All systems go
April 30, 2011Despite the setback at intermediate level, the Rochfortbridge-based outfit have continued to work hard at developing their underage structure with the under-16 side winning division 2, while team of the year must go to their under-12 side, who were unbeaten all year.
Ray revealed that a huge amount of work has been done with the underage teams over the last few years and he stressed that it is certainly beginning to pay off. "The underage is going very well. There has been a greater emphasis placed on it over the last five or six years and we would now be fielding teams from under-6 right up to minor," said the club P.R.O.
"There are sufficient numbers at each level, but we could always do with more. In fairness, it is a long, long time since we would have given a walkover in any game due to a lack of numbers. The main aim for the underage is to encourage kids to play and make sure they enjoy the game. It's not all about winning and that's something that we don't focus on too much with them.
"Our under-16s and under 12s did very well last year. The under-12s in particular are probably our flagship team. They would have a panel of 29-30 and if you took five or six out of it, you could put five or six at the same level in, they are that strong. Ossie and Ian Bradley have done trojan work with them. The under-14s reached the feile semi final also, so all in all, it has been a very decent year for the club."
Ray does feel that the scheduling of underage championship games during the summer months when kids are generally on holidays is something that needs to be addressed by the county minor board.
"I think the championships should be played in September when they kids are back at school. Then teams will have the strongest panels available. During the summer, clubs are nearly always going to be missing a few players and when numbers are tight, it makes it difficult to compete.
"In some cases you end up with a team hammering another team just because one side is missing a number of players and this is no good for either club. If the games were played in September, all teams could field their strongest line up, and they could play the competitions off fairly quickly too. It is a situation that should be looked at anyway."
Another competition that Ray and indeed many GAA people throughout the country feel are being neglected is of course, the under-21 championship, which has been a bone of contention amongst the GAA fraternity for some time.
"Playing the under-21 championship at the end of November or start of December is not right. Some clubs can be out of their respective championships back in July or August and then they have to wait about four or five months for the under-21 to start. How is a player meant to be interested in playing that time of the year, especially under-21s, who the majority of which would be in school or college?
"They use to start the under-21 at St Paddy's weekend and it would be finished by April, which was perfect and I think the county board should go back to a similar format and bring the interest back into the competition."
The intermediate football championship is without question, the most difficult competition to win given the fact that the majority of teams are on the same level. St Mary's managed a respectable fourth placed in their group, having won two, drew two and lost only one of their matches, but it was not enough to reach the knockout stages. The defining moment of the campaign came when a struggling Ballinagore side inflicted a 13-point defeat on St Mary's.
"The two draws against Rosemount and Tang were games that we let slip away and had we won either by a point or two, we would have reached a quarterfinal or even a semi final.
"But the defeat to Ballinagore was certainly a low point. I'm not sure what happened on the day, maybe the lads took them for granted as Ballinagore were having a bad year, but they simply outplayed us all over the park. Thomas McDaniels scored something like 1-13 that day and we just couldn't handle him."
St Mary's lost out on promotion from division 3 in the league also after having only been beaten twice in the whole campaign, they were pipped by Rosemount for promotion and Ray admits that failing to reach division 2 hurt more than not reaching the knockout stages of the championship.
"The league was the big thing as we want to be playing at a higher level. Games in division 2 will bring a team on more in preparation for the championship and that is where we need to be."
After four years as manager, Jim Whelehan has stepped down from his position and he has been replaced by former Westmeath and Mullingar Shamrocks defender Ned Moore for the 2011 campaign.
Ned will be able assisted by Ernie Alford and Eoin Nugent as they make up the new look management team and Ray stressed that the targets would be the same as last year.
"Getting out of division 3 will be one of the targets and progressing to the knockout stages of the intermediate championship will be another. Damien Healy has been appointed captain this year and it will be great to have him for the full year after he retired from the county last year.
"We have a good mixture of youth and experience in the side and on our day, we can match anyone in the county. There is a good core of young players coming through also and this is a good sign to see." Tweet
