Time to 'moyne better times
December 31, 2007
Donaghmoyne have hit hard times of late with relegation being the club's lot at senior level in '07. Young gun Joe Kelly isn't without hope though as another season beckons.
The Thomas Davis epic, "The Battle of Fontenoy" brought to life a whole multitude of passions. The bravery and fortitude of Irish men in battles abroad jumped out from the pages.
In 2008, Donaghmoyne Fontenoys will have the mother and father of battles as they cross swords with some of the most resilient intermediate teams around.
These are difficult times for the Farneysiders and it'll take a steely nerve, raw courage and no little talent to ensure the sorrows of 2007 don't metamophosise into a tragedy in '08.
2006 Player of the Year Joe Kelly felt the cold steel of Fontenoys' relegation to intermediate ranks at the onset of this winter; a winter of discontent for the red and whites.
November 11th last heralded a 0-6 to 1-11 defeat for Donaghmoyne to Doohamlet.
For Fontenoy true blues like full-back Joe Kelly, the last post was almost audible.
"We were understrength again but that's no excuse really. We didn't play well enough on the day to get anything from the game but our league status wasn't lost that day," says Joe.
"The Doohamlet game gave us a chance to get out of a sticky situation but we just didn't take it.
"If we had beaten them, we would have played Latton in a play-off.
"At the same time, we left ourselves with too much to do at the end of the season and having to depend on other results was no way to finish off a year."
That said, Joe's use of the word 'understrenth' does seem to be the operative word in an assessment of Donaghmoyne's record of (non)achievement in 2007.
It seems that Donaghmoyne's loss in 2007 was Australia's gain as a raft of the club's first-teamers headed Down Under, leaving their fellow gaels to wonder what might have been.
Shorn of the talents of, among others, Frank Markey, Bernard Kelly, Niall Kelly and Declan Lynch, the Fontenoys were swimming against the tide from early on in the past season.
With an already young team and not blessed with the sort of strength in depth boasted by the likes of Clontibret, Scotstown etc, Donaghmoyne's foot soldiers threaded deep water.
"There's just not the strength in depth in the club to compensate for missing the likes of the fellas that were away during the year," says Joe, the team's resident full-back.
"To try and cover for the fellas who weren't about, we were playing fellas who weren't ready for senior level.
"Then there were others who might have thought their senior days were over but who tried their best to lift the team and get us the results we needed.
"There's some very good stuff coming up through the underage ranks but it'll be a couple of years at least before they're ready to mix it at intermediate or senior level.
"The club won an underage title at division one level this year and a division two title not so long ago either so there's a good bit of talent on the way up but they're still very young."
Joe knows the value of fostering a winning pedigree at underage level, especially for a small rural club like Donaghmoyne Fontenoys because he's been there, done that etc.
In 1998, Joe was part of the Donaghmoyne Under 14 squad which annexed the McHugh Cup.
Sadly, emigration drove a horse and four through that highly promising group of players.
It's been nearly sixty years since the club won the senior championship and some almost fifty since senior league success was their lot.
"We badly need some more success to get morale up at the club," Joe avers. "You can't beat winning but, unfortunately, we were a long way from that point in 2007.
"We've a young team and with fellas like former county minors Padraic Donaghy and Seamus Markey showing up well this year, I think we can get better as a team.
"Having said that, I think they've been saying that about a lot of teams over the years at the club so I don't think we can look too much into that.
"The average age of the team is only around the 22 mark; the likes of myself, John Kingham, Ciaran McConnell and Seamus Markey are all only 21.
"Definitely there's no way we have reached our peak but you can't keep all the time looking to the future. What about the present?"
Joe's frustration is obvious. Even now, several weeks after the dismal defeat to Doohamlet and a few hundred miles removed from his home, he still feels the pain of 'going down'.
For the guts of a month prior to the Doohamlet affair, Joe was ensconced in Tooting, London, working on the buildings and in the artful arena of shuttering to be precise.
He commuted home for the game with the 'Blayney-Ballybay road men and gave of his best at his customary full-back berth but it was a fruitless trek across the Irish Sea.
In hindsight, he reckons the loss of yet another two league points to Doohamlet fairly reflected the team's shortcomings for the entire year.
"We were without maybe six first choice players but we just didn't have the firepower up front to get enough scores to win the match," the 21 year old defender explains.
