On the surface, it appears as though Naomh Moninne had a poor 2007. However, the reality is that the club is making steady progress behind the scenes and they are in a much stronger position now than they were a few years back. They've cultivated an impressive juvenile set-up and - with the prospect of a new playing surface at Toberona looming - Moninne have every reason to look forward to their 50th anniversary celebrations in 2009. Since starting out serving the Fatima area in 1949, Naomh Moninne Hurling Club has given a vast amount to the GAA in Louth. Both Pearse Og and Knockbridge were originally formed as splinters from Dundalk's oldest hurling club and Naomh Moninne have continued to battle away gamely, never complaining with their lot, instead focusing on the next challenge. It's a noble club and the exciting news is that there are good tidings on the horizon. At the time of writing, the club was close to realising its long-term dream of acquiring its own premises, with a pitch practically promised by the local authority in nearby Toberona. If this project comes to fruition, then Moninne could be settled in their new home by their 50th anniversary. The first stage has gone through successfully and the club is currently awaiting final approval from the Department of the Environment (expected in February). The new pitch will be a welcome boost to a club that has persevered against seemingly insurmountable odds for 48 years and endured a nigh-on-torrid 2007 at adult level. However, behind the scenes, massive unseen work has been invested in building up a strong juvenile structure and it's only a matter of time before these efforts begin to come to fruition. Thus, despite the fact that the club's seniors are struggling a little, they are in a fairly strong position in general and could emerge from the transition period with a formidable new team. Ger Collins acted as player-manager (alongside Declan Byrne) in 2007 and he is confident that the future could be deceptively bright for Moninne: "We've been making unbelievable progress with our underage players. We now have our strongest ever juvenile structure and it's a credit to the people who are investing so much of their time and effort into coaching and training the young kids. We have a couple of hundred young kids down at the Marist every week, which is amazing progress when you consider that we didn't even have a juvenile structure six or seven years ago!" Due to a pronounced shortage of numbers at adult level, Moninne opted to only field a first team in 2007. Training started in early April in preparation for participation in the Armagh league, which commences towards the end of the month. From this, the players got ten Tuesday night games under their belts and these prepared them for the Louth league and championship. With the team in transition, they failed to make an impact and their chances of recording a morale-boosting SHC victory were killed off when the final round of round-robin games was scraped. Knockbridge and Pearse Og were already through to the final after two rounds, but Wolfe Tones and Naomh Moninne still had pride to play for in the battle to finish third. But somebody somewhere knew better. "We're going through a rebuilding phase at the moment," Ger reveals. "A lot of the lads who played for the first team for years have retired and unfortunately the underage stricture in the club wasn't what it should be in the past. That has been rectified now, but it's still going to take a while for the young kids to come through. So we'll be building for the next couple of years and hopefully we can continue to field at adult level to keep things ticking over until the new breed of youngsters is ready to emerge." The Tipperary native continues: "We're operating from a very small panel but we have four or five lads around the 19 mark who are very good hurlers, so we're happy that the future looks bright. Put it this way: we played in a county final three years ago and everybody thought we were doing okay but we are better positioned now because we have better structures in place and we have players coming through, which is vital for the long-term survival of any club." Moninne would have fulfilled their final championship fixture if given the opportunity to do so. Granted, there was no silverware to play for but surely the bottom two should have been afforded the choice of completing their programme? "When we played Knockbridge and Pearse Og in the championship, we did alright in the first half but faded in the second half when our fitness levels let us down. But I was happy with our championship performances as opposed to the previous year. We were due to play the Tones in Drogheda in the last round but it was never played. I don't mean any disrespect to Wolfe Tones but they would probably admit that they are struggling a bit as well and that game would probably have given one of us a championship win for the year, which would have been a nice boost. As far as I know, every other round-robin group in the