Two-thousand-and one marked the 50th anniversary of Westerns' foundation. In an interview with Gerry Robinson, player-manager Padraig Brennan reflects on how the Reaghstown outfit celebrated its Golden Jubilee in appropriate fashion by winning the Division Three crown and in the process rising to intermediate grade for the first time. What a year! Surely this is the very fabric from which dreams are forged. That Westerns should finally take the step-up from junior ranks in the year of their 50th birthday seems more than a little apt. Somehow, it appears to have been pre-ordained by a greater power. But we'll leave such musings and conjecture to the theologians, cosmologists and priests of our time and concentrate henceforth on the facts. Westerns are up. The feelgood factor that engulfed the parish in the wake of the local heroes' historic achievement was truly wondrous. And a little bird - let's just call him 'Macca' - told me the craic was good in The Danny Boy too! I caught up with Padraig Brennan, the Westerns' doughty player-manager, a couple of weeks after the objective of promotion had been secured and asked him what the mood was like in the camp now that the dust had almost settled on their tremendous campaign: "It's a great feeling," he proclaims enthusiastically. "It was a long wait for the Westerns but thankfully it's over now and we can look forward to playing intermediate football. Personally, I've been trying to get out of junior since I came onto the team in 1989 and to achieve it at last is a brilliant feeling. We won back-to-back Donagh Cups in 1992 and '93 but have had very little success outside of that . . . certainly nothing to compare with this." Padraig could be forgiven for extracting a special little bit of personal satisfaction from the table-topping exploits as the long-serving player took charge of the team for the first time last year. In this capacity, he was ably assisted by selectors Alec Martin, Stephen Sweeney and Eugene Duffy (the club's most senior player, who lines out in goal) and trainer John Byrne. How did the managerial appointment come about? "I think the committee had a fair idea that I might be interested in the job and they nominated me at the club's AGM. I agreed to give it a go and brought John in early to train the team and things got rolling from there." All in all, it was an excellent year. Westerns won ten of their twelve league matches (including a couple of walkovers at the end) and were also extremely unfortunate in their one-point championship exit at the hands of eventual junior champions O'Raghallaighs. And they reached the final of the Kevin Mullen Shield in October. "We started really well in the league and things were going great. Our only defeat in the first half of the league was against Dowdallshill. We then had a bit of a blip when we lost to O'Raghallaighs in the championship and also lost a crucial league game to Young Irelands. At that stage there was a danger of things starting to turn sour as they had done so often in the past but in fairness to the lads they got stuck in and turned it around again. The critical week came in September and Westerns put together two very accomplished performances to account for O'Raghallaighs (in Drogheda) and fellow promotion contenders Dowdallshill (in Reaghstown) within the space of three days. Collectively, those two victories combined into the defining moment in Westerns' season as they left them in an unassailable position needing only one victory from their remaining two matches against the division's bottom two teams, Glen Emmets and Wolfe Tones. As it transpired, neither side was able to field and Westerns were crowned champions without having to kick another ball. "I knew the potential was there, as it had been for the past couple of years. It was just a matter of getting the vital breaks," notes Padraig. "We had a few new players in and they made a difference. Martin Kane who used to play for Cooley Kickhams settled in the area and he was a big asset and the arrival of the two McArdles and the two Dooleys from Inniskeen also bolstered the squad. The entire squad showed a great level of commitment all year and I couldn't have asked for anything more from them." The response of the players to the bitter disappointment of losing so narrowly to O'Raghallaighs in a championship thriller was particularly admirable. "They beat us by a point and it was a game we could have won. In previous years, things tended to fall apart after a result like that but the fact that we were in a strong position in the league gave us some added impetus. We took a week off and then John started with the training again and we carried it right through to the end of the season." Was there any sense of anti-climax at the end of the season, what with the two walkovers which meant that Westerns didn't actually get to play what would hopefully have been their last two junior matches for a long time? "It was a little disappointing not to have a game at the end but, to be honest, we weren't complaining too much. The main thing was to get up after such a long time trying and we were delighted with that. "Of course, it would have been nice to play the games. We were particularly disappointed that Glen Emmets couldn't field a team because they beat us in the 1997 junior final and we were looking forward to that game. We made up for it by playing John Mitchells in a challenge and Paddy McMahon presented the cup to Trevor Baylan afterwards. It was a nice moment for Trevor who'd had a bad injury last year but was back on top form this year." Naturally, the celebrations that followed were of the decidedly unrestrained, no-holds-barred variety. "It was our 50th year and it was very fitting that we should move up a grade to mark our anniversary," says the team manager. "I know the committee had invested a lot of time and energy into the grounds and the facilities and it's about time that we brought them up to a level of football that those facilities warrant." Having finally achieved their long-standing objective, how will the Westerns fare in next year's intermediate competitions? "I think we should be well able to handle it. We have a lot of young lads there at the moment and we also have the older, more experienced players like Eugene [Duffy], Hughie O'Neill, Brendan McMahon, Stephen Sweeney and myself and we all have the incentive now to go that bit harder. The blend in the team is pretty good and we don't fear anybody. "We know that if we can hold our own for the first year we will be stronger and more experienced for it and we'll be able to build on that. We're all really looking forward to playing intermediate football and testing ourselves at that level. We've been playing junior for so long that we're ready for the change. I don't think we'll let ourselves down. "We had three players - Terence and Richard Sweeney and Anthony Durnin - involved with the Baile Talun side that won the county minor championship, and that was another boost for us. We've just had a great season and hopefully there's plenty more where that came from." Tweet

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