Six different pieces of silverware collected
December 31, 2008
This past year's remarkable underage success has made up for poor results on the junior stage for Killanny. Club chairman John McMahon knows that a blend of the two would create a reasonable charge towards silverware at adult level, but time and commitment remain the two key factors at this stage.
Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh si. Killanny will be hoping that the old Irish phrase proves to be for them in years to come. The 2008 season saw the Geraldines club maintain a 100 per cent record on the underage front with six different county competitions entered and six different pieces of silverware collected.
Things don't come much better in that respective, according to club chairman John McMahon, however the scales do need to be balanced as Killanny continue to struggle in the junior tier.
An early exit from the Monaghan Junior Football Championship was followed by a bottom place finish in the Junior Football League this year for Killanny, and while McMahon acknowledges that a realistic bid for honours in either competition looks far off for the time being, he is also safe in the knowledge that they have the right stuff coming through to rectify that problem in the long term.
"Our ambitions were to compete in all competitions and do as well as we could," McMahon put it simply.
"We would have made good progress in the last two years. Our league table position this year might not be too reflective on the progress we have made. We were a lot more competitive than it shows, we went through a bad spell there where we were very weak, to put it mildly.
"That's no ill reflection on the players we have, they were doing their best, but we just haven't got the ability," he added.
A harsh, but modest, assessment from Killanny's compassionate chairman of the club's current situation. There was no escaping it though. One win and two draws between league and championship don't make for pleasant reading for any supporter, and McMahon likes to think he's as neutral as the next onlooker.
Heading into another gruelling season, Killanny's management team consisted of Peter Dooley (manager), Ronan McGahon (team trainer), Paul Tobin and Paul Murtagh (selectors)
Ironically, Killanny's opening day win of the season came in the county JFL away to championship opposition Clones. In the frosty March conditions, the visitors stormed to a convincing 2-13 to 0-9 victory. In June the two sides would meet again in the first round of the Junior Championship at Drumhowan, where a controversial draw proved the full-time result. The game may have finished all square that day on 1-11 to 0-14, but it was a late free that forced it to a replay for Clones.
"In fairness, the first round of the championship we should have won it," said McMahon.
"A dodgy refereeing decision towards the end made it a draw for Clones. Clones went on then and got to the final, and I know they were comprehensively beaten in the final but they still got to the final.
"That was the kind of year we had, very competitive alright but just couldn't get across the winning line."
Inevitably, Clones prevailed a fortnight later at the same venue, and their run stretched all the way to the final where they were beaten, comprehensively, by Drumhowan.
In the backdoor, Killanny travelled to Castleblayney three weeks after that defeat to take on Toome and were always second best once they had lost their marksman Peter Dooley through injury early on in the game.
As far as the junior league and championship were concerned, another season was over for the club by mid-summer but things were just beginning to whirl for the youngsters of Killanny Geraldines.
In fact, it was the following week after the juniors' 0-12 to 1-3 season-ending defeat that the wheels on Killanny's underage machine began turning to rectify the situation and collect some silverware for the club.
After scoring a convincing 11-point win over Corduff Gaels a fortnight beforehand in the final, Killanny's Under 14 footballers thundered to the Division Two title with a 4-6 to 1-5 victory against Truagh, which eased the pain of the club's early departure from the Monaghan JFC.
Two weeks later, it was the Under 12's turn as they took on Latton O'Rahillys in the Division Two final for the Tom Reilly Perpetual Cup at Blackhill.
Killanny got off to a flyer in the opening stages of the game with Conor Vernon kicking four unanswered points early on. Mark Grimes would add another for the Geraldines club before Latton got off, but a brace of points from Conor Russell meant that the winners were six clear before Eugene McGeogh's goal had the scores at 0-7 to 1-1 at the interval.
The second-half saw Latton become more competitive in the early stages, but the points of MJ Callan and Conor Vernon, along with goals from Conor Russell and Jack Kiernan (2) ensured that team captain Shane Grimes would be lifting the Tom Reilly Cup come the full-time whistle.
Killanny (U12 Div 2 final v Latton): C Leegan; S McConnon, MJ Callan (0-4), A Duffy; R Berg, D Leegan, C Vernon (1-4); S Grimes (0-1), J Berg (0-1); C Russell (1-2), J Kiernan (2-0), M McBride; M Murray, C McConnon, P Walsh. Subs: A McMahon, P McMahon, J Goodman, B Byrne, M Grimes (0-2).
Come mid-August the pressure began to shift back up the ranks as the club's Under 16's went in search of championship honours. A formidable Ballybay outfit stood in their way, but if they could put in a winning performance at Castleblayney then they would be halfway towards clinching a historic double for the club.
Killanny raced out the traps for a 1-4 to 0-2 lead after the opening 20 minutes, with Michael Vernon's goal giving them a cushioned advantage early on in the game and the points of Tommy Kiernan and Stephen McMahon helping them into a six-point lead at the break.
Ballybay went in search of a good start on the game's resumption, but instead it was the would-be winners that struck for a quick 1-1 inside the first four minutes, with Stephen McMahon's goal all but ensuring the title would be coming back with Geraldines.
After that the Pearse Brothers club struck for 2-4, but it was too little too late as Gavin Traynor's well-timed brace of points proved the final difference for Killanny.
However, there was little time to celebrate as both sides met again seven days later at Blackhill, with Division Three league honours at stake.
A win here for Killanny, and they would have capped off an elusive double for their season - not to mention the club's fourth piece of juvenile silverware for what was shaping up to be a memorable year.
The young Farneysiders were fancied to pull it off, but it was Ballybay that got themselves off to the ideal start through Shane McGuinness, who lashed over a quick point and then converted a penalty after five minutes.
Killanny soon settled into things after that though, and struck points in reply through Stephen McMahon and Gavin Traynor to cut the gap down to two points on 10 minutes. From there, they overran the town side with two quick goals from the resourceful Stephen McMahon backed up by the game's fourth green flag from Traynor for a 3-4 to 1-3 lead at the break.
Michael Vernon and Shane McGuinness traded points upon the restart, but it was McMahon, Traynor and substitute Thomas Byrne that pointed Killanny over the finishing line and to a much coveted Under 16 double coup for the club.
Killanny (Div 3 league final v Ballybay): C Leegan, R Duffy, P Markey, S McDonald, M Vernon, T Duffy, T Kiernan, G Traynor, Kevin McMahon, S McMahon, R Duffy. Subs: T Byrne
The season had dragged into November, and Killanny's supporters were still showing up thick and thin at all ends of the county for their club's cause.
In many respects the Geraldines were gunning for five-in-a-row when they travelled to Aughnamullen for the Under 13 Division Two league final against Clontibret, who many felt could halt Killanny's assault on the underage ranks across the boards.
It didn't prove the case though, as Killanny ran out narrow, but deserved, winners on a score-line of 0-9 to 1-4, with Conor Vernon, Andrew Boylan and Dermot Leegan to the forefront.
Killanny (Under 13 Div 2 league final v Clontibret): A McMahon, S McConnon, Shane Grimes, MJ Callan, Adam Kiernan, R Berg, C Vernon, A Boylan, C Russell, D Leegan, C Murray, M Grimes, Andrew Kiernan.
Having recorded triumphs at four different levels from Under 12 to Under 16, the only thing that remained for a clean sweep of underage titles for the club was minor success.
It wasn't any easy task though, by any means. The Geraldines teens took on Oram for the Division Three league title at Donaghmoyne
They had to put up a real battle to take this minor league division three title with Oram pushing the issue right to the wire although their cause was not helped when they had two players sent off in the space of five minutes as the game entered the final quarter.
Prior to that Oram had every chance of being there at the finish but a somewhat wasteful approached saw them fail to convert a number of clear-cut chances especially in the first half and a total of 11 wides in all, seven in the first half tells its own story.
The double dismissals came at a vital time, the first with just one point between the sides and the second with four points separating them, and were blows that unsettled Oram to a great extent with Killanny capitalising to good effect to open a six points lead.
However, in the final minutes Oram regained some of their composure and throwing caution to the winds they carried the game to Killanny to pull back a late goal a minute from the end of normal time to make for a very nervous finish for the eventual winners.
Full-back Ronan Duffy was sublime though in keeping the trailers out and up front, Cian Wakeley along with half forwards Gavin Traynor, Mark Conlon and Tommy Kiernan proved lethal in accounting for 2-7 of their team's total that edged their side to 2-10 to 2-7 to record the club's sixth piece of silverware to seal an unforgettable on the underage sector.
Killanny (Minor League Div 3 Final v Oram): C Duffy, P Markey, R Duffy, T Duffy, D Traynor, K Quinn, E Markey (0-1), C Wakeley (0-2), G Traynor (0-4), M Conlon (1-2), T Kiernan (1-1), A Campbell, P O Callaghan. Subs: S McDonald.
As for the development end of things, Killanny have made some modifications to their home grounds of Pairc Eanna in Essexford, which McMahon is happy with.
"We put a new fence around the pitch around and we have new club house for which our community centre came on board. So it's been a very busy year," he said.
"A lot of infrastructure has been put in place and thankfully what happens in most clubs is when people start working on infrastructure everything else takes goes to the other side as regards the playing field, but thankfully we have a very good community development committee, spearheaded by Séamus McMahon, who took control of it to an extent."
"In all fairness this probably wouldn't have happened had we started it now," he added.
Despite the gloom and doom of the current economic climate, Killanny looked to have pulled off their construction just in time, but with the underage silverware achieved this year the club can boast the rights to as bright a future as any in the county.
Most Read Stories