It was a disappointing year for St Mochtas and 2003 captain Colin Hoey is suitably unimpressed. Even more frustrating than the actual results was the fact that some of the best footballers in the village are showing no interest in lining out for the club. Fact: there's no shortage of talented footballers in Louth village. The problem is that for some reason unknown to mankind many of these choose not to bother playing the national game. It's a bizarre situation, and one that has club stalwart Colin Hoey (who captained the team in '03) at his wit's end. "Two-thousand-and-three was our worst year so far," he reveals. "It's a frustrating state of affairs because the talent is here, no doubt about it. We got terrible drubbings in our last two championship games and that knocked the stuffing out of us altogether. "It'd be great if we could get our best team out for a change. At least then if we lost we'd have the satisfaction of knowing a better team beat us. The way things are at the moment we're bringing half a team to play other sides who are at full strength." The new championship structure certainly didn't help the Mochtas' cause either. The system was introduced to provide clubs with more meaningful games but that wasn't the case for the Louth villagers in 2003. After battling bravely but still losing their first two Group C outings against St Fechins and Dreadnots, the Mochtas were already out of contention by the time they faced Sean O'Mahonys and O'Connells. Those two games were even more meaningless than ordinary league matches and the hammerings the Mochtas received were of no benefit to anyone. In fact, the only purpose they served was to further demoralise a team already grappling desperately for confidence. Colin says: "I think the league system for the championship should be done away with altogether. You end up playing championship games that you have no interest in whatsoever - surely that's making a mockery of the whole thing. They should run it on a system similar to the All-Ireland, knock-out with a back door giving each team a second chance. "Championship football is supposed to be all about the big game on the big day, but it's not like that any more. Too many of the games are irrelevant and it's taking the magic away from club football in Louth." The Mochtas kicked off their 2003 IFC campaign against St Fechins at Castlebellingham on Saturday June 7th. They started brilliantly and led by ten points to five at the interval, with full forward Hoey contributing half his team's scores. For some reason, however, they collapsed after the interval and failed to score in the second period, falling to a 0-17 to 0-10 defeat. A fortnight later, at Drogheda, the Louth villagers gave Dreadnots a real fright but were decidedly unfortunate to end up on the wrong end of a 2-10 to 1-9 scoreline. This was a close-fought game all the way and neither side deserved to finish empty-handed. Colin Hoey scored an excellent first-half goal, but unfortunately a controversial Dreadnots three-pointer that could easily have been ruled out for a foul on Mochtas' keeper Ollie Martin cancelled this out. Midfield pair Peter Lawless and Paul Hoey, centre forward Nicholas Browne and full forward Colin Hoey were all in superb form but, alas, defeat was their lot. From here, the backside fell out of St Mochtas' championship challenge and they were badly beaten in their final two outings: Sean O'Mahonys beat them by twelve points (3-13 to 1-7) at Dowdallshill on Thursday July 17th and O'Connells were eighteen points the better team at Knockbridge a week later (3-15 to 1-3). Thus, the IFC campaign ended with the Louth village side sitting pointless at the foot of Group C, a wooden spoon clasped in their bloodied paws. "We only had 16 players togged out for that last championship game against O'Connells," a crestfallen Colin points out. "Things are always great at the start of the year and everybody always shows unbelievable enthusiasm. Unfortunately it wears off too soon. The team is young and too many of the players are prone to other distractions. It's hard to keep them interested in the football. "We also have six lads working up in Dublin and it's difficult for them to make it down for training or for games during the week. That's another thing that's working against us." A point Colin touched on there: the current Mochtas team is still very young, with an average age of 22. At only 25 himself, he's already one of the veterans of the team along with a core of four or five others around the same age. It's sad to hear that many of the older fellas from the 1995 JFC-winning team have already retired, even though they're now only in their late twenties/early thirties. Colin Hoey's enthusiasm for the Mochtas certainly hasn't faded, however. In '03, on the edge of the square, he played as well as he's ever done. It was his tenth full season on the first team, the only major honour garnered during that time being a junior championship medal in '95. Since then, the Louth village outfit has flitted between junior and intermediate grades. "After getting up in '95 we went down again for a few years but then secured one of the automatic promotion places when the leagues were restructured," notes Colin. "We've been in a battle to retain our status since, but it went really badly for us this year because we couldn't even get lads to go to games. All in all, bearing in mind the drubbings we got in those two championship games, it was a year we'd like to forget." The new season effectively kicked off in mid-January with the beginning of collective training, and attendances were brilliant, giving rise to hope that it might be a good year. "The interest back then was unbelievable. There were nights when we had 35 lads over at the pitch but gradually they began to drop off and once the exodus started we couldn't stem the tide. To go from such a promising position to only having 16 players togged out for the O'Connells game was a big blow." In an effort to curb rising levels of disinterest in the club, Mochtas decided to appoint an outside manager for the '03 term. Ardee man Tommy Kirk got the nod. "We wanted to see would it make any difference if we brought in an outside man, because we thought maybe it was a case of the players not having any respect for a local man. It appears though that it had nothing to do with management ... some lads don't want to play and that's all there is to it. When they're older, they'll probably look back and regret it because we definitely have the quality to put St Mochtas on the map." How good would the Mochtas be with their full complement available? "I think we'd be pushing in the top half of intermediate. We certainly wouldn't be worrying about junior football anymore! There are some great footballers in Louth village. Even apart from the lads that turn up and then drop out, there are some excellent lads in Louth village who are only 20 or 22 and they won't play football at all. They don't want to play. "But the players are here, there's no doubt about that. For a small village, we have probably about 40 good footballers in total, and that's a lot by anyone's standards. If only we could get them up to the pitch... "It would be great if Louth village were putting out our best side. As I said earlier, at least then you wouldn't mind losing a game ... we'd know we had done our best. It's frustrating when you see what the likes of Tallanstown and Knockbridge have achieved ... they're two small villages like ourselves but they've got their acts together and moved up from junior to senior. Both clubs are more than holding their own in the top grade and that's something the young lads here in Louth village could probably achieve. Hopefully, it'll turn around for us." What was St Mochtas' target at the start of 2003? "Our aim was to move up into Division 2A. We felt we had a great chance too because there were no great teams in the division. After that, we decided just to see how we went in the championship. To be honest, when we saw the draw for the championship and the group we were in, we knew we'd be up against it. We realised we weren't going to win the intermediate championship, so we decided to concentrate more on the league. But that didn't work out either and we finished bottom" As a nephew of Castleblayney and Monaghan legend Nudie Hughes, Colin Hoey certainly has football in his blood. Coming up through the ranks, he enjoyed great successes with the St Josephs/St Vincents amalgamation, winning U16 championship, minor league and championship, and U21 championship honours. Since the 1995 JFC breakthrough, silverware has been thin on the ground, however. Does he ever feel like throwing in the towel himself? "No way. I wouldn't consider it. I love playing football and I'd never give up unless I had to. And there's always a chance that things will still come good for the Mochtas..." Legend has it that St Mochta lived to be over 300 years old. The GAA club named in his honour could be forgiven for hoping that Colin Hoey does something similar! Tweet

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