Another handful like Gerard Corrigan and, Kevin Carney says, the good times would be back in Scotstown. Like many another rural parish, Scotstown GAA has traditionally been backboned by a rock-solid core group of families which has glued the community to matters Gaelic. In this way, the Corrigan clan has given a lot to Scotstown GAA over the years and continues to do so. As such, fellas like Gerard Corrigan come with a good pedigree and a proven record of being a doer and a loyal disciple of everything positive about the famed blues. But, typical of the club stalwart, his attitude these days echoes the motto bedded in politics of a recent vintage which proclaimed the notion of 'a lot done, a lot more to do'. Corrigan himself is rich in aspiration and ambition but poor in tidings gleaned from on-the-field action. Off the field, his talents have yielded more. In 2004, the pocket dynamo was awarded his club's Player of the Year trophy. He swears that he was surprised by his rating. There was some talk at the time of the presentation night that Donal Morgan, Ryan Daly or even Gerard's brother Nicholas would end up with the premier in-house gong. Instead it was the eager-beaver younger Corrigan who got the nod. Ironically, those who have followed Gerard's career to date reckon that while he had a good year in 2004, he had better ones too! Seems like there's no pleasing some folk. Pointedly though, Gerard glosses over the fact that the club accolade came his way. Instead, it's the bare space in the club's trophy cabinet reserved for 'blue riband' honours which excites him most of all. "I'd gladly have swapped the Player of the Year award for a senior league or championship medal - that goes nearly without saying, although I took it as a great honour to get the vote from the people in the club." The thing about the good folk in Scotstown is that senior honours and wish-lists go together like All-Ireland finals and ticket touts. One is inextricably linked to the other. Betcha Sean McCarville and Eamon O'Hara had realistic visions of propelling Scotstown back on top of the medal podium at the christening of 2004. And ditto 2005. Individual kudos is all well and welcome for Gerard - like the Minor Player of the Year award he won some eight years ago - but it's the rewards that come with the collective that he really wants to make his acquaintance with. Unfortunately 2005 didn't yield anything like the harvest he had hoped or indeed expected. In a lot of ways, the past season was one which he would rather forget, put into the thrash and empty it for good, never to be retrieved. Chipping a bone in his ankle at the outset of 2005 certainly wasn't what the doctor ordered for Gerard himself or the forward-planning Scotstown management team. The tidy corner-back has been an integral component of the blues' premier line-up for more years than most of his peers can rightly remember. Try asking some of the best attackers at club level in Monaghan right now which defenders invariably give them least leeway and the glue-like Corrigan comes well up at the top of their list. The month of March heralded the ankle trouble and a slipped disk compounded Gerard's travails before 2005 had barely stretched its legs. "I was back playing after a couple of months out of action but I was only back about a month when I tore ligaments in my ankle," the 26-year old explains. Not really one who is prone to reflection in anger or in regret, Gerard is gearing himself to preparing for yet another year at the coalface. With him, the so-called 'close season' is barely recognisable or accomodated. A weights programme in the gym replaces the orthodox, traditional grind of 'field work', all in the name of ticking over in advance of a new season. In a lot of respects, Gerard reckons that if a player commits himself 100 percent to his club and does all the training he should do, he's approaching county requirements. "I think it's essential to do a bit in the gym over the winter because more often than not you have to stop man and ball and it helps to have that bit of strength in the tackle. "The gym work over the likes of January, February and March builds you up for the new season and gives you extra confidence when going into the tackle," he says. "You have to be able to go out onto the pitch and believe in your own mind that you're fit to meet your opponent head-on and get the better of him over the hour." Gerard looks to the short-term future in optmistic manner, with regards to the personal and the club front and he is adamant that there is more in the tank in both spheres. He modestly suggests that neither he nor the current Scotstown senior team have reached the zenith of their power to change the status quo in Monaghan football circles. Gerard doesn't find training either a chore or boring and he maintains that once you have the health to run around a pitch or do weights in a gym you're pretty healthy. He remembers the time when a broken thumb some three years ago resulted in him piling on the pounds and tipping the scales like never before . .or thankfully since either Such is the intensity of the training carried out at most clubs these days that Gerard reckons that it's not that far removed from the level acceptable at senior county grade. "Most clubs would be think about pre-season training in December but the length of the year and a lot of the training involved is on a par with what you'd see at county level. "At the end of the day it's up to the individual of course as to how hard he wants to train but as regards the training itself, the gap between the fitness levels you'd get at club level and what you'd see on the inter-county scene isn't as big as it used to be," Gerard argues. Gerard had a taste of what's laid down at inter-county level in early 2005 with the Seamus McEnaney-led team and is disappointed that his liason didn't last that bit longer. "I enjoyed being with the county team for as long as it lasted but I just didn't make the 'cut' before the start of the national league." It wasn't a nice feeling to be considered surplus to requirements, Gerard confides, but he has learned to live with the rejection entailed, a la Paddy Bradley (Derry) and his non-inclusion in the International Rules