Devlin, Keith Woods; John Doyle, Aidan Shevlin; Peter Markey, Nigel Shevlin, Stephen Devlin; Neil Hand, Brendan Healy, Paul Bannon. Subs: Conor O'Neill, Alan Matthews, Darren McQuillan. Doyle catches the eye John Doyle from the Naomh Fionnbarra club lined out at midfield for the Louth under 21 side that made a huge impression in the 2003 Leinster championship. Having eliminated Kildare from the competition, the Wee County were decidedly unlucky in their quarter-final clash with Dublin. Dublin were the defending Leinster champions. And they still had the bones of last year's team at their disposal. Not to mention Tommy Lyons in the backroom. Surely Louth - who have a terrible recent record at under 21 level - wouldn't bother them? Wrong! The Wee County matched their more illustrious neighbours over the course of a high-quality hour at Pairc Mhuire in Ardee. But for a couple of costly handling error at key moments in the game, they would have taken a famous scalp. And who knows how far they could've gone thereafter? There was something very different about the Louth under 21s this year. The new management triumvirate of Niall O'Donnell, Colin Kelly and Colm Nally brought a more professional approach than before to preparations and the team was imbued with a grave determination not to sell themselves short. If they were to lose, it wouldn't be through lack of skill, commitment or endeavour. And so it proved: following a spirited extra-time defeat of Kildare, Louth put in a superlative performance against Dublin on Saturday March 29th. There was nothing between the sides but the crucial breaks favoured the Dubs and Louth's campaign came to an undeserved end. Former Ireland U17 International Rules star John Doyle took the battle to Dublin from midfield. He reflects on a campaign that threw up many positives: "We prepared very well. We started training at the beginning of December and put in a lot of physical work over the winter to bring our fitness levels up. "Colm Nally took the training and, even though it was hard going at times, he varied it a lot which made it very enjoyable. There was never any monotony and everyone was enjoying the challenge, which is very important. There was great craic between all the lads and the spirit in the camp was really good." It was far from a case of all fun and games, however. This was a serious business and at the heart of everything, the panel was focused and driven. The type of character that was bred into the squad over the winter and early spring meant that they were not content to go out and make up the numbers. "Our aim was to break Louth's tradition of always losing at U21 level," John confirms. "We didn't want to just turn up on the day and play one championship match. We took each game as it came and we didn't look beyond Kildare until we had beaten them. In our minds, we knew we could put a run together. "Even though the Kildare game went to extra time, we took more scores and were always the better team. We beat them by 1-15 to 2-7 in the end ... sixteen scores to nine! "The biggest worry was that we made a lot of mistakes in the game and nearly beat ourselves. But once we came together we knew that if we got our act together and lifted the tempo then we could beat Dublin. As things turned out, we could have beaten them. But we made mistakes again, and this time they cost us ...". There were seven points in it in the end, but this was by no means an accurate reflection of how the game went. It was only in the closing moments that the Dubs got out of jail, and they were lucky to do so. Says John: "Having trailed by a point at half time, 0-7 to 0-6, we gave away a very sloppy goal at the start of the second half but managed to fight our way back into contention again. It was in the balance right up to the dying minutes but they got the crucial scores at the end. "It would have been a huge psychological boost if we'd managed to get the first score of the second half, but they got it. Over the hour, we tried hard and worked for the full 60 minutes but it just didn't come for us. It's disappointing but there's not much you can do about it." Time remains very much on this exciting Louth squad's side, however. And, with the management team having recently indicated that they'd be prepared to stay on for another season, this particular cloud has a distinct silver lining: "It's a very young panel and 22 of us are underage again next year, including myself [for two more years!], so hopefully it'll happen for us. Only six or seven of this year's panel will be ineligible, so we should be very strong. It's encouraging to hear that the three lads are keen to stay on in charge of the team. They were brilliant and they really brought the best out of the team. The training was varied between the swimming pool, Drumcar and the beach ... it was really good. "It was a real honour to be involved with something like that and I'm looking forward to next year's under 21 championship already! It's all about preparation and motivation. The interest was there and everybody wanted to play, to wear that county jersey. There was great spirit and belief and there were some exceptional footballers in the dressing room." Indeed, Louth's full forward line (for the Dublin game) of Shane Lennon, Darren Clarke and David Reid had a particularly menacing look about it - and another exceptional attacker Mark McGeown was on the bench. Brendan O'Donoghue from St Josephs is another wonderful footballer who had to be content with a place on the bench, as is Oliver Plunketts clubman Emmet Kellegher. A county minor for three years (2000-02), John put his club and county on the map in 2001 when he travelled to Australia as part of the Ireland U17 International Rules team. The Naomh Fionnbarra clubman - who was a regular on the Ireland team - describes it as "the experience of a life-time" and says it was a "great game to play", even if the Aussies had the edge in terms of fitness and professionalism. The Louth man has since retained an interest in Australian football and has noticed with interest that some of that Australian side have already graduated into professional ranks. Along with his Louth midfield partner Paddy Keenan and attacking sensation Shane Lennon, John was also on the Dundalk Schools team that won the Leinster senior colleges title last year. Surely a player with such a track record can't be too far away from the Louth senior panel? "Every player wants to play for his county at senior level, but I have two more years left with the under 21s and will concentrate on that first and foremost. I have plenty of time. I really enjoyed the U21s this year - we played well and I'm looking forward to next year," notes the man who's studying Environmental Management at DIT Rathmines. Tweet

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