Art McSeain has been one of the most consistent marksmen in Cavan club circles for the most part of ten years now. But last year wasn't one he has cause to remember with any fondness Art McSeain couldn't bid 2003 goodbye quickly enough. A serious nose injury and a disastrous campaign for the Reds conspired to make the year gone by a right 'oul annus horribulus for the ace attacker. The facial injury he suffered caused Art to wear a mask while playing at the height of Cornafean's intermediate championship campaign. Cries of 'Zorro' from opposition fans peppered the summer scene wherever and whenever Art took to the field. But like the seasoned campaigner that he is, the crafty and skilful Red made light of the cat-calls to lead Cornafean's assault. Alas, not even the inspiration lent by the masked one could hoist the famed Reds out of the group and into the quarter-finals. "I didn't shed any tears to see the back of the year and I hope there's not too many more like it to come in the future," Art admits. Ironically, Art's injury turned out to be just one example of the litany of injuries which afflicted the Martin Clyne (Granard) trained Cornafean crew last year, bedevilling the team's best efforts at forcing their way off the bottom of the division two league table and making an impact in the blue riband competition. Without the services, at various times, of stalwarts such as Eamon Reilly, Ciaran Martin, Brian Doyle and Art himself, the one-time Cavan football kingpins were hard-pressed to secure respectability never mind back-to-back victories. "Morale in the club was badly hit by the string of injuries that broke out - you just had to look at the attendances at training at times during the year. The fact that for most of the matches we could have had anything up to five minors playing on the team said it all too." In truth though, even those looking at Cornafean from outside the club forecast difficult times for the Reds in 2003 if injuries hit. The Reds, at the present time, simply haven't got the strength to adequately paper over the loss of four key players at any time. The back-up isn't there right now. "We could easily have held our own at intermediate level last year but for the injuries but if you take two or three key players out of any team, it's bound to struggle and that was the way it was for us. "Other teams can get by with a few regulars out but not us. Hopefully we can put 2003 well behind us. "If we can repeat the form we showed in beating Killinkere in the league last year though and when we beat Butlersbridge in the relegation play-off then we can do very well this coming year," Art enthuses. The result against the 'Bridge caught a lot of people in Cavan by surprise and Art accepts that the result was a shock. "They would have been favourites to beat us, having won the junior championship the previous year, having beaten Killinkere in the championship and having done far better than us up to that point in the league. "But we tended to win matches that we really had to win and the 'Bridge game was our championship final. "The team showed great pride and character though in beating the 'Bridge. "The win showed the benefit of three weeks good training we did in the run-up to the play-off. "Those three weeks training got fellas up for the fight and helped the spirit in the camp an awful lot. "And the return from injury of Eamon Reilly made a bid difference too as did the goal by Tanassie (Kildanis). "Some in the club said it was pure determination that won the game for us against Butlersbridge and I couldn't argue with that either," the 30-year old marksman states. Convinced nonetheless that no-one could have changed things around last year for Cornafean because of the team's injuries and their ill-luck overall, Art is brutally honest though in his assessment of how matters panned out in their group matches against Kill Shamrocks, Laragh United and Denn. "We didn't do enough to win against Kill, got a hammering against Denn and then deservedly lost by about eight points or so to Laragh. After the Denn game though, the bottom fell out of the championship for us and everything took a massive nosedive after that. We hadn't been doing well in the league up to that point but the group games really had us at rock bottom almost. Even after the Kill defeat, you could feel morale and enthusiasm plummeting among the lads and the fact is the effort wasn't put in by us for the other games in the group." One wonders how things were turned around in time for the winner-take-all affair with Butlersbridge? "There was a players' meeting called about midway through August and a lot of talking was done. "We knew that relegation was looming if we didn't get our act together. " I think nearly everyone realised that if we went back to junior, the club would be going nowhere fast. "We needed to pull out all the stops to stay intermediate and buy some time so that a few of our best minors could be nursed along until they were ready to play intermediate football." Cornafean's finest did indeed pull out all the stops when it mattered most. Fellas might have been carrying injuries, might have been asked to play out of position and might have lacked the power and strength to carry the fight sometimes against more physically imposing teams, but, at the end of the year, McSeain and co. didn't let their club down. Instead they performed a near-miracle at the death to keep their club up. "The win over the 'Bridge was a great boost to the club. "After that game we played Killinkere in the league. "They had won something like ten league games in a row before we met them but they were glad to get a draw against us. "Even against Ballinagh, a team most people thought could have won the championship, we played some great stuff and only lost by two or three points." Still, the glory days of junior championship success in 2000 seemed a long way off in the darkest days of 2003. And Art accepts that without a sprinkling of good quality minor and under 21 players coming up through the ranks, matters at senior level won't get any more rosy. But having to share a parish with two other clubs, i.e. Killeshandra and Arva, makes for some hard graft sometimes just to make sure you stand still. "We always have to make the best of what we have. It was the same in 2000." And yet despite being cornered along the Longford border, the gaels of Cornafean have seldom failed to make an impact in any given year. That said appearances in finals have been all too rear in modern times. For instance, Art has been playing adult football with the Reds since he was sixteen years of age and apart from the aforementioned JFC title win in 2000, his only other appearance on finals day (adult) came in 1994. Then he featured alongside such local luminaries as Sean Martin and ex-county player Peadar McKiernan in the defeat to Laragh United in the intermediate championship decider. It was a final remembered by most people for the horrific leg injury suffered by the aforementioned ex-county star McKiernan. Grandson of Pol McSeain, former Chairman of Cavan GAA County Board and son of legendary Cornafean stalwart Peadar, the bold Art has, surprisingly, never quite made it as far as senior inter-county ranks are concerned. A county minor under Mountnugent's Tom Lynch many moons ago, the popular publican did answer the call to join the Cavan panel under Val Andrews in 2000 but it was a brief daliance with the county's elite. "The hours that you have to work in a pub and senior county football don't mix. "You can't be working 'til the early hours on a Saturday night and expect to be able to play for Cavan the following afternoon. "It was never going to work out," Art explains. But looking at the numbers of underage footballers who queued up to attend training sessions in Cornafean in 2003 fills Art with optimism and confidence that things are going to work out in Cornafean, long-term if not short-term. "I did a bit with the under 10s last year and we had an average of about forty youngsters turning up for training. "The population in the area is increasing and we've no problems gathering up the numbers for training. "We played Crosserlough in an under 10 challenge game last year and beat them. So there looks to be some good talent in the pipeline." A second coming for the mighty Reds? Cavan football could only benefit from such a happening. Tweet

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