Brigid's aim to bounce back
April 30, 2011Their plight was not helped by the fact that two teams would be relegated from the senior campaign at the end of the year and compete in the 2011 intermediate championship. Unfortunately for St Brigid's their failure to win a game in the senior grade resulted in them joining Brownstown as the two teams relegated.
Having bounced back from the heartbreaking intermediate final defeat to Brownstown in 2008 and winning the IHC the following year, hopes were high that the Dalystown outfit could continue with their progression and establish themselves in the senior ranks.
Club PRO Marius Gavin speaks to 'Maroon & White' about the 2010 campaign and he gives an insight into how the club is making great progress at underage level in recent years.
First we take a look at St Brigid's senior campaign and indeed right from when the draw was made, the Saffrons faced an uphill struggle to maintain their senior status for another year.
The draw for the senior championship saw St Brigid's play Lough Lene Gaels in a preliminary round with the losers going on to play defending champions Clonkill to determine who would go into the winners and losers' groups.
Having fielded such a strong panel in 2009, hopes were high that everyone on the panel would make just as big an effort last year, but Marius revealed that was not the case right from the start.
"In the intermediate final, we had 39 lads togged out, all of who received togs and socks and in fairness were well looked after, but when we went to play the Gaels in the first round this year, we had to start the match with 14 players," said Marius.
"The attitude was totally different compared to the year before, but to their credit the lads that went out against the Gaels played very well and gave a good account of themselves."
Despite only starting the match with 14 men, St Brigid's battled hard throughout and the 1-17 to 0-11 scoreline was not a fair reflection of the effort that those lads put in that evening.
Marius acknowledges the fact that hurling will nearly always play second fiddle to football in the area and their situation in working with three clubs makes things that bit harder.
"It's hard to keep lads interested at the best of times, but when the football is going well in either St Mary's, Milltownpass or Tyrellspass, we do tend to suffer. There is a core of lads there that are really interested in the hurling, but numbers are short.
"We needed to work even harder than the previous year to have any chance of staying up. Everyone knows that the gulf between senior and intermediate is vast and smaller clubs like ourselves need to work ten times harder to survive in the top flight."
Even though there is an obvious gulf in class, St Brigid's were unfortunate to lose their senior status last year. In their first round game, Clonkill easily won the game to consign Brigid's to the losers' group where they would face Raharney, Brownstown and Ringtown.
"We felt optimistic going into the group stages that we were capable of picking up a win or two to help avoid relegation. Obviously, the Raharney game would be one that was beyond us, but the lads were determined to give a good account of themselves."
The first match was against Ringtown and this was a game that St Brigid's needed to win. However, following a close fought battle, it was the green and golds that came out on top by two points, 2-7 to 1-12.
A month later and they faced Brownstown in what was a must win game for both sides. Revenge for the defeat in the 2008 IHC final was on Brigid's minds as they battled hard and looked to heading to their first win for long stages of this match, only for the Archerstown blues to scrap home yet again by the narrowest of margins (0-11 to 1-7).
As expected, Raharney recorded a comfortable win in the last round of group matches as St Brigid's headed back to the intermediate ranks for another year.
"It was disappointing to be relegated, especially as the games against Ringtown and Brownstown could have gone either way. We just had no luck in either match, which was unfortunate."
Marius is in no doubt that winning the intermediate hurling championship this year is far from a forgone conclusion as he feels the grade will prove very competitive indeed, given the fact that many of the teams are on a par.
"The intermediate will be very competitive; there is no question of that. Most of the teams are evenly matched and we would hope to get off to a good start. It is essential that we do in order to keep lads interested, otherwise they tend to drift off, especially if the football is going well."
Marius feels that the future is bright in the club given the work that is being done at underage for the past number of years as some of these youngsters start to make the breakthrough to the adult team.
"We would have a few lads coming through over the last few years. A lot of the team that played last year would not be too long out of minor and they probably need more time before establishing themselves at that level.
"There has been a lot of work done with the underage and we feel that we will have a fairly strong minor team this year, while our under-21s were unlucky to lose out to Lough Lene Gaels in the championship, even though they were missing a few key players."
Marius admitted that it was generally left to the same few people to look after the various underage teams within the club and he feels that this is something that needs to be addressed.
"It would be great if more of the parents got involved. We know that it does take up a lot of time, but the same few are left to look after it all the time, which is not easy for them."
For 2011, St Brigid's will field in all grades at juvenile, while they will also field an intermediate and junior B team for the coming year, which is aimed at catering the younger players coming through to adult level.
This year, the intermediate side will be managed by Kilkenny native Sean McDonald and former players Jimmy Gallagher and Jay Faulkner, who will be hoping that their experience will rub off on the players as they make their bid for an immediate return to the senior ranks. Tweet