squad which toured Australia last October. "I was very disappointed, especially because I thought I played well in the trial games. "But I re-focussed and did my best to prove the county management wrong by playing as well as I could for Scotstown. "The county has a good panel of players but I'd feel confident about my ability to break into the panel but, at the end of the day, if the county selectors feel I'm good enough they know where to find me. "I gave it my best shot the last time I was in with the county and I wasn't considered good enough so I'll wait 'till I hear from the management again before I begin to think about maybe getting another go at it. "I've my own standards to keep up anyway, regardless of how others look at the way I'm playing or the level of my performances," Gerard insists. Obviously, Gerard is a player who takes pride in his own performance and is wont to raise the bar as high as he possibly can. It's that kind of single-mindedness and seriousness of his approach which has made him a manager's dream and which earned him county call-ups at minor and under 21 in times past. Indeed the ambitious Scotstown defender showed his mettle by clinching a place (the only Scotstown player to do so) on the county under 21 squad five years ago which lifted the Ulster under 21 title a few years ago only to lose out to All-Ireland champions-elect Westmeath in the subsequent semi-final. It seems that whatever may fall into place for Gerard on the county front in the coming year, the prospect of driving Scotstown to a long-awaited SFC title success is one which really excites the dynamic corner back. The fact that the team didn't do itself justice against Magheracloone in the 2004 SFC final and then lost out to the Mitchells again last Summer at the semi-final stage has provoked as many questions as it has posed answers. "We seemed to freeze in the final of 2004 and even though the panel that was that bit more experienced for the semi-final against them (Magheracloone) last Summer, we lost our way completely in the second half and they ran away with it. "I think Magheracloone had to serve their apprenticeship too though and had to be patient and build on things over a few years and maybe that's what we'll have to do too. "I think if we can build up the experience and confidence in the camp and do a bit better in the scoring stakes, we can give it a right go over the next couple of years. "There are a couple of good forwards coming up from the minor ranks and they'll be looking for their places in the senior team in the coming year and that can only be good for the club. "At the end of the day, while the management team has been spot-on, they can only train and pick the players; it's down to the players and how badly they want it." Scotstown for the championship in 2006? "I'm not sure about that but I'm hoping that within the next three years the club will be back on top." U12s strike gold again Scotstown maintained their magnificent recent track record at U12 level by scooping a competitive and hard-won 2005 U12 Division One league title. The winners improved gradually over the course of their successful campaign, capturing the laurels with a stunning all-round team effort, much to the obvious delight of team manager Sean Sherry. Scotstown are developing something of a reputation as U12 specialists. Two-thousand-and-five saw the north county club garner yet another county Division One league crown at this level with a team that provided excellent entertainment over the summer months. This is a difficult competition to win and the Scotstown lads deserve the utmost credit for sticking to their guns and knuckling down when the going got tough. They were matched in terms of playing ability by well-drilled Monaghan Harps, Carrickmacross and Castleblayney sides, but stole the edge on the competition by virtue of the great spirit and eagerness fostered in the team by dutiful and passionate management. Captained by Ross McKenna (son of Niall), Scotstown's U12s wore their hearts on the sleeves all year - and had beaming smiles on their faces by the end of their stellar conquest. Nobody will ever be able to take this victory away from the lads who claimed the county crown. Despite their tender years, these players have already contributed to the rich legacy of a famous club - and, on the evidence of what we saw in '05, they have plenty more to offer in years to come! There were five teams altogether involved in the U12 Div One league, which developed into a titanic struggle with little or nothing separating the top four. Scotstown were joined in the competition by Magheracloone, Carrickmacross, Castleblayney and Monaghan Harps and really had to pull out all the stops to emerge with the spoils at the end of a thrilling ten-game odyssey. The competition was run off initially in a round-robin format, with all teams playing each other twice on a home and away basis. Points proved difficult to come by in this initial phase of the competition but Scotstown earned a semi-final place by finishing second on the league table after their eight outings. Management got their team together and started training as early as March. Scotstown traveled to the south of the county and opened their account with a comfortable victory over Magheracloone in early May, but defeat was their lot when they trekked to Castleblayney for the second round. The next two games were at home, ending in victory over Monaghan Harps and defeat to Carrickmacross. Magheracloone were accounted for again in Scotstown and a measure of revenge was exacted with a good home win over the 'Blayney boys. With a semi-final place up for grabs, Scotstown slipped up on their travels in Monaghan town, but the lads rallied and made amends with a superb victory in Carrick' to seal their participation in the knockout stage of the competition. Nobody was under any illusion as to how difficult this competition would be to win: the results against Monaghan, Castleblayney and Carrick' had gone either way (Scotstown beating all three but also losing to all three), so it would require a major effort to take the U12 title back home for a third successive year. Sean Sherry was over the team alongside John Gilheaney. As the campaign