The work which will secure a bright and successful future for St Mary's GFC was tackled with enthusiasm and determination during 2008 and all involved are to be applauded for their efforts to promote Gaelic football among the youngest age groups in the club. St Mary's set up a juvenile committee in February of this year and a decision was taken to go it alone from under-8 up to under-14. Previous to this they had been with Slane under the Bru na Boinne umbrella in these age groups and they are still competing in that set-up in the older age groups. The club's juvenile committee chairman Nick Gogan has been delighted with the progress made this year, commenting that "the whole structure has been a great success", and he is looking forward to the future with confidence. The various team mentors took part in an intensive coaching course and another highly significant development was the opening of the club's nursery in April which ran until well into October. The chairman described the initiative as "a major success, attracting great attendances of up to 40 children". Players in the under-8 to under-10 bracket don't have competitive leagues organised by the Juvenile Board, but they played up to 30 games this year within the club, including blitzes. The club received great sponsorship which meant they were able to kit the youngsters out in new gear, including St Mary's jerseys. Chislers in Navan sponsored the nursery, MD Protec Security, N2 Electrical and Lawlor Contracts sponsored the under-8s to 10s, Musgrave Daybreak, Donore, sponsored the under-12s, James Gogarty Monumental sponsored the under-16s and Red Mountain Plant and Construction sponsored the minors. St Mary's staged their own blitz in July when over 120 children took part and the club's under-8s were preparing to participate in the Kilbride blitz at the time of writing. The under-12s played in two divisions of the league this year and these young players will have benefited enormously from the experience. There was success for Bru na Boinne when they won the Under-15 Div. 4 League last November, while the under-16s enjoyed some success this year. The installation of floodlights during the summer was a tremendous addition to the club and the young players got a big thrill out of playing under them. Nick Gogan paid tribute to the St Mary's senior committee for its great support, including chairman Francis Gogarty, and he was also rich in his praise for juvenile committee secretary Alison Gogan who, he said, "does great work". It has clearly been a year of fantastic progress in the under-age section of the club and the benefits will surely be earned in the years ahead. "We are very proud of what we have done this year," he said. "We have received great back-up from the parents which is very important. This is a work in progress. It will take two to three years, but we will be back up there." The St Mary's juvenile committee members and team mentors for 2008 were: Chairman - Nick Gogan; vice-chairman - Martin McMahon; secretary - Alison Gogan; assistant secretary and PRO - Regina Everard; joint treasurers - Peter Moore and Fr Brogan; committee - Pat Lenehan, John O'Brien, John Hines, Annette Lynch, Paul Scanlon, Ceire Cudden; David Austin, Pat Everard, Liam Smith, Ivor Sullivan and Ciaran Flood. Team mentors: Under-6 - Paul Scanlon, John O'Brien, John Hines, Ivor Sullivan, Regina Everard and Robert Victory; under-10 - Paul Scanlon, Ceire Cudden, Alison Gogan and Ciaran Flood; under-12 - Marc Morrison, Annette Lynch, Martin McMahon and Paul McDonald; under-16 - Liam Smith, Nick Gogan and Pat Everard; minor - Nick Gogan. Relegation struggle for juniors On the adult front in 2008 St Mary's could hardly have imagined that the Junior Football Championship campaign would turn out to be so difficult as they lost their first five group matches and managed just one victory in the divisional stages of the competition against Bective. It all meant that they finished at the bottom of their section and were involved in a relegation struggle which was delayed due to the involvement of dual club Kildalkey whose hurlers reached the SHC final against Kilmessan which went to a replay. In the end a powerful display saw the Donore men maintain their junior status with a 4-7 to 1-4 win over the dual club. St Mary's fared a good deal better in last year's Junior Championship when they achieved two group victories and one draw and finished in a mid table position on five points. That was a significant improvement on the previous year when they ended up at the foot of their group on two points and avoided a battle for survival because Dunderry were automatically relegated after withdrawing from the competition. Mary's were drawn in group A of the 2008 Junior Championship, a division that also included the Wolfe Tones second team that had climbed through the ranks over the previous two years, Bective, Drumbaragh, Kilmainham and two other second string outfits, Dunboyne and Simonstown Gaels. Their manager was Brian Lynch and the selectors were Denis Craven and Ciaran Flood and when the championship action got under way St Mary's had a bye in the first round. They opened their campaign with a match against Simonstown at Slane where the Navan men bounced back from their earlier defeat against Kilmainham by winning on a 0-16 to 1-9 score line. Rathkenny was the venue for St Mary's second championship outing against Wolfe Tones and a failure to score in the first half proved costly as they fell well adrift by 0-0 to 2-5 at the interval. They did manage to find their range when notching 1-5 in the second period, but they had left themselves with a mountain to climb and were a dozen points in arrears at the end as Tony Kearney's team won by 2-14 to 1-5. Dunboyne got the better of Mary's by 2-9 to 1-3 next time out at Skryne and the same venue brought a fourth successive loss of the group campaign when they again failed to register a score in the first half, this time against Kilmainham who were well on their way to maintaining their 100 per cent winning record when ahead by 0-7 to 0-0 at the change of ends. St Mary's split the uprights three times in the second period, but they were well adrift at the final whistle when the beaten finalists of 2006 were ahead by 1-15 to 0-3. With two-thirds of their group matches played the Donore/Lougher side was pointless and at that stage the threat of a relegation battle had become very real indeed. A heavy defeat against Drumbaragh at Syddan reinforced that fear and this time they failed to score in the second half against a team that included two members of the successful Meath minor side, Enda Nulty and William Carry. Mary's fared quite well in the first period, at the end of which they trailed by only 1-4 to 1-8, but Drumbaragh really cut loose after the turnaround and pushed right away to win by all of 19 points on a 3-17 to 1-4 score line. St Mary's left it until the final round of group games to record their one and only success of the qualification campaign. Bective, whose only win up to that stage came in the fifth round against Simonstown, provided the opposition at Seneschalstown where Mary's triumphed by the narrowest of margins, 1-7 to 0-9. Wolfe Tones dominated the group by winning all six games for a points total of 12 and accompanying them into the quarter-finals were runners up Kilmainham on 10. Drumbaragh missed out on qualification when they finished in third position on eight, Dunboyne were on six and Bective, Simonstown and St Mary's all ended up on two points. However, that's where score difference came into play in deciding who was assured of survival in the junior ranks and who would end up in the dreaded relegation dogfight. Bective were safe on minus nine, as were Simonstown on minus 27, but Mary's on minus 58 were the ones who would have to fight for their survival. The other teams to finish bottom of the respective groups were Kildalkey, Summerhill and Gaeil Colmcille and, along with St Mary's, they would have to battle it out in a bid to avoid the drop back to the Junior B ranks. Mary's first opportunity to secure their survival came against the Kells side at Syddan where they lost out narrowly by 0-8 to 1-8, but they still had one last chance to stay in the JFC. However, at the time of writing the other play-off between Summerhill and Kildalkey still had to be played, but couldn't be until after Kildalkey completed their SHC final against Kilmessan. The Junior Championship may have developed into a big struggle for St Mary's, but 2008 was unquestionably a year of progress and one that should help to lay the foundations for future successes. Their efforts to promote the game among the youngest players in the club are a hugely encouraging sign and the benefits of that work will be seen in the years ahead. Tweet

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