Not many clubs in the Wee County can claim to have as much exiting young talent at their disposal as Dreadnots. The Clogherhead outfit had three men on the county minor team in '06 and also reached the county MFC decider (amalgamated with St Fechins). Little wonder club chairman Padraig Califf is looking on the bright side of life, despite the obvious disappointment of the club's luckless demotion to intermediate level. Dreadnots found themselves embroiled in the Division 1B relegation dogfight for most of 2006 and that battleground will have done their emergent young talent no harm whatsoever. The club has some wonderful young talent coming through at present, and those youngsters certainly came of age in '06. With five of the eight teams in 1B guaranteed to take the dreaded drop to intermediate grade, it was always going to be decidedly difficult to retain senior status. For Dreadnots, a club with a recent history of yo-yoing between the two grades, the challenge was even more demanding than usual. This time, sanctuary lay not in the Top Six but the Top Three. Could they do it? For most of the year, it looked as if they probably would. However, it went right down to literally the very last kick and that was the one that sent the dreadfully-unfortunate Dreadnots packing. With Naomh Mairtin and Sean O'Mahonys already safe, Dreadnots' last league game of the year was a winner-takes-all clash with Kilkerley in Clogherhead on Sunday November 26. They led by two points with four minutes of added time played but disaster struck when Shane Lennon somehow found the net through a forest of players to inflict a sickening 3-8 to 2-10 defeat on the home side. Unbelievably, that score consigned Dreadnots to the drop; rarely has a Louth club lost out in more terrible circumstances. Amid the dogfight, one could almost have failed to notice that Dreadnots have unearthed some exceptionally gifted young players. Pat Lynch, Padraic Smith and Padraig Rath were all key players on the Louth minor team during the summer and the trio helped Dreadnots-St Fechins qualify for the 2006 Louth MFC decider. They were also prominent members of the club's first team which fought so gallantly to try to ensure that Clogherhead would have senior fare to look forward to again in 2007. Ultimately, while a lack of experience may have cost them dearly (could Dreadnots have killed Kilkerley off in the decisive game?), these are truly exciting times for Dreadnots and the future is looking brighter than it has in quite some time. Club chairman Padraig Califf (who has made a great contribution in nurturing players through his work with the county Development Squads) is upbeat about how things are panning out for the seasiders: "All the hard work is starting to bear fruit. We have plenty of experience in the team and it's great to see such talented young blood coming through to complement those players. Our underage coaches - mostly past players - have worked hard to nurture this talent and they've gone out and got all the coaching qualifications they need. The work these guys have been doing at underage level is unbelievable and they deserve the utmost credit." Certainly, the first team is starting to take on a more balanced look and the young lads coming through are the envy of most clubs in the county. The three players mentioned above were absolutely outstanding with the county U18s and all three would appear to have big futures ahead of them. In addition to their exertions at minor level, they also assumed a great deal of responsibility with the Dreadnots senior team in '06, featuring in both league and championship as the club battled against the odds to make a telling impression. For most teams in Division 1B, the championship was overshadowed by the relegation rumble borne of restructuring. Dreadnots were no different. Their SFC challenge never got off the ground - although this was hardly surprising given that their opener was against none other than St Patricks. Best maybe to focus entirely on the league… Dreadnots were in Group B of the 2006 Louth senior football championship and failed to win a game therein. The Pats beat them in the opener by 1-14 to 0-7 and a thoroughly disappointing 0-12 to 0-4 defeat to Oliver Plunketts followed at Drogheda at the end of June. Dreadnots redeemed themselves in their third group outing, pushing would-be champions St Josephs all the way before slipping to a narrow and rather unfortunate 1-12 to 0-13 defeat. At least the Black & Red had shown what they're made of before exiting the premier competition. And they had given themselves a boost with some big, big battles lying ahead. Reflecting on the three SFC games, Padraig Califf says: "Our seniors had a very tough group against the Pats, the Joes and Oliver Plunketts. We didn't win a game; we were flat and never got off the ground. We went more or less straight into the championship as there had been hardly any league matches played due to Louth's run. We weren't overly disappointed because our main aim was to try to keep our senior status. We knew we weren't going to win a senior championship in 2006, anyway. "We set ourselves for a dogfight in the league and we channelled all our resources into the push for survival. We had to make the Top Three and stay senior. Now we have to focus on bouncing straight back up and hopefully the experience of so many important matches in '06 will stand to the players. We have some good young players coming on and I wouldn't like to see those lads struggling at intermediate level in two or three years. You'd like to see quality footballers expressing themselves at senior level." The players coming through look more than capable of safeguarding the club's future. "We have been placing a major emphasis on underage development these past number of years and this is starting to pay off," the chairman confirms. "The village is expanding and it's up to us to meet the challenges that go hand-in-hand with that. We have purchased a new pitch adjacent to the current one and we have already levelled and reseeded it, so things are moving on that front too. "We have a ten-year plan in place for new facilities including new dressing-rooms and two floodlit pitches, and we're undertaking a lot of fundraising to make this a reality. The first phase, which is now in progress, is the second pitch, with the dressing-rooms and floodlights to follow. With the expanding population, our main aim is to have a strong presence in the village. We want to be a focal point and to be able to facilitate people. "We've always made a good effort at juvenile level and we'll have to keep that up. The school has gone from four teachers to eight inside the last four years and there's a real need to keep working with the underage. We used to have only two or three teams but now field from U14 down to U8. We're still amalgamated with St Fechins at some levels [U16 and minor] but we're starting to field on our own. We had our own U14 team in the championship this year and will go it alone at U15 level next year. "The minors reached the championship final for the first time in over 20 years and three of those lads were in central positions against Laois in the Leinster minor championship - Pat Lynch at centre half forward; Padraic Smith at full forward; and Padraig Rath at centre half back. The club has contributed players to all the Development Squads in the county over the years and we had four with the U14s in 2006, so there's no question about the quality of young lads we have at our disposal if we can nurture them and keep them interested in playing for Dreadnots." Derek Shevlin and Fergal McGuigan were on the Louth junior side that played Meath in the 2006 Leinster JFC final, while new recruit Nigel Shevlin was with the Wee County senior squad. Sean McEntee was in charge of the club's first team at the start of the year but had to step aside due to work commitments. He was replaced by the dedicated triumvirate of Eamonn Lynch, Paul Aspell and Pat Smith, who put in a big effort but certainly weren't helped by the fact that only three league matches were played between February and August (as well as three in the SFC). It was a testing year for everyone but Dreadnots should come out of it stronger than ever. "We're the longest-running organisation in the area and we have good support as well as exciting players, decent structures and new facilities coming on stream, so we have a lot to be positive about," the chairman concludes. Tweet

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