progressed, they also enlisted the services of another coach, Macartan McKenna, who brought things forward an extra few paces and contributed to the famous success. Management are keen to stress that it was a complete overall team effort that culminated in glory for the Scotstown U12s, as Sean confirms: "They all played very well, from the fifteen who started the final right down through the rest of the panel. We made quite a few positional changes over the year and they always adapted well to these switches. Nobody on the team was better than anyone else. It was a total team effort and they all played at some stage. There was a great spirit and camaraderie amongst the players, which is important." The support and guidance of a strong juvenile committee have also been instrumental in Scotstown's most recent juvenile triumphs. To this end, Sean pays tribute to Michael Owen McMahon and Gene McGinnity, whose input into the juvenile aspect of the club has been both visionary and industrious. Scotstown came up against Monaghan Harps at the semi-final stage of the 2005 U12 Div One league and, with home advantage, recorded an impressive win to advance to the county decider. Herein, they were really up against it, taking on table-toppers and competition favourites Castleblayney. It was the third meeting of the teams and honours from the previous clashes were even. Something had to give and, to the players' eternal credit, Scotstown were able to dig deeper than ever to eke out a superb one-point victory on county final day. The final was held in Monaghan town on a Saturday afternoon in late June. It was a tight, competitive match throughout and the sides were level at the break. With increasing familiarity making exchanges even tighter than in the previous two encounters, this was a game that would require real character. Scotstown answered the call in fine fashion to take victory. The manager recalls: "They showed plenty of character. 'Blayney had beaten them by a point with a last-minute goal in their first meeting of the year and they were probably the form team all year. We went into the final as slight underdogs but the lads never gave up. "Carrick' beat us well the first time we played them and we went up to them for our last group game needing to pull out all the stops on the day. The boys knew they had underperformed the previous day against Monaghan Harps, but they upped their game from there on to beat Carrick' in Carrick' and then the Harps by about four points in the semi-final. "We were delighted with the manner in which the team developed and improved over the campaign. That's even more important than winning trophies. We told them from the outset that if they concentrated on getting the basics right then everything else would take care of itself. We told them to do the simple things right and they'd get their rewards - and they did. We didn't necessarily go out to win every game. In the beginning it was a matter of working on getting things right. We knew that if we stuck at it, we'd get there. "When Macartan [McKenna] came in to help with the training, he was a big help. His input brought the team on to another level and I think that was the vital difference in the end." The U12 league is a competition that Scotstown are very strong in traditionally. They took part in some great matches from the likes of Monaghan Harps, Carrick' and 'Blayney in 2005 and this will bring the players on no end. "They were all good teams this year and we really enjoyed playing against them," says Sean. As many as six or seven of the team will be eligible for this grade again in '06, so there could be yet another decent side in the prolific Scotstown juvenile pipeline! The U12s received tremendous support all year from the club committee and parents also provided invaluable support and encouragement, particularly in terms of travelling to games at the opposite end of the county. Amazingly, Scotstown also won the county U13 crown in '05, which means they'll be going on to represent Monaghan at the All-Ireland Feile competition in 2006. Players like Niall Paul McKenna, Ross McKenna, Paul Murray, Myles Treanor, Conor Blacklock and Conor O'Harte were involved with both the U12 and U13 teams, which was a very impressive achievement indeed. The future of Scotstown GFC could be in safe hands, judging by the quality of players continuing to come through the underage ranks: "The quality of our juveniles is very good right now," says Sean Sherry. "We have trained a lot of coaches in the club and the quality of coaching is high. A keen emphasis has been placed on coaching and every team has one or two qualified coaches at the helm. We're starting to reap the rewards of that approach." Sean is a Level One coach himself. He believes that the outlook is bright for the players who featured at U12 level for Scotstown in '05: "If you can beat the likes of Monaghan, Carrick' and 'Blayney you're doing alright! There are a lot of good juvenile clubs in Monaghan and it's a hard county to win anything in. This was a hard-fought win with a few close shaves and the lads did themselves and the club proud. "We're hoping to bring them on to more success at U15 and U16 levels in the future and then get them into minor. The main thing is to get as many as possible to stay at football. They are an enthusiastic bunch and they're getting good coaching. They are enjoying their football. We have brought more players through at this level these past three or four years than ever before, so we're hoping to start producing quality U16 teams very soon. "If we keep them interested, we have some good players here who can go on to represent Scotstown with distinction." Scotstown, 2005 Monaghan U12 football league Division One winners: John McPhillips; Michael McCarron, Myles Treanor, Conor Blacklock; Evan Murray, Micheal McCarville, Cormac Caulfield; Niall Paul McKenna, Paul Murray; Elliot McKenna, Ross McKenna, Jason Carey; Conor O'Harte, Mark Caulfield, Nesson McCrudden. Rest of panel: Stephen Rooney, James Treanor, Fiachra Sherry, Ronan Treanor, Tommy Moyna, Callum Maguire, Peter Hamill, Emmet King, Rory Sheehan, Conor Smith, Cian Deery, Fintan Blacklock, Raymond Sherry. Tweet

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