"It was basically more or less the same story as in 2006 when we just about stayed up after we needed to win a play-off game against Tyholland.
"That was a day when we really pulled out the stops though but we again made life hard for ourselves by not scoring enough and sometimes taking too much out of the ball.
"Maybe looking back, the writing was on the wall for us although we did deserve to stay up although Tyholland might have something to say about that!"
Ironically, on a personal level, Joe believes 2006 was his best year to date with Donaghmoyne's premier XV and his receipt of the Player of the Year gong does support his belief.
From a club perspective though, he labels '06 as being an 'okay' year for the club "although we could have done a lot better."
2007 was almost a carbon-copy of '06, he avers, and had narrow defeats to Latton and Magheracloone been victories, the season could have been so much different.
It was a case of not so dynamic Donaghmoyne in the senior league or the championship and Joe, for one, doesn't begin to paint any other sort of picture in that regard.
As things panned out in '07 it was a really truly annus horribulus; relegation from senior ranks hitting home like a thump to the club's solar plexus.
"Going down came as a big blow to the club but you can't manufacture players or bring young fellas on overnight and that's the reality of things," Joe re-iterates.
And what's the club's chances of bouncing right back and re-claiming its top flight status at the first time of asking?
"I'd be confident that we can win the intermediate championship or at least get promotion . . . .if we have all the lads back at home and training with us.
"If we're still missing the half-dozen or so (players) we'll be up against the ropes and under pressure to stay intermediate because there are about five or six very good teams there.
"They say it's very hard to get out of intermediate and with midfielders like Ciaran Daly and Frank Markey abroad, we'll have our work cut out to even stay intermediate.
"It'll have to be a case of every player putting his shoulder to the wheel, getting to every training session and pulling together in every match.
"Everyone at the club will need to make a big, big effort in 2008 but I'd be hopeful we'll have something positive to look back on at the end of next year."
Watch this space!
God loves a trier
Having lost All-Ireland JFC, IFC and SFC finals down the years, all belonging to Donaghmoyne ladies were determined to end the losing run in 2006. Cue Amanda Casey and Co.
Amanda Casey must be in need of ear plugs she's heard the Queens ditty 'We are the Champions' so often in the wake of a raft of club and county triumphs over the years.
The Donaghmoyne dynamo has bagged a bagful of medals over the last six seasons and yet, at just 23, ladies football insiders reckon she's in line for a bagful more!
In 2006 deep joy was the order of the year as a stream of medals and personal honours came the talented student's way.
A key member of the Donaghymoyne team that scooped the Ulster and All-Ireland senior club titles in '06, Amanda was feted for her personal contribution and individual skills.
At the County Monaghan Ladies Annual Awards Dinner in Monaghan town at the tail end of January '07, Amanda was all but smothered by the glittering prizes.
Amanda was afforded the Division One senior club Player of the Year award plus the County Player of the Year gong while sharing in the kudos extended the Fontenoys collectively.
Donaghmoyne swept the boards; declared the Division One Club of the Year award while also scooping the Club of the Year award.
"It was an unbelievable night," Amanda says of the Awards Dinner. "I was delighted for the club but shocked that I got the awards because I genuinely wasn't expecting them.
"2006 was really my first full year with the county team and to be part of the success the club enjoyed as well was something special and, overall, it was a great 12 months."
The '06 season was extra special for Amanda, she explains, because in the years beforehand she never quite got the opportunity to parade her talents or give of her best.
She recalls how a string of injuries de-railed her enthusiastic beginning-of-year plans on an almost annual basis between 2000 and '05.
If it wasn't trouble with a back problem, it was a knee injury or a sprained ankle or a torn quad. Having a baby (Emma, 3) drove a carriage and four through her football plans also.
"For a few years, I was in and out of the county team. Apart from the baby and the injuries, I was in the US for a couple of summers so it was great to have a full season in 2006."
2006 proved to be a marquee year for Casey and all belonging to the Fontenoys as the club swept to the All-Ireland title with a win in the final over Carnacon of Mayo.
In what was to turn out to be a glorious year for the team bidding for a fourth consecutive blue riband county title, the Fontenoys notched a facile win over Aghabog in the county final.
The campaign then for a hat-trick of Ulster titles took off with a first round game against Donegal champions Four Masters around the corner.
It was to be a case of deja vu as the north westeners suffered a fate in similarly devastating fashion to Aghabog. And even torn ligaments in her shoulder couldn't stop Amanda!
"I hurt my shoulder in the final but fortunately even though I was out of action for around three weeks and disclocated my finger as well, I didn't miss a game in the competition.
"After we beat Clonduff from Down by about ten points in the Ulster semi-final I really felt that the title was ours unless we went and threw it all away.
"But having lost the 2005 All-Ireland final (to Ballyboden St. Endas of Dublin) we were all determined to get out of Ulster and have another shot at landing the big one.
"Losing to Ballyboden made us so much more hungry and determined and we saw winning the Ulster title as being a stepping stone towards achieving our number one goal."
And with Kevin Burns and Derek Walsh pulling the strings in training, Donaghmoyne began to move up the gears as the final against the Tyrone champions loomed on the horizon.
"We were playing great football back then in the run-up to the final and confidence among the players was very high even though we got it tight against Carrickmore in the 2004 final.
"This time around though they didn't have Eilish Gormley because she was injured and we won it handy which was a bit of a shock considering how the other final went.
"They got two goals in the last few minutes which took the bad look off the scoreboard for them but we really blew them away on the day," adds the ace midfielder.
Was it a case of Carrickmore underperforming or Donaghmoyne stepping it up since the teams last met in the provincial final?
"I think it was more a case of us showing a marked improvement. We played consistently well all year and improved steadily as the campaign progressed.
"They hadn't Eilish Gormley on the day but they still had the likes of Annette Hughes and Gemma Begley so we felt they had enough ammunition to make us work very hard.
"But all we wanted was to get a crack at Ballyboden again and get revenge so we were very motivated for the Carrickmore game and that was one of our best displays of the year."
As things panned out, things just got better and better for the Monaghan and Ulster champions and a five points win over the Dublin and Leinster representatives was very, very sweet.
With Catriona McConnell on fire, St. Endas found themselves trailing by eight points at half-time and although they rallied on the restart, there was to be on stopping the Fontenoys.
McConnell's expert free-taking, the assistance of the wind and a utter determination not to leave it behind them saw Donaghmoyne lay the perfect platform for victory in the first half.
"We laid the foundations for the win in the first half when we could barely do anything wrong which must have shocked them," the Dundalk IT accountancy student recalls.
"I think we had by far the better balanced team and it showed. Some teams are just strong down the middle but we're strong in every department, especially in the defence."
The All-Ireland final in Dromard, county Longford against crack Mayo and Connacht champions Carnacon was to prove another major obstacle though.
With well-decorated players like Cora Staunton, Martha Carter and Clare Egan in their line-up, Carnacon wouldn't lack for experience or potency.
In what turned out to be a classic encounter, the now Oram resident was the heroine of the day with her last gasp point separating the sides at the death.
"Winning an All-Ireland medal is incredible but scoring the winning point was more than I could have dreamed about but it was a great team performance that did it."
Donaghmoyne's triumph was all the more praiseworthy as the team were forced to play the final with a player less for the closing ten minutes of the match when Fiona Courtney was unfortunate to be sin-binned.
Fiona's marker, Cora Staunton, looked destined to carve out the winning trail for her side after she burst through to level matters in the closing minutes.
"I honestly felt that when she (Staunton) sent over the equaliser, the game was going to drift away from us and they would go on and win the game," Amanda declares.
"It seemed that no one on our team was able to get on the ball and take responsibility in front of goal but then our captain Joanne (Courtney) sent in a free, I was lucky enough to collect it and put the ball over the bar.
"After that we just crowded things, got behind the ball and when Cora Staunton sent two shots wide I had a feeling it was going to be our day," says the Castleblayney native.
It was a day which Amanda admits she will never forget and even defeat to Errigal Ciaran last summer in the Ulster championship has failed to take the shine of her All-Ireland medal.
With one All-Ireland SFC medal, three Ulster SFC medals and four (to date) Monaghan SFC medals under her belt, Amanda has had much more joy than sorrow as a footballer.
She has high hopes that the joyful days can be snookered again in 2008 on both the club and county fronts.
An Ulster SFC medal with Monaghan and another All-Ireland senior club gong for Donaghmoyne is the target.
Would you bet against Amanda being wide of the mark?
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