Wolfe Tones continued to fly the flag for Drogheda hurling in 2006. They forced a three-way play-off in the county SHC, acquitted themselves superbly in the Dublin league and supplied the Wee County with their captain for the year - John Carter. Johnny is convinced that, with a bit of luck, the Tones can soon reclaim the Paddy Kelly Cup for the first time since 1996 Wolfe Tones opened their 2006 Louth SHC programme with a superb 2-11 to 1-7 defeat of Naomh Moninne on Friday August 11, this in spite of the dismissal of centre back Johnny Carter at the end of the first quarter. The Drogheda outfit managed to sneak in ahead at the interval, 0-6 to 0-5, and effectively sealed the issue with goals from Paddy Coyle and Mick McDonnell in the third quarter. Holders Knockbridge had lost their opener to Pearse Og and the Tones announced their arrival as real contenders when they defeated the Dundalk side by 2-8 to 0-12 in their second round-robin fixture. Unfortunately, a narrow defeat at the hands of Knockbridge ensued and this led to a three-way play-off. The draw for the play-off gave Tones only one chance, against the losers of the first game. Knockbridge beat Pearse Og to go into the final and Pearse Og subsequently ousted Wolfe Tones by 0-8 to 0-7 in the second play-off in mid-September. Alas, ten years after their most recent SHC victory, Wolfe Tones were out of the equation again. The Drogheda club had a poor league campaign in Louth in '06 but fared much better in the Dublin league where they were in contention at the top of their division all year and were still hopeful of success at the time of writing (in early November). Wolfe Tones also contributed a number of key men to the Louth set-up all year, including county manager Kevin McDonnell and captain John Carter, one of the most gifted and versatile stickmen in the Wee County. Reflecting on Wolfe Tones' year in general, John notes: "I still feel we are well capable of winning a senior championship. The older lads in the club remain totally dedicated on and off the pitch and we have the players to get us over the final hurdle. "Pearse Og were favourites this year and they hammered us in the league, but we took real heart from beating them by two points in the championship. We also mixed it with Knockbridge for the best part of our final group game and we could well have won that one if we'd got a break or two. So we feel that we're there or thereabouts…" Encouragingly, the team showed flickers of brilliance during the year, though their league for wasn't all it might have been. "We were disappointed with the league," John accepts. "We had a couple of poor results and a lot of people wrote us off, which was perhaps understandable. We caused a big surprise when we beat Pearse Og in the championship - and I suppose nobody was more surprised than ourselves to be honest! "But we always knew we were capable of a performance and result like that. However, we were very disappointed to lose to them by a point in what was effectively a semi-final. We were really up for that game and fancied our chances but they beat us 0-8 to 0-7 at Castlebellingham. That was disappointing because we really would have had a chance in the final." At least Wolfe Tones showed enough to suggest that they're capable of reaching a decider. "Within the club, we feared that maybe we had blown our last big chance when we lost the 2003 final but we weren't too far off this year. We rattled Knockbridge for long periods and they only pulled away after they got the goal." Had the Tones managed to win that game they would have progressed directly to the final, wherein they would have faced Pearse Og. That's how close things were in the SHC in '06. Twice the Drogheda club almost made the decider and they could have faced either Knockbridge or Pearse Og on county final day. As it transpired, the other two sneaked through… How have things been going for the club in their Dublin exploits? "We've been going well. We find the Dublin games to be a good outlet and we'd be in trouble without them. We played in Meath before but hurling takes a backseat there once the football starts, so it was great to get into the Dublin league. It's excellent for us and we get regular matches against good clubs like Erin's Isle and O'Toole's. We're in Division Four of about eleven divisions so it's a fairly good standard." In spite of injuries, there were still five or six Wolfe Tones players on the Louth team in '06. County manager Kevin McDonnell is also a Tone and John - who captained the team - notes: "Kevin took criticism on some fronts but I think he did well. Expectations were very high after us getting to the first ever Nicky Rackard Cup final the previous year and people expected the same again - but that was always going to be difficult. "Armagh came into their own and we found it really hard against them. We set out to win the Division Three league and we thought it was there for us but we came up against Armagh in the semi-final at Castleblayney and never really performed on the day. They beat us again in the Nicky Rackard Cup. Armagh had improved and we could have no complaints." Returning to club affairs, John is optimistic: "David Black, who is a former intercounty player, took over the Wolfe Tones this year and he had a serious input. Everybody showed him a lot of respect and he pushed us hard, whilst also introducing fresh ideas into training. That was important because things had gone a bit stale in '04 and '05. "David injected new life into us and hopefully we can build on that in 2007. We have a lot of lads the wrong side of 30 but they are all still well able to play at this level and they won't let us down when it comes to commitment. We'll train hard and give it a good go, anyway. "The downside is that there's very little young talent coming through. There are a few but they're still slightly too young, so we're relying on the older lads again. One thing about Wolfe Tones is that we've always fielded for every game and the experienced lads play a big part in that. We depend a lot on those guys and they never let us down." Absentees didn't help Wolfe Tones' cause in 2006. Neil Sands was in Toronto; Ivor Somerville was in England; and Paddy Coyle was in Russia. Three good hurlers under the age of 25, all of whom have represented the county at one stage. With those lads on board, the Drogheda club could be real contenders for SHC honours. Aidan Carter, John's brother, also missed the bulk of the year after dislocating his shoulder playing for the county in January - and was another massive loss. Amid the clamber for silverware, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that Wolfe Tones are doing an exceptional job in promoting the ancient game in Drogheda. For this alone they deserve tremendous credit. "We're the only hurling club in the town and we currently play at the St Nicholas grounds in Rathmullen, which is working out very well for us," John notes. "The population of the town is expanding but we're still the sole hurling club. We're trying to get more people involved. There's plenty of development taking place on the Nicks facilities, which hopefully makes us a more attractive proposition, and our members can also play football for St Nicholas if they want." Finally, what is the target for 2007, with both club and county? "I definitely think the county has a chance. There are excellent hurlers in the county with Knockbridge, Pearse Og and Naomh Moninne, and we're always very hopeful at the start of a new year that there's a national league trophy there for us. "When it comes to the club, I always think the league is important and it prepares you well for the championship. As we do every year, we'll be trying our best to put our best side out in both the league and the championship. At this stage, a league title would be every bit as special to us as a championship. We've gone close and contested a lot of finals since '96, but we've suffered a lot of heartache. So we'll be going all out to win a senior title next year, and we don't care whether it's the league or the championship. We'll treat both with the same importance." Tweet

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