One of the few bright spots in a largely disappointing year for Kilbeggan was the scoring feats of their full forward Emmet Dalton, whose impressive championship haul of 8-9 was arguably the difference between the Shamrocks reaching the knockout stages and finding themselves in a relegation battle. While Kilbeggan Shamrocks were by no means a one-man show last year, it seems fair to say that Emmet Dalton did more than most to prolong their championship interests. The big full forward, who plays full back for the Castletown-Geoghegan hurlers, scored 8-9 in a season when Kilbeggan failed to impress, despite reaching the knockout stages of the intermediate football championship once again. Their championship ended in disastrous circumstances when they suffered a record 24-point defeat to Ballynacargy at the quarter-final stage. "Our form was patchy all through and it's disappointing to say that we didn't progress from 2007," Dalton says. "We were lucky enough to come out of the group, but in spite of that, we gave ourselves every chance against Ballynacargy. But when you're hit with an early scoring barrage like we were, it's very hard to recover and things just seemed to go from bad to worse the longer the game went on. "It was an awful way to end the year, but fair play to Ballynacargy, they were absolutely flying that night and I was surprised that they didn't go on to win the championship. They were putting up huge scores around the time they played us, but I suppose they eventually met their match in a very good Maryland team." The Ballynacargy defeat brought the curtain down on Teddy McCormack's reign as manager, and Dalton believes the former star defender couldn't have done much more during his two years at the helm. "I'd have a huge amount of respect for Teddy and his selectors Padraig Egan, Donal Fox and Mick Ennis. They did the best they could and weren't afraid to try different things. Teddy was travelling back and forth from Portlaoise for training and matches, so he gave an awful lot of time to the job," he says. Dalton believes McCormack's term in charge will be most remembered for the number of young players he brought into the intermediate set-up. "As I said, Teddy wasn't afraid to try out new things and he gave a lot of young lads their first taste of intermediate football. He brought through the likes of Colin Draper, Brian Duignan, David Keenan and the two O'Neills, Jason and Simon. "You must remember that he had to make do without John Brennan and PJ Ward - two players no team could afford to be without. It was good to see John's brother James back playing with us after a long break and hopefully we'll have John back next year as well." After suffering an unlucky defeat to Maryland in the 2007 quarter-final, Kilbeggan were expected to challenge strongly for Peter Geraghty Cup honours last year, but they suffered an early setback when losing to Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall by 1-9 to 2-11 in the opening round. The maroon and whites were made to pay for four earlier missed goal chances when Finea finished strongly to take the spoils. Emmet Dalton's goal on the stroke of half-time gave Kilbeggan a 1-5 to 0-6 interval lead, but they should have been much further ahead. They still led 1-7 to 0-9 after 41 minutes, but then a lobbed goal by Daniel McDermott signalled the start of a strong comeback by the North Westmeath side, and they added a further 1-2 in the final seven minutes to run out flattering five-point winners. Kilbeggan got back on track with a 1-7 to 0-6 victory over Moate All-Whites at Cusack Park when an Emmet Dalton goal early in the second half proved all-important. A low-scoring first half finished with Kilbeggan ahead by 0-4 to 0-3, and just two minutes after the restart Dalton swooped for the only goal. Teddy McCormack's charges opened up a 1-6 to 0-4 lead before Moate rallied in the final quarter, but the goal they so desperately sought never materialised and Kilbeggan held on for their first victory of the campaign. A fortnight later, however, they were brought crashing back down to earth when they suffered a crushing 1-5 to 2-18 defeat to Maryland. John Reilly and Emmet Dalton traded early points before the champions-elect clicked into gear and rattled off seven consecutive points in the space of 12 minutes. Keith Gorry eventually stopped the rot for Kilbeggan with a 24th minute point, but Callum McCormack and David Martin replied with scores to extend Maryland's advantage before John Reilly blasted a goal to give them a 1-11 to 0-2 lead at the break. It got a lot worse for Kilbeggan four minutes into the second half when Joe Harte added a second Maryland goal. Kilbeggan pulled back a goal in the 48th minute when, predictably, Emmet Dalton found the net and Mattie McCormack and Kenny McMahon tagged on points in the final 10 minutes to give the scoreline a more respectable appearance. It was difficult to see a way back for Kilbeggan, but to their credit, they responded with an impressive 4-14 to 0-10 victory over Caulry. Emmet Dalton was the Mount Temple side's tormentor-in-chief, scoring a hat-trick of goals, including two in the opening quarter which set Kilbeggan up for a comfortable victory. Caulry were still in contention at half-time, trailing 0-7 to 2-6, but their comeback hopes were ended when Dalton completed his hat-trick in the 37th minute, and Kenny McMahon also got in on the goal-scoring act before the end. Kilbeggan lost their final group match to relegation-threatened Ballymore by 0-7 to 0-9, but they still qualified for the quarter-final by virtue of their earlier victory over Moate after both clubs had finished level on points and scoring difference. Amazingly, it was the second year in-a-row that Kilbeggan pipped their south county rivals for a quarter-final spot, with scoring difference being required to separate them in 2007. Needless to say, Kilbeggan were hugely relieved to progress after another indifferent display which saw them register just a single point in the second half. Played under lights at St. Loman's in late September, the quarter-final proved to be a nightmare experience for Kilbeggan who, after taking an early two-point lead, were blown away by a rampant Ballynacargy side. By the end of the opening quarter, Ballynacargy had already raised two green flags and there was no respite as further goals from David Doran and Dwayne Maher helped Frank Mescall's men to an unassailable 4-7 to 0-3 half-time lead. Ballynacargy had extended their advantage to 4-11 to 0-4 before two excellent pieces of high fielding by Emmet Dalton yielded a brace of goals for Kilbeggan in a four-minute spell, but the winners upped the tempo again in the final quarter and completed the rout with further strikes from Declan McGuinness and substitute Daniel Keena. Dalton stresses the need for Kilbeggan to "regroup" under new manager Nigel Dunne, taking encouragement from the club's emerging talent and the fact that they will once again be competing in Division 2 of the All-County League. "I'd always be optimistic as far as Kilbeggan's chances of winning the intermediate championship are concerned. We train to win the championship every year, but unfortunately only one team can win it. I have an intermediate championship medal from 2000 and I'd love to win another one in the next year or two, and get a crack at playing senior football again. "We stayed in Division 2 this year which was important as we need to be playing against senior clubs and the best intermediate teams on a regular basis. We have a good crop of young players coming through and hopefully they'll make their mark in the coming year," he concludes. The Kilbeggan team which lost to Ballynacargy in the IFC quarter-final was: Mal Guilfoyle; Shaun Pidgeon, Fergal Scally, David Marshall; Brian Duignan, Alan Fennell, Mel Kiernan; James Brennan, Jason O'Neill; Simon O'Neill, Keith Gorry, Aidan Gorry; Mattie McCormack, Emmet Dalton, Stephen Conroy. Subs used: David Keenan, Chris Lynch and Colin Draper. Tweet

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