Carrick Emmets' Under 16 team received generous sponsorship in 2004 from local building contractors Drumgoan Developments, in the form of a set of kit bags. John Loughran reports. Running underage teams can be a costly business. Just ask any club treasurer. So when sponsorship of any form is offered, it is always gratefully accepted. Local businessman Noel Martin, whose son Darren lined out with the Carrick Emmets Under 16 team, and represented the club in the Ulster School of Excellence, was only too delighted to help out when the opportunity presented itself. Noel, who is long time supporter of the Emmets, saw the Trojan work that was going on at underage level within the club and was more than happy to add his financial support. He commented: "We were only too happy to get involved with the Under 16s. There is great work going on at underage level, within the club and we were delighted to be able to offer them support." Because of work commitments Noel didn't get to all that many Under 16 matches during the year, but Darren who was a team regular kept him up to speed. "They did very well this year and if they stick together, there could be the makings of a winning team there in 2005," he added. To get a closer feel of just how well the Under 16s did in 2004, the Monaghan GAA Yearbook caught up with joint manager Noel McNally. Noel along with Peter Cromwell who has played at every level for his native Meath took charge of the team for the first time in 2004. "I had them at Under 13 level three years ago, so I would have known the lads very well," Noel remarked. He continued: "They never won a game at Under 15 last year, so our expectations weren't that high this year. But in fairness to the lads, they put that poor form behind them and did very well this year. "They had a very good year. They were unbeaten up until the break for the Junior Cert. We managed to get to the semi-final of the Div.1 championship." Carrick Emmets notched up a number of notable victories en route to the semi-final, most notably beating Cremartin in the quarter-final. "We beat them in Cremartin, which isn't easy to do at the best of times. It was one of our best victories of the year," Noel recalled. Emmets were forced to field without a number of their best players for the semi-final against Truagh. It was a hammer blow. "We were totally depleted for the semi-final. Padraig Donaghey was injured. Darren Martin was away at the Ulster School of Excellence. We were also missing Colm Kiernan and a number of other players. We were beaten, but the lads that played on the day gave it their very best and we can have no complaints," he recalled. The Under 16s also put together a good run in the league which took them all the way to the semi-final, where they eventually succumbed to Monaghan Harps. "We finished in the top four of the group, which meant we went into the semi-final, but Harps were that bit better than us on the day," he noted. Having failed to win a single game in 2003, it was expected that Emmets would be re-graded to Div.2 this year. "Considering we never won a game at Under 15 last year and should have been re-graded this year, we did very well. We competed in everything and won an awful lot more games than we lost, so all in all it was a very good year," Noel elaborated. So what caused the transformation? "They trained very hard at the start of the year and we built up the camaraderie. We got them playing as a team, where they had previously been playing as individuals. That was probably the biggest change this year," Noel elaborated. Noel knew from his days as Under 13 manager with the same group of players that there was latent talent in the team. It was just a matter of bringing that talent to the surface. He enthused: "There is some very talented footballers on the team. The team has its big stars, but the ones that really shone this year were some of the under rated players. Noel's son Owen, who also plays rugby, was one of the so-called "lesser lights" that shone brightly during the year. "Killian Holland had a very good year. John Malone came back this year and did extremely well for us. Barry Woods and Niall McCarthy were others to shine," he added. He continued: "Then we had the lads that were on the county team. Ronan McMahon, Colm Kiernan, Darren Martin and Padraig Donaghey played exceptionally well for us." Looking forward to 2005, Noel feels Carrick Emmets could be in with a realistic chance of winning the Monaghan Minor title. "We feel they could go very well at minor next year. I would be hoping we would be in with the chance of winning something. We have had a number of good Under 16 teams in the past few years and I am hopeful 2005 could be our year," he opined. Noel, who has been coaching within the club at various grades since 1994, has no plans to remain in coaching beyond this year. However, he has made himself the same promise for the best part of a decade. He is anticipating looking on from behind the fence in 2005 and taking in the best of the action right across Emmets' spectrum of underage teams. "The structure at juvenile level is very strong. There is a lot of hard work being done within the club. We didn't win anything this year, but a lot was achieved in developing the players in the various grades," he remarked. "This year's senior team came through the underage structure and 10 of the team were under 20. That team is the product of the hard work that has been put in at underage level over the last number of years," he noted. "This year we appointed Mickey Henry to work with the schools through the juvenile board to bring on the young talent. We also launched a Newsletter to keep everybody up to date, with what is happening within the club, so it was a very positive year all round." Noel Martin is the managing director Drumgoan Developments, which he founded in 2002, with his brother Pat. The company specialises in private house construction and is currently in the process of building upwards on 170 units comprising two bedroom apartments, and three and four bedroom houses in Portarlington, Co. Laois. The company employs in excess of 100 people and utilises the specialist services of numerous sub-contractors. With Portarlington now within the greater Dublin commuter belt, because of its rail link with the Capital, demand for Drumgoan Developments' offerings is strong. In the space of just two short years the company has developed a fine reputation for high quality apartments and houses, which are built to extremely exacting standards. Tweet

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