When you dominate the landscape like Newtown Blues did while collecting back-to-back senior football championships in 2000 and 2001, it's always going to be difficult to keep things going at that sort of intensity. The Blues never reached the same dizzying heights in '02, bowing out of the hunt for the Joe Ward Cup at the hands of Clan Na Gael after a quarter-final replay. Gerry Robinson caught up with Keith Lynch - one of the real stars of the club's double success - to discuss the season gone by, past successes, future hopes and a little more besides. How difficult was the task facing the Blues in 2002, when you found yourselves gunning for a three-in-a-row as the team that everybody else wanted to beat? We were really going for it but were hampered a lot by the fact that we had lost six players from the team that played in the 2001 final. We knew it would be extremely difficult. We tried our best but in the end just fell short. The almost ironic thing is that the defeat to the Clans was the kind of game the two-in-a-row side specialised in winning, but for some reason this time you couldn't rescue the situation. How come? When you miss six or seven frees from 30 yards or less in any game, you don't deserve to win - it's as simple as that really. We dominated long periods of the game - particularly in the second half - but we couldn't seem to put the ball over the bar. Another factor is that the hunger probably wasn't the same as in 2000 and 2001. Colm Nally said to us in the dressing-room all year before we went out onto the field that we had to play like we were going for our first championship, but the players had two championship medals each in their back pocket. Was failure easy to accept then? Was it a case of 'oh well, we've done it twice; it's no big deal. Let someone else have a turn'? No, not at all. You approach every game and every championship hoping to win and you're never happy with anything less. We were absolutely gutted after the Clans game. We had them pinned back inside their own 21-yard line for the last 20 minutes but we couldn't put them away. That was the disappointing thing - that we could have won. It was the kind of game we had pulled out of the fire before. You'll fancy your chances again next year then? Definitely. This was our youngest team in a while. We had a lot of lads who were in their first year. Also, Thomas Carr will be coming back - he was a massive loss in 2002. People talk about Colin Kelly, who we definitely missed, but Thomas was a much more integral part of the team and his return will boost us no end. We were happy with our form in the league all year and knew that if we could do well there - which we did - then it would keep things ticking over nicely for next year. Can this team win another few SFCs then, despite the obvious disappointment of last season? Time is on our side. I'm one of the oldest on the team at 24. If you take out myself and Breen Phillips and Colm Nally, it's a very young side and there could be another two or three championships in us. If we can get a settled team and learn from our experience, then we'll be in there with a good chance. This group of players has been pretty dominant right through, hasn't it? We won the U21 championship four years ago - in Mickey McQuillan's first year with the Blues - and that was a good stepping-stone for us. We then took that team through and have won two senior championships and have only been narrowly beaten in the knockout stages of the other two. When we got to the semi-final against Stabannon in 1999, we knew then that we had a good enough team. Were the Blues a worse team last term than they were in 2000 and 2001? Or was everybody else better? I don't think it was a matter of the standard having improved anyway. One of the problems was that we had it too easy in the group stages. Even though, in fairness, Hunterstown did give us a game, we were never really pushed that hard in the group games - especially not by the Pats or Roche - and that was no good to us whatsoever as far as preparation for the knockout stages goes. Other teams came through more difficult groups and that stood to them. But we were left looking for challenge games in Meath . . . and we couldn't get them. If we had beaten the Clans, we have an important psychological edge over Collon - whom we'd have met in the semi-final - and we would have really fancied our chances. But the Clans are big and play a very strong physical game - which doesn't suit us, especially last year with so many young lads on the team. How long have you been playing for the Blues? I started on the senior team when I was 15 or 16 but missed a while because I was playing rugby. I came back the year before Mickey McQuillan took over. To date I have won two senior championships, one ACC Cup and an U21 championship. I also played in three county minor finals. And your intercounty career? I played for the minors and the U21s. I first joined the senior panel for Paddy Clarke's second year but left after about seven months, before being called back in by Paddy Carr last year. I have to admit I was very disappointed not to have been in there for the previous two years [when the Blues were winning championships for fun and Lynch was Man of the Match in literally every second game], more so when people were coming up to me all the time and saying they thought I should be in. When Paddy Carr called me back in last year I started well but I faded out of it then and didn't feature in the championship at all. But hopefully next year. There was little respite - training for the 2002/03 season began in August: We went to DCU for individual testing and started in the gym in August to start building on the progress that was made last year. Hopes for the coming season? I would love to win another senior championship with the club and give Leinster a real go. I'd also love to get a starting place with Louth. I play all my club football at midfield but Louth have tended to play me in the forwards, which certainly isn't my ideal position. Last year's defeat to Meath was shattering. Paddy wanted to put on another sub but the fourth official told him the time was up and that there was no need . . . and then Meath got their two goals! I was gutted but I returned home to a happy house that evening. My mum and dad are from Meath originally. My father played all his life with St Colmcilles and my grandfather on my mother's side - Johnny Walker - won a junior All-Ireland with Meath in 1947. But make no mistake: Keith is very much a Louth man. And, more essentially, a Blues man! Tweet

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