After their impressive showing the previous season, Naomh Malachi had high hopes for 2001. But their dreams did not materialise due to a combination of erratic league form and an uncharacteristically poor championship outing. However, defender Fra McArdle isn't giving up hope on this particular set of players. He believes senior football still lies within their grasp. Having reached the intermediate semi-finals with excellent wins over O'Connells and competition favourites St Fechins as well as gaining promotion from Division 2B to 2A, Naomh Malachi had every reason to look back on Season 2000 as a major success. They also had cause to look ahead to 2001 with optimism. Going into the 2001 season, they were understandably confident. But things just didn't go according to plan. Playing in the higher grade of the intermediate league, they couldn't quite manage to kickstart a promotion challenge. Meanwhile, their championship campaign was one of abject failure. At Dowdallshill on Saturday July 21st, a late goal consigned them to a 1-5 to 0-7 defeat at the hands of Naomh Fionnbarra - a team who hadn't recorded a solitary win in the league at that stage but amazingly went on to win the championship. Having led 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval, the Malachis lost their way after the break and couldn't really complain when defeat and elimination were ultimately their lot. How frustrated they must have felt when Togher beat Sean McDermotts in a replayed IFC final! Full back for most of the season, long-serving defender Fra McArdle wore the Number 5 jersey for that ill-fated championship clash. The disappointment is palpable in his voice as he reflects: "We'd had such a good run the previous year and had the same backroom set-up [former players Gerry Murphy and Declan Woods] and the same playing personal in place, so we were hoping to make a strong bid for senior football. "We started well enough in the league but suddenly lost our way in the middle of the year. We couldn't have lost our form at a worse time. We lost three league games in a row in the build-up to the championship match and that was bound to affect our confidence." The defeat to the Fionnbarrs was at best a mild surprise, at worst a big one: "We let ourselves down badly," Fra concedes. "We'd been having problems at the back all year but were scoring quite freely. But we couldn't find our shooting boots at all for the championship. We only scored a single point in the second half and that tells its own story." The loss of inspirational centre half forward Micheal Daly with a facial injury after only 20 minutes was without doubt a contributory factor to the defeat. As was some sheer profligacy in front of the posts in the first half. "I think we hit something like seven wides in eight minutes at one stage," recalls Fra. "We really should have scored another three or four points in the first half but we missed too many chances and paid the price. We also missed a good chance from a free at the end - it just wasn't our day." This wasn't quite what the Malachis and their supporters had been expecting. "After the previous season, we were confident. We had made progress in both the league and the championship in 2000. We reached the championship semi-final with good wins over the Fechins and O'Connells but then lost to St Kevin's. We knew we had an excellent chance of making the final but the Kevins had their homework done and they played well on the day." At 26, Fra is already going into his ninth year on the Naomh Malachi first team. Scant silverware has been won but there's no sign of towels being thrown in just yet: "Since I came onto the intermediate team we've always been there or thereabouts, without ever quite making it. About four or five years ago we lost a lot of our older players and had to kinda build a new team. But the new crop has come through now so it's time we were making a serious push . . . some of us aren't getting any younger! "With the facilities we have here in Courtbane, the club deserves to be playing senior football. We have a great stand and have just finished the new building with dressing-rooms, kitchen, meeting rooms and all the top facilities. We still have the original building as well and an excellent playing surface, so it would be only fitting if we could bring senior football to the club. "It's the least that such excellent facilities deserve. Anyone who comes here always says they're up there with the very best in the county. Even the Armagh senior footballers have been training here during the summer months for the past three years." Fra has spent his whole career in the backs and he's growing into the role with each passing season - despite a few bad injury setbacks: "I was playing centre half in 2000 but did my ankle in the first round of the championship and missed a good bit of the season. I was full back for a lot of last year but played wing back for the Naomh Fionnbarra game. "Three years ago, I broke my leg and that ruled me out for eleven months, so it's only really in the past two seasons that I've been starting to get back into it. "There's a great spirit in the club and we always have good craic. We're all very close, it's a small area and we all socialise together. It's great." As well as gaining promotion and putting in a good championship run last year, Naomh Malachi also won the Grogan Cup - only the club's second piece of silverware since the 1979 junior championship success (they won the McGahon Cup in 1998). "We've been intermediate right through from 1979. We got to finals in 1988 and '90, but have just been holding our own since," Fra notes. Fra McArdle also played a lot of juvenile hurling with Knockbridge and Louth, but had to give up the ancient game due to time restrictions. These days, he's fully focused on Naomh Malachi, the club his father Frank (a former first team selector and a trojan worker with underage players) has also been heavily involved in for a lifetime. What are Fra's hopes for the coming season? "The talent is there and we are good enough, so it's just a matter of getting it together for one big push. You need a bit of luck and things don't seem to have been going our way but I'm sure that if we keep the heads down and keep trying hard, then we'll eventually make the breakthrough." Naomh Malachi Grounds Voted Tops Naomh Malachi, who choose their pick from the area straddling alongside that of three times All-Ireland club champions Crossmaglen Rangers, may never match the big boys when it comes to putting trophies on the table. But one thing you can be sure about when you mention the good people of Hackballscross and surrounding townlands - it will not be for want of trying. The Malachi's boast one of the most active committees behind the scene and the club gained its reward in 2001 by winning the Louth Club Grounds of the Year award. This event was sponsored by Louth County Council and the Naomh Malachi grounds at Courtbane pipped Roche into second place, while Cooley and Stabannon Parnells were joint third. The Naomh Malachi citation was as follows: "Your enthusiasm and hard work over the last year sees you capture the 'Overall Award' in this year's competition. Your impressive entrance with its white dashed boundary wall and galvanised entrance gates are quite striking and do much to create an excellent first impression. The erection of our 'new' anti-litter alert signs strategically placed beside the litterbins show your efforts to make both members and visitors aware of litter as a problem. The new extension that has been completed blends in well with the original building. Your club facilities, which also include impressive viewing stand, dugouts, scoreboard, press box and car park must now rank among the best in the county, which must be commended for a small rural team. Litter and weed control was very good. The pitch was in fabulous condition and very well kept. Perhaps the nicest feature of your grounds is the shelterbelt of trees planted around the perimeter of the pitch, which has matured since last year and is well looked after. A lot of on-going hard work and effort goes into maintaining this club to such a high standard and the hardworking club committee and members deserve the highest praise. Congratulations on your efforts the top prize is well deserved." Tweet

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