Na Piarsaigh got to the knockout phase of the Louth IFC again in 2011 but once more promotion to the top grade eluded the Rock Road men, who were beaten by O'Connells at the quarter-final stage. They never really found their best form this season but the Black & Ambers certainly haven't given up hope of clinching promotion to senior football. As former county man Alan McCartney quite rightly points out: you don't become a bad team overnight.

Having been edged out in the Seamus Flood Cup deciders of 2008 and 2009, Na Piarsaigh have now lost back-to-back intermediate quarter-finals, the latest coming against O'Connells at Haggardstown on Friday, August 26th. It may seem like the Dundalk club is moving backwards but they're still very much in the shake-up and they should be stronger again in 2012.
In 2011, managed by Cathal Murray, Na Piarsaigh found themselves in a fairly-difficult Group One of the IFC. They lost their opener to O'Raghallaighs by 2-14 to 0-11 at Ardee on July 23rd but booked their place in the last eight by virtue of a narrow 1-10 to 0-11 victory over Roche Emmets at Dowdallshilll exactly a month later. Des McCann floated over seven points against the Hoops but the first game brought a bitterly disappointing performance overall; against Roche, on a Tuesday night, Na Piarsaigh hit the front at the midway stage of the first half and never looked back after leading by 1-5 to 0-3 at the break. David Boyle fired the decisive goal from the penalty spot as Na Piarsaigh progressed to the business end as group runners-up.
The side that gunned down Roche Emmets was: Paul O'Hare; Sean McAuley, Ronan McCartney, Damien McGeeney; John Garvey, Michael Woods, Eamon McAuley; Donal Hegarty, Gary O'Hare (0-1); Mark Larkin (0-1), David Boyle (1-4), Gavin McGee; Alan McCartney (0-2), Shane Callan, Niall Franklin. Subs: Gerard Smyth (0-1) for Mark Larkin; Cormac Malone (0-1) for John Garvey; Aidan Marks for Shane Callan.
The quarter-final was played only three days later, under lights at Haggardstown. It's hard to understand how a club can be asked to play two championship games in the same week after playing just one all summer, but that's the way things go in the Wee County sometimes. O'Connells got the first six points of the match and led by 0-8 to 0-3 at half time but Na Piarsaigh never gave up and they were somewhat unfortunate to lose by a point in the end, 0-12 to 2-5, with full forward David Boyle getting all their scores on the night
Centre forward Alan McCartney reflects: "We were disappointed, alright. To get to another quarter-final again and lose was disappointing. We would love to win promotion in either the league or the championship but the league probably paints a true picture of where we were at in 2011. We usually finish much higher in the league and push for promotion but this time around we just about consolidated our status. We were never in danger of being relegated, but it was still a poor enough campaign and we have to improve on that."
In Division Two, Na Piarsaigh managed just four wins and two draws from eleven games, finishing the year close to mid table. They beat town rivals the Clans in their opener - an encouraging start - and also registered victories over St Fechins, Roche Emmets and Dundalk Young Irelands, drawing with Naomh Malachi and St Mochtas. The warning signs were there earlier in the year when they managed to beat only St Brides (in mid-March) in the Paddy Sheelan Cup - their sole Group B win from seven games.
While it's fair to say 2011 wasn't Na Piarsaigh's greatest season, Alan McCartney - who was plagued by injury for much of the campaign, still hoped there might be a kick in the team: "In the championship, people weren't really expecting us to do anything but we have a good young team there and I still fancied us to do well.
"We did well to beat Roche but we only had a few days to prepare for the quarter-final and it's tough on a team when two championship games come so close together. As it turned out, we had a weakened team and you'd probably have expected O'Connell's to have beaten us by more - but at the same time we could have beaten them.
"We were missing a few key men for the quarter-final. Mark Larkin picked up an injury in the Roche game and Des McCann, who has made a big impact since joining us from Mayo, had been suspended since we played St Marys. We were also missing my brother, Brian, who was on holidays."
The way games fall, it can be nigh on impossible for players to know when it's safe to book holidays. Ultimately, it comes down to pot luck combined with sod's law. "The County Board did get the games out of the way fairly quickly this year, in fairness, and the league was run off in good time. But it's impossible to know when you might have a weekend free from championship action. I went on holidays the Sunday after the championship quarter-final myself, but I was just lucky with that date because the O'Connells game could just as easily have been fixed for the Sunday…"
Overall, Alan was pleased with team preparations but thinks maybe it's time for Na Piarsaigh to take a leaf out of Dublin's book and perhaps look at instigating a Plan B: "There is a very professional attitude at the club and fitness levels are high, with a lot of lads doing work on their own in addition to collective training to keep in shape. So the attitude is spot on.
"But teams tend to lift their game against us. We've shown our hand at this stage - we like to play a fast-flowing, open brand of football - and other teams know how to play against us. They have worked out a way of stopping us so maybe we need to go back to the drawing board and devise a different game plan. The reality is that good football won't always win out and maybe we need to mix it a bit to achieve success."
Regarding the future of this current Na Piarsaigh side, Alan is confident that they still have what it takes to annex that elusive Louth intermediate football championship: "We have a good enough team already and we also have some good lads coming through. Gary O'Hare has come into midfield and made a big impression and we have also found the best positions for the likes of Eamonn McAuley and his younger brother Sean - they're better when they're facing the ball.
"So we're hoping to be good next year. Looking ahead to 2012, we started working together one night a week in September to try and get ourselves into the swing of things. We're all looking forward to the new season. I'm 30 now, so it's now or never for me, I suppose. I hope we can do well in 2012.
"We have to make a quick start in the league. If we could hit the ground running that would set us up for the year. If we could get four or five early wins under our belts - like O'Raghallaighs did this year - that would leave the rest of them playing catch-up. We didn't become a bad team overnight, or over one season.
"We lost the Woods twins and Conor Dillon to Australia this year but we'll have the Woods lads back next year and we'll be stronger again. We'd certainly be hoping to win either the intermediate championship or Division Two of the league." Tweet

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