Ollie Kelly has been a magnificent servant to Wolfe Tones hurling club over the years. In an interview with Gerry Robinson, the veteran attacker reflects upon the events of 2002, a season that saw him still very much on top of his game. It was an eventful year for Drogheda's sole adult hurling club, to say the least. Wolfe Tones took their place in the Dublin league for the first time and threw down their perennial challenge for domestic honours within the Wee County. Not for the first time in the past 20 years, Ollie Kelly - one of the Wee County's finest ever exponents of the small ball game - was to the fore as the Tones bid for glory. It was a disappointing season all round, however, as silverware was not forthcoming. Tones had become accustomed to county final appearances over the past four or five years. This time, however, they were surprised by Pearse Og at the penultimate stage. Pearse Og went on to capture the blue riband title and Ollie didn't begrudge them their day in the sun for one moment. To the contrary, he was delighted to observe a changing of the guard: "Losing to Pearse Og was a difficult pill to swallow at the time, but once they went on to win the county championship, I was the first one to applaud their achievement," Ollie confesses. "We had our chances against Pearse Og, but we hit a lot of wides. We could have done much better in the first half. But that's the way championship hurling goes. We got the breaks in previous years and this time it was Pearse Og's turn. They went on to beat Knockbridge, who had beaten us in the previous two county finals - so that was quite a performance. "I'm absolutely delighted for Damien Callan and Paul Callan, who have put so much into hurling in the county and it was great to see them get their rewards. Pearse Og won the championship on merit this year, so fair play to them." These are very gracious words from a man who has won three county medals himself and is still searching for a first SHC souvenir since Tones last reached the Holy Grail in 1996. But Kelly recognises a 'fair cop' when he sees it - and he knows Wolfe Tones weren't exactly at their best in '02. "We were disappointed with ourselves after having been in so many finals in a row, but you really can't take anything away from Pearse Og," he continues. All the indications from campaigns of recent vintage were that the Tones would be a force to reckon with in '02. They made it through to the 2001 county final, and gave Knockbridge a run for their money therein. However, they failed to reach the same dizzying heights during the 2002 season. The semi-final against Pearse Og was a hard-fought battle and the Tones were decidedly unfortunate to come out on the wrong end of the 2-11 to 0-15 scoreline after a real thriller. When the unfancied Dundalk club subsequently went on to shock the defending champions in the decider, one suddenly concluded that perhaps Wolfe Tones hadn't been as far off the mark as some observers might have suggested. After all, they came within a point of the side that went on to take the SHC... The semi-final was played on July 27th and the result was something of a surprise: the Tones were regular finalists while Pearse Og hadn't reached the decider since '97. Ollie Kelly contributed 0-9 of Wolfe Tones' 15-point tally in the 'semi'. Despite defeat, he remains quite philosophical about the way things turned out: "The manager this year, John Sweeney, did a very good job, but we didn't produce the goods. It's really down to ourselves, the players. "There is a championship there for the taking but we probably need to apply ourselves a bit more at training because a lot of us are around the 30 mark or even older and we don't have the same quantity of young players as the likes of Pearse Og and Knockbridge. We probably need to get a few younger lads in to bring the average age down and to enable us to compete with the 'younger' teams in the county. "At times last year, we had four or five lads out injured at the same time - all in and around the 23/24 mark - and we just didn't have the numbers to cope with that. It was a difficult year for us because we had a lot of cruciate ligament injuries - everything just seemed to go wrong at the same time." That hasn't always been the case. Ollie has enjoyed an illustrious career in the colours of Wolfe Tones - and he also had a superb innings in the Louth jersey, representing the Wee County with distinction during an intercounty career that spanned 1982-95. In 1993/94, the Drogheda sharpshooter had the distinction of finishing second highest scorer in that season's national hurling league, leaving the likes of DJ Carey, Tom Dempsey and the Dooleys trailing in his wake! At Christmas '93, Kelly and Stefan White topped the hurling and football charts respectively . . . surely a unique achievement. Ollie has been on the Wolfe Tones senior team since the very early 'eighties, when he was 16. He has won three county SHCs with the red and whites, in 1988 (their first title in 27 years!), '91 and '96 and was also an integral part of the Wolfe Tones side that stormed to three successive minor championships in 1980, '81 and '82. He also collected All-Ireland Kilmacud Crokes 'Sevens' Shield titles in 1994 and '96. Wolfe Tones were in the final of that particular competition in 1993 too. It's not hard to see where Ollie got his passion for hurling from - his father Oliver was a founder member of Wolfe Tones HC back in 1951. He is happy with the direction Wolfe Tones are heading in right now, particularly in respect of their participation in the Dublin league: "We took part last year [2002] for the first time and it was certainly worthwhile, even if our season was disrupted by a lot of injuries which left us struggling to get a strong side out at times. "We get ten games a year in the Dublin league and we're guaranteed a game every second week, which is vital if we're to improve. That accounts for the bulk of our matches as there are only three other senior clubs in Louth at the moment, and the rest of them are doing something similar by playing in Armagh. "Hopefully, the overall situation in Louth is about to improve. There's a lot of underage work being done in areas like Collon and Termonfeckin, so we should have more senior clubs in the not-too-distant future. "Things are improving and it's good to see these new teams appearing, which should lead to a further improvement in standards." Ollie intends to play on with Wolfe Tones for another couple of seasons and he sees no reason why he shouldn't get his hands on another senior hurling championship: "Some people might say we're a lost cause, but I don't agree with that assessment. You need a bit of luck on the day and if we can get that then we can beat any team in Louth. It'd certainly be nice to win another one." Expect Wolfe Tones to come back with all guns blazing in 2003, with scoring machine Ollie Kelly once more leading from the front. Tweet

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