After falling at the final fence in the race for the Keegan Cup in 2003 and 2004, Simonstown entered the 2006 campaign looking to shed their tag of underachievers but like many sides in the SFC this year, Colm O'Rourke's charges fell victim to the rapid rise of Wolfe Tones at the penultimate hurdle. By David Jennings. While the 0-10 to 1-11 defeat brought a premature halt to Simonstown's title ambitions, it also signalled the end of Colm O'Rourke's six-year tenure at the helm of the club. One player who has been through the heartbreak with Simonstown during the course of their Keegan Cup endeavour is Hank Traynor and the former All-Ireland winning medallist believes that while there have been a couple of frustrating years, the crop of players coming through still has what it takes to compete for major honours. "People have being saying that there is a championship in Simonstown for the last ten years and it still hasn't come. There is a few of us who have been there since 1995 after winning the IFC but there is a also a great bunch of young lads coming through who are well capable of lifting a Keegan Cup and hopefully it might happen in the near future," Traynor said. Following a couple of indifferent displays during the group stages of the SFC, Simonstown stumbled their way to the knock-out stages but after seeing off a fancied Walterstown side in the quarter-final, an improving Wolfe Tones outfit comfortably disposed of their neighbours. Entering the clash as slight favourites, mainly due to tradition rather than form, Simonstown took their time to warm to the occasion and allowed Wolfe Tones establish a 1-5 to 0-5 interval lead with Alan Fox grabbing their goal after 19 minutes. The second half followed a similar agenda with Wolfe Tones keeping their noses in front and only for the accuracy of county minor Shane O'Rourke who accounted for 0-4 of the final tally, the Oristown parish side would have been out of sight long before the final whistle. With the game getting slipping out of their grasp, Colm O'Rourke introduced the former Dublin duo of Wayne McCarthy and Robbie Boyle but neither failed to make an impact although the latter did manage to get himself on the scoresheet O'Rourke's last throw of the dice was to bring in Shane O'Neill, who was prevented from lining up in the starting fifteen due to injury, but the imposing midfielder could do nothing to rectify the situation as Wolfe Tones ran out deserving winners. Simonstown reached their accustomed berth in the last four by virtue of a gritty display against Walterstown at Pairc Tailteann that saw them edge out the Blacks, 1-11 to 0-11, after extra-time. In the early stages of this encounter it looked as if Walterstown would steamroller over the town side as they raced into a 0-6 to 0-2 lead with half-time approaching but a Shane O'Rourke goal seconds before the interval brought the deficit back to the minimum 0-6 to 1-2. An Evan Kelly point shortly after the restart had Simonstown back on level terms which set the trend for the remainder of the half as the teams couldn't be separated on four occasions, including at the final whistle, 1-7 to 0-10, as Cian McGrath, John Lunney and Shane O'Rourke kept their side in the hunt by posting important scores. The arrival of McCarthy and Boyle seemed to bolster Simonstown's challenge and the pair fired over shortly after their introductions to put a glimmer of daylight between the sides as they led 1-7 to 0-8 after 51 minutes but Ronan Barry kept the crowd in their seats in the descending darkness for additional periods by sending over two late frees. The only score during the first period of extra-time came from the boot of Barry for Ian Kearney's troops but Simonstown showed their character in the second spell as McGrath and O'Rourke added two points apiece to maintain their Keegan Cup charge. "It was probably our best performance of the year especially the way we won it. Things hadn't been going well prior to the Walterstown game and we went out there with nothing to lose and all guns blazing which helped us play some of the football we are capable of," the captain remarked. The group stages of the championship proved a to be a stiffer obstacle than most anticipated for Simonstown as they had to wait until the last round of fixtures and even with that, needed the aid of other results to make the knock-out stages. "At the start of every season you go out hoping to win a Keegan Cup and we got off to a decent start in the championship winning our first two games and then drawing with Blackhall which gave us five points out of six and things were looking good at that stage but losing our next three matches seemed to knock us off our stride," Traynor stated. The campaign commenced with the narrowest of victories over Summerhill at Pairc Tailteann, 1-8 to 0-10. Simonstown led 0-5 to 0-4 at the interval but were made play second fiddle for the vast majority of the second half as the 'hill established what looked to be a match winning lead only for Evan Kelly to direct a smash and grab raid for the sky blues with a goal deep into stoppage time. The second round pitted Simonstown with Dunshaughlin and like in the opening encounter, O'Rourke's men left it late in securing another minimum margin victory, 1-10 to 0-12, with McGrath being drafted in from the bench to send over the winning point in the closing stages. Robbie Boyle gave his side the perfect start by netting in the eighth minute but Dunshaughlin didn't let it knock them off their stride and managed to get their snouts in front at the break, 0-9 to 1-4. Simonstown proved a different proposition after the resumption and began to find their stride with Wayne McCarthy and Shane O'Neill leading the scoring charts with 0-5 and 0-3 respectively, enabling them to claw back the half-time deficit before McGrath swayed the issue in Simonstown's favour. After two slender successes in the opening rounds, Simonstown couldn't repeat the dose against Blackhall Gaels in the third round and were forced to settle for a share of the spoils, 2-10 to 1-13, in one of the most entertaining clashes of the entire championship. With both sides being viewed by many astute judges as lively contenders for SFC honours, the sides produced a scintillating sixty minutes with the outcome hanging in the balance right up until the final whistle. Despite a Shane Kennedy goal in the early exchanges, Simonstown were in arrears 1-5 to 1-6 at the interval. The second half was played at a frantic lick with the Batterstown/Kilcloon outfit continuing to set the pace with the aid of Tadgh Brosnan, who continued 2-3 of their final tally. Wayne McCarthy was up to his usual high standard from placed balls and he recorded six points but Simonstown needed late points from the two Shane's, O'Rourke and O'Neill to earn a draw and swerve their first loss of the campaign. Following impressive displays in the early rounds of the group encounters, Simonstown failed to scale the same heights in the remainder of the clashes and surrendered their unbeaten record tamely at the hands of local rivals, Navan O'Mahony's, 0-8 to 0-6, in a poor contest at headquarters. That loss to O'Mahony's seemed to have its effects on Simonstown and they failed to get their mindset back into its correct frame for the clash with St. Patrick's at Skryne as Martin Barry's men led from start to finish, eventually running out deserving 2-14 to 0-9 victors. The previous years Intermediate winners Duleek was mapped out as the tie to get Simonstown back on track and resubmit their bit for the knock-out stages but Barney Rock's men showed the greater resolution in a tight affair to claim a 0-10 to 0-9 despite Simonstown 'keeper Gary Lynch saving a penalty from Paul Martin entering the second quarter. "After losing to Duleek we were left in an awful situation in that we had to beat Kilmainhamwood and also hope that Summerhill bet Duleek so luckily enough it worked out and we got to the knockout stages," Traynor remarked. After stringing together a trio of poor performances, a win for Simonstown over relegation strugglers Kilmainhamwood would only be of substance if Summerhill got the better of Duleek, who were bidding to secure the final spot in the quarter-finals. As expected Simonstown had little difficulty in disposing of the 'wood with Shane O'Rourke in outstanding form, contributing eight points of their facile 1-15 to 0-5 triumph. Once that win in Kells was safely in the bag, attentions swiftly turned to the clash of Duleek and Summerhill and when news filtered though that the latter had prevailed, Simonstown's rocky passage to the knockout stages had been secured. Following the elation of their Division 1 FL success the previous year, Simonstown had to endure a more troubled league campaign in 2006 with a 2-11 to 0-18 defeat to Dunshaughlin signalling their demise from the top grade. Wins over Kilmainhamwood, 1-9 to 0-9, and Dunboyne, 0-10 to 0-9, in the early rounds of the competition gave Simonstown a good platform to build from but they failed to find any sort of form as the league progressed and will be competing with the lesser lights next year as a consequence. With O'Rourke calling it a day, Simonstown fortunes in 2007 will rest in the hands of Des Lane who has been appointed manager for the forthcoming season. Lane was a member of the Meath All-Ireland winning panel in 1987 and 1988 and his managerial exploits has seen him guide Mattock Rangers to success in the Louth SFC in 2002. The Simonstown panel that lost out to Wolfe Tones at the semi-final stage of the SFC was as follows - G. Lynch; M. O'Rourke, A. Meade, N. McMahon; S. Carr, S. Kenny, H. Traynor; C. McNulty, P. Meade; C. Kenny, E. Kelly (0-1), M. McCabe (0-1); S. O'Rourke (0-4), C. McGrath (0-1), J. Lunney (0-1). Subs - R. Boyle (0-1) for McNulty, S. Kennedy for Carr, N. Kearney (0-1) for McCabe, W. McCarthy for McGrath, S. O'Neill for Lunney. Tweet

Most Read Stories