Sean McDermotts certainly weren't the only football club in Louth not to win major silverware in 2011. Indeed, outside of St Patricks, O'Raghallaighs, St Fechins and Mattock Rangers, there aren't too many adult teams who can claim to have set the world on fire - not in terms of collecting trophies at least. With just a limited amount of honours up for grabs, there's no shame in finishing any season empty-handed (indeed, most clubs do!). The Mountrush men are still fighting the good fight and sharpshooter Tony Kelly remains hopeful that they'll strike gold in 2012.

Having reached the 2010 Louth junior football championship final, Sean McDermotts went into the 2011 season hoping to go a step further and claim the Christy Bellew Cup, bridging the 37-year gap back to their last championship success in 1974. Alas, it wasn't to be as the spark was missing this time around and - shorn of a couple of key men - the Seans never really hit top form, losing all three of their group games in the JFC.
They were in Group Four of the championship - a four-team section also including champions-elect St Fechins, Lannleire and St Kevins.
The Termonfeckin men were raging-hot favourites to win the JFC and they justified this rating when hammering the Seans by 3-13 to 0-5 at The Grove on Sunday, July 17th.
If that was a nightmare start for Tony McGuinness' charges, things didn't get much better when they lost their second JFC group game against Lannleire at the same venue seven days later - 3-15 to 2-5.
And they were consigned to wooden-spoon status when also losing their third and final group outing - 1-11 to 1-5 to the Kevins at Ardee on Sunday, August 14th.
Averaging just 1-5 per game, the Seans were never going to reach the knockout stage with that sort of form. It was a far cry from the stunning displays that saw them blaze their way to the 2010 junior decider. Whatever went wrong this time around, one thing is certain: as the old saying goes, you don't become a bad team overnight!
In the league, they fared better, squeezing into the Top Five in Division Three with 15 points from twelve outings, which was enough to secure a promotion play-off place. However, after a magnificent 2-11 to 1-7 victory over St Nicholas at Rathmullen on October 1st, Sean McDermotts' season was effectively ended when they lost their next play-off match to Hunterstown Rovers by 0-11 to 1-3 at Monasterboice nine days later.
This was the team that surged to victory in the first play-off game against the Nicks at Jimmy Pentony Park: Shane Brennan; Alan O'Neill, Sean McMahon, Kieran McMahon; David O'Neill (0-1), Darren McEneaney, Mark McEneaney; Kevin Carroll, Declan Carroll; Danny Reilly, Tony Kelly (1-2), Brendan McGahon; James Woods (0-4), Martin Duffy (0-4), Kevin McMahon (1-1). Subs: Derek Walsh for Martin Duffy.
Looking back upon the events of 2011, play-maker and score-taker Tony Kelly admits that it was a disappointing campaign: "We hoped to go well. After getting to the junior final the previous year, we thought we might go one better and maybe win it but things never seem to work out as planned and it was a poor enough year for the club in the end."
What happened? Where did it go wrong? "There's no point making excuses as the reality is that we weren't good enough and results don't lie, but losing lads to injuries certainly didn't help our cause. Patrick Osborne getting injured was a massive blow because he is a great player for Sean McDermotts and we have a small enough squad at the best of times. We can't afford to be without men like Patrick."
Compared to a lot of the other clubs who were contesting the 2011 JFC, Sean McDermotts were drawing from painfully-limited resources: "For most of the year, you're talking about 18 or 19 players - twenty lads at a push," Tony confirms. "With four subs, you are down to your bare bones. Especially as most of them are young lads. Once you get an injury, you are in trouble. With these sorts of numbers, you are always going to be struggling to compete.
"Last year, there was more interest, but there seemed to be no hunger this year. Maybe lads got fed up after losing the county final, I don't know. But there are a few more young lads there this year and we hope they will drive on again next year. We had a few who were with the minors and didn't want to play senior this year, but they will be available."
Tony started with the first team when he was 16 and has been there for eight years already. He missed out on Baile Talun's MFC success by a year but played in a semi-final with the amalgamation the following year. "There are a few of us around our mid-20s and then there's a big gap to the next crop, who are around 18, with nothing in between," he notes. "I played on good minor teams but we haven't had much success at adult level. When you're not winning things, it's difficult to get young lads into the team. But we just have to keep plugging away. There is a group of lads here who really want to play football for the Seans - the same hardcore of players, lads who are there from the start of the season to the end. The lads you'll see at training at the start of the year are the same lads who'll be still there in October. I suppose we're lucky to have those dedicated lads but we're finding it hard to bring in fresh blood and strengthen things up, especially with so many other clubs in the area drawing on the same players. Where I live, for example, I'm as close to the Mitchels and the Marys as I am to the Seans and a lot of youngsters are attracted to the town teams, because that's where their friends from school are playing."
Regarding the 2011 management team of Tony McGuinness, Peter Moyles and Ignatius Curran, Tony continues: "They did their best. They were there every night training the team and they were raring to go. Some lads didn't like the training but there are lads who wouldn't be happy if you had Mick O'Dwyer in charge!"
And looking to the forthcoming campaign, the dependable attacker concludes: "We hope to turn it around. This year we had a very poor start to the championship against the Fechins. We knew they were a good team but we thought we could compete with them at least. David Woods got injured and his brother James was injured as well and we can't afford to lose two players of that quality. Hopefully next year we'll have them all back again.
"After playing in a junior final, you'd like to get back to another one. You wouldn't like to endure too many years like this one. The boys will want to win something. We are good enough. We have enough good footballers there and enough experience to do it. Most of us have played semi-finals and finals and we've come through on good minor teams, so we know what's needed.
"Fingers crossed, next year we'll be able to deliver." Tweet

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