Kilmessan's failure to reach a second consecutive senior hurling championship final may be seen as something of a failure for a club of its stature, but secretary Dominic Doyle revealed there was plenty of silverware obtained in 2006. Having won 27 senior titles, Kilmessan are without doubt the kingpins of Meath hurling, especially in recent years when they have won five out of the last nine crowns. Defeat in the last two consecutive semi-finals has been a painful experience for a club that has achieved so much success, although the trophy cabinet in Kilmessan is still laden with trophies, following a successful year at both senior and underage level. Although the fact that the club did not win the senior hurling championship may be seen as a disappointing year for Kilmessan, the majority of the clubs in the county would be delighted to win so much silverware. Wins in the Doherty and O'Growney Cups' meant the senior side did not finish the year empty handed and although this is scant consolation for the club, more importantly they have competed in nearly every underage final in the grades they were entered into. "We have had a good year at underage level," said Dominic, who is in his first year as secretary of the club. "We won the under-11 'A' and under-13 'B' championships, while we were beaten by Kiltale and Dunboyne in the under-14 and 16 finals respectively. "The club has a very good underage structure in place and that is important for any club to have if they are to build for the future," he stressed. Despite having a reasonably small catchment area to choose from, Kilmessan have continuously produced quality underage teams down through the years and Dominic believes this is down to a great interest in the game. "If lads are not interested, they won't play, it's as simple as that, especially these days when there are far more distractions away from hurling. "There has been a lot of work done with the underage teams here and it certainly has paid off, but if you look every club is focusing on developing their underage teams now." The recent housing boom in the area has yet to benefit the club as Dominic explained it may be a few years before the club sees advantage of that. "There have been a lot of new families move into the area, but the majority of these have very young children and it will be a while before they start playing. "However, all new members will always be welcome and with the kids in the schools being coached on a regular basis, this is a great introduction into the game for them." Club hurling in Meath can be considered relatively strong, but this form has failed to be reproduced at county level and the county hurlers are somewhat in limbo at present. Player unrest has not been uncommon in the senior squad, while the lack of success at all levels in hurling is a major concern for the Royal County. "I believe there is not enough being done at secondary school level to promote hurling. There is plenty of coaching going on in Primary schools, but it then stops. There is a lot of young lads from Kilmessan and Dunboyne who go to secondary school and they have no hurling at all unless the look after it themselves," he revealed. "This is the same in all the schools and we have never had a decent schools team, compared to other counties that put in a massive effort at that level. There is proper coaching needed at all levels and I feel that funding for hurling in the county is going to the wrong areas. "The same people are left to look after the various underage county teams and this should not be the case. The hurling board should pay for more intense coaching at all these levels." Tommy Horan took charge of the senior side and his selectors were Joe Burke and Peter Gorman, three experienced men and more importantly all were life long members of the club and knew the players very well. Even though they failed to annex the senior title in 2005, Kilmessan were installed as favourites to win the title, although the draw for the group stage could not have been tougher as the four semi-finalists from last year; Kilmessan, Kildalkey, Killyon and Kiltale were placed in the same division along with Navan O'Mahony's and Clann na nGael. Kilmessan were involved in two O'Growney Cup finals earlier this year as the 2004 and 2005 competitions were only completed. The blue and whites defeated Trim in the 2004 decider and saw off Na Fianna in the final of last year's competition, while they also annexed the Doherty Cup following a win over fierce rivals St Peter's Dunboyne. "We had a very good start to the year alright and things looked like they were going to go very well, even after the group stages of the championship, the team were playing very well. "However, the loss of Chucky Keena through suspension and Stephen Clynch and Richie Donnelly through long term injuries was always going to hamper us slightly. These three are very influential players for us and their loss would be sorely missed," he said. Kilmessan began their championship campaign against 2005 intermediate champions Clann na nGael and as expected they comfortably defeated the Athboy/Rathcairn amalgamation side by 1-18 to 1-8, although the match was fairly even for long periods, before the favourites pulled away in the final quarter. In the next outing, Navan O'Mahony's were the opponents. This turned out to be a close contest, but once again Kilmessan's ability to take their scores proved to be the difference as the ran out winners on a scoreline of 1-15 to 1-10. Kiltale were expected to provide a stern test in their next outing, but Kilmessan recorded a comfortable 3-11 to 1-2 win over one of last year's semi-finalists. Revenge was exacted in their next match as Killyon were put to the sword by 0-19 to 2-9 and a comfortable 2-16 to 0-7 win over Kildalkey ensured top place in the group on full points and more importantly a place in the last four. In recent years, Kilmessan and Dunboyne have served up some cracking games, with the blue and whites usually coming out on top, particularly in their championship meetings. However, the Kilmessan players are experienced enough that they can take nothing for granted and knew that they would have a battle on their hands in the semi-final. The weather conditions did not help matters as torrential rain and a blustery wind made it almost impossible to play hurling, but credit to both teams, they tried their best. Having to wait since the end of August to play their next competitive match in the first week of October also hampered Kilmessan's chances, while Dunboyne had played a play-off match the previous week. Nonetheless, Kilmessan started the brighter and could have had two goals in the opening ten minutes only to be denied by excellent saves from Dunboyne goalkeeper Stephen Reilly. Nicky Horan, who had missed a large piece of the year with a hand injury pointed two frees and a '65' plus further efforts from Joey Keena and Mark Reilly left Dunboyne trailing. Just three minutes into the second half and Dunboyne were level, before Reilly scored his second point to edge his side in front once again. The game had developed into a scrappy encounter with St Peter's drawing level and with two minutes remaining Neil Hackett pointed a free, which was to be last score of the match as they booked their place in the final. "It was disappointing to lose, but hopefully we will be back stronger next year. The club will be celebrating the centenary of their first championship win and what better way to do it than lift the Jubilee Cup again." Tweet

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