After winning the JFC B title in 2006 and then reaching the semi-finals stage in their first year back in the junior A championship, Ballinacree club St Brigid's failed to emerge from the group stages in the 2008 race for the Matthew Ginnity Cup. After getting to the last four in last year's JFC, the wearers of the blue and navy had high hopes of gaining their first outright success in the grade since 1994. However, David Russell's charges were unable to emerge from a closely-contested group in which they won just one game and lost the other three, all by margins of one or two points. They were in Group C which included the previous year's JFC beaten finalists Moynalvey as well as local rivals Moylagh who had also reached the last four in 2007 as well as Curraha, Meath Hill and Summerhill. Although St Brigid's got the better of local rivals Moylagh, the latter recovered from that loss to advance to the knockout phase from the section along with Moynalvey. That second round 'local derby' was won by the minimum margin and in a very tight group the Ballinacree side lost two games by one point and their other outing by two points. Dublin-native Davy Russell, who lives in the area, was in charge of the team for the second successive year and had Niall Hennessy and Stephen Farrelly as his fellow selectors. The latter is a son of Meath forward of the '70s and st Brigid's coach and selectors in recent years Gerry. Niall Hennessy also figured on the playing pitch in 2008 along with other survivors of the JFC triumph of 14 years earlier when Baconstown were defeated in the final, Brendan and Micheal Briody, Eugene Gilsenan and Tomas Blake. Micheal Briody combined playing with filling the important role of club chairman while free scoring forward Fergal Hennessy, who has completed his 14th season of adult playing service, was the secretary in 2008. "We were hoping we could push on from last year when we reached the semi-finals of the junior championship where we lost out to eventual outright winners but maybe the efforts of the last few years when we were challenging for titles took its toll on some of the lads," remarked Fergal Hennessy. "We were in a very competitive group with two more of last year's semi-finalists while Curraha and Meath Hill are also strong sides. We still hoped to qualify but we were unable to sustain the form of the previous two or three years," he added. A total of 12 wides proved costly for St Brigid's in their opening outing on an April Saturday evening in Athboy as Curraha grabbed the win on a 1-10 to 1-9 scoreline. It appeared to be going in favour of the side from the north-west outpost when they led by 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval. All of their six starting forwards got among the scorers with Fergal Hennessy putting over five points. Although Stephen Skelly found the net on his first start after returning to his home club following a spell playing in Sligo, St Brigid's were just edged out by their east county opponents. The Ballinacree players had good reason to be on a high following their 0-12 to 1-8 victory over local rivals Moylagh in a keenly contested derby tie at Millbrook two weeks later in which a player from each side was dismissed. Tomas Blake was the scoring star in that tight tussle with a contribution of eight points and it was 0-8 to 1-2 at the halfway stage. Blake put over five points in the first half and after Moylagh battled back to get on level terms and edge into the lead, the game's top scorer struck late to put over the levelling score on 58 minutes before hitting the winner in added time. It was a fine team effort by the winners and the full back trio of Brendan Briody, Hugh Fanning and Jerome Hussey plus wing backs Philip Tuite and Peter Moore also played fine parts in the success. "That was a very big match for us and there was a large crowd at it," remarked Fergal Hennessy. "We may have gained the bragging rights from winning it but Moylagh recovered from the defeat to go on and qualify for the knockout stage. "While ourselves and Moylagh are keen rivals, we are also friendly neighbours and we join forces for underage football as Inny Gaels. Also we are joining up to field an under 21 team this year," said Fergal Hennessy. St Brigid's failed to build on the win over their neighbours and in a Thursday evening clash at Bohermeen's John Newman Park Meath Hill just got the better of them on a 0-10 to 0-9 scoreline. 'Setback for St Brigid's' read a newspaper headline the following week and it was one they were unable to recover from. The long-serving forward pair of Tomas Blake and Fergal Hennessy maintained their fine scoring form with four and three points respectively in a game which was deadlocked at 0-5 each at the break. It was again a case of so near and yet so far in the fourth and last game for St Brigid's in the JFC as Moynalvey defeated them by 0-11 to 1-6 at Cortown. The Ballinacree side had the advantage of the breeze in the first half and they led by 1-3 to 0-5 at the break, Fergal Hennessy adding to his championship total by netting from a penalty awarded for a foul on himself. But they were outscored by six points to three in the second half and despite good efforts from Brian and Brendan Briody and Hugh Fanning, St Brigid's went out of the JFC title race on the last day of June. The men from Ballinacree had reason to feel disappointed at the narrow losses to Curraha and Meath Hill as they defeated both teams in Division 4 of the All County A FL. St Brigid's were unable to manage to mount a meaningful challenge for league honours either with three defeats, to Clann na nGael, Kilmainham and St Vincent's, in the early rounds putting a serious dent in their promotion hopes. That was disappointing as the previous year they had just missed out on promotion when finishing in third place below neighbours Moylagh and Moynalvey who went up. . Being hampered by numbers, St Brigid's decided not to field a second team in the championships for 2008. "You'd need close on 40 players to be able to field two championship teams, we did compete in the junior D grade in some recent years but it was a struggle, we have only a small area to pick players from," said Fergal Hennessy' " We did enter for the B League but that wasn't much benefit to us. After the opposition failed to field against us for our first two fixtures, we did get a game but that resulted in a defeat by Carnaross before we got a third walk over!" he related. Fergal Hennessy reported that the work being put in by the Inny Gaels mentors is beginning to bear fruit for St Brigid's with a number of promising young players on the way up. He picked out Ryan Tighe, Aaron Skelly and Oisin Kiernan as ones to watch. As well as activities on playing pitches, St Brigid's have been busy on the development front and the secretary said the new clubhouse in Ballinacree is nearly completed and should have an official opening in 2009. A 300 club with subscribers paying a hundred euro for tickets proved very successful and Fergal Hennessy praised the efforts of chairman Micheal Briody, who was "the main driving force behind the venture." "The prizes were modest enough but the entire executive committee worked very hard to make the event a success and the response from the local community responded in a fantastic manner," said Hennessy. As well as the completing the clubhouse which was built to replace a smaller pavilion which had been in use for a good number of years, St Brigid's GFC also purchased an adjacent four acres for a training pitch. The GAA facilities in Ballinacree are also used by St Brigid's Athletic Club who have also purchased four acres. Both clubs work well together and Fergal Hennessy pointed out that the clubhouse will include three dressing-rooms, one of them for female athletes. "When the clubhouse is completed, we will have facilities for the parish to be proud of," remarked the secretary. After two seasons during which they gave their enthusiastic band of supporters plenty to shout about, 2008 was a quieter season but St Brigid's will be keen to challenge for honours in the coming months. There is no short of willing workers in the small north-west outpost as well as a proud community spirit. The new clubhouse could provide the players in blue and navy to lift themselves sufficiently to make a renewed bid in search of silverware in 2009. Tweet

Most Read Stories