Because of injury Magheracloone dynamo Noel Tuite cut a frustrated figure along the sideline in 2008. His demeanour fairly reflected the club seniors' indifferent year. Noel Tuite has a bag full of county medals but he's still hunting for the holy grail. A raft of underage medals embellishes the family sideboard as do senior league medals also. However having missed out on Magheracloone's epochal Mick Duffy Cup triumph in 2004, he's gunning to land his first big, big prize as a new season beckons. As ill-luck would have it, the sterling Mitchells' campaigner was camped in England when the Farneysiders became the 15th club in the county to make the Duffy Cup theirs. Of course, Noel, brother of Magheracloone regular Peter, joined in the celebrations four years ago but he admits that he'd love it, just love it if 2009 brought similar tidings. "Obviously I was delighted in 2004 but it would have been great to have been involved myself," the 29-year old confesses. "It was a hell of an achievement for the club though." One of Magheracloone's most seasoned players, Noel was posted missing again for a lot of 2008 and found it almost equally as frustrating a year as any he has experienced. "It was very frustrating for me personally because of the various injuries I had to put up with. It was a disappointing season for all the senior players. "They did their best but the facts don't lie and Latton's workrate and pedigree over the last few years left them deserving winners this year and all credit to them. "We just have to re-group and hope that there's a bit more left in this current group of (senior) players. I think the next couple of years will tell a tale about where we're going." 2008 proved to be a difficult season for Noel and the Magheracloone seniors per se with a change in management in mid-stream certainly a mitigating factor for the team. He feels "things only clicked into place" around three weeks before the championship with the coming on board of the Conway brothers, Paul and Niall, from Derry. "Before the new management team came in, things weren't really right and the appetite didn't seem to be there with the players and there wasn't any great buzz about training. "There never seemed to be all hands on deck at any stage of the year and when we were missing our county men, we didn't carry anything like the same threat. "It was a tough year for Damien and Tommy (Freeman) as well, especially when so much is demanded of them by the club and the county teams. "Then we hadn't got Peter Ward for a good part of the year because of suspension. All told, things just didn't work out for us over the past year." Mention of Ward's suspension inevitably triggers off thoughts of Magheracloone's infamous clash with Latton and the repercussions thereof which made national headlines. It was a league semi-final duel which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons but one which Noel insists ignited some exaggerated post-mortems. "It was made out afterwards to have been all-out war but a lot more was made about it than actually occured. The trouble on the night was all talked up around the county. "There were no grudges held and it was a bit funny to see so many officials on duty for the next day. I don't think there was a single foul in the first half of that match." Noel doesn't begin to argue with the notion that the black and whites were well off the boil in 2008. In real terms, he accepts there were no excuses for the team's below par displays. "We expect to be there or thereabouts every year but it didn't work out this year unfortunately. It seems to be when we're up we're up but when we're down it's hard for us to get going. "The team is probably as mature and as experienced as it has ever been in my time with the seniors but the appetite just wasn't there this year." Noel says he won't shed any tears when 2008 is lobbed into the annals of history for it was an injury-ravaged time for him all told and he saw little action. "I broke my hand playing against Carrickmacross in Carrick and then a few weeks later broke a thumb on the same hand against Doohamlet so I couldn't have had much worse luck. "I was out for more than six weeks, about the guts of half a season, so I haven't any fond memories of 2008 as far as the football is concerned. I won't shed any tears when it passes." Noel's fractures in '08 continued what has been a bad run of injuries which kicked off in 2006 when he broke his arm; an arm which has been weak ever since. Still receiving physiotheraphy treatment for his ailments, Noel can only look ahead to a fresh start in 2009 and keep his fingers crossed that better, more healthy, times lie in waiting. Reflecting in more detail on Magheracloone's league and championship season, Noel concedes that finishing out of the top four in the senior league is not what the doctor ordered. He believes the post-championship syndrome which afflicts most teams managed to pull asunder Magheracloone's top flight ambitions, leaving them to settle for a mid-table berth. "Once the championship campaign was over and done with, it was hard to keep the momentum going for the league 'cause the players knew the league was never the priority. "Having said that, had we beaten Doohamlet we probably would have made the play-offs because we were in fifth position at that stage. "We could have beaten them (Doohamlet) but instead lost by two points in a very close game. I suppose, overall though, we didn't deserve anything more in the league than we got. "The championship was the main objective but we slipped up against Scotstown in the first game. We drew with them after being comfortably ahead by eight points at one stage. "We made a couple of mistakes that let them in and, in fairness to them, they punished us for them. It ended up being a case of us missing the boat by the time the replay came. "They deserved to beat us in the replay but the two goals we conceded in the last ten minutes of the first game were killer blows as well as our complacency." As things panned out, Magheracloone picked themselves up to put an admittedly poor Monaghan Harps side to the sword and so put them back on track for the top prize. Sadly the smooth passage past the county town side proved to be less than useful preparation for the tussle with would-be champions Latton that soon followed. "I think we could have done with a much harder game than we got against Monaghan Harps," Noel avers. "It didn't help get us right, physically or mentally, for Latton. "We basically still didn't know where we stood after the win (over the Harps) but that wasn't our downfall against Latton. That would be too simple an excuse." So what went wrong against the O'Rahillys then? "We had our chances on the day; it was 50/50 for most of the game but on too many occasions, we took the wrong option or shot from poor angles. "I think we were lacking a bit of cuteness on the day too. In fairness to Latton, they had done their homework and were more up for the match than we were and it showed on the day. "A two point defeat to them was a fair reflection on what happened over the hour but we definitely didn't do ourselves justice which was a pity considering how Latton did afterwards. Sadly Noel had no imput into the Latton affair. The game came three weeks after he injured his thumb and he knew there was no chance of him making the starting line-up. His absence wasn't helped by the fact that team-mate Gerry Finnegan was also ruled out due to a broken hand. Then there was Gerry McCaul and his twisted ankle. Viewing 2008 in the round, Noel says the U21s' success in winning a county title and Edel Byrne's All-Star award were the silver linings on an otherwise pretty dark cloud. And to the vista? Just what can we expect of Magheracloone in 2009? "We'll hopefully kick off with a management team that'll we'll have for the whole year and we'll be going all out to repeat 2004. "I'd definitely put money on us to go the distance again in the championship." Tweet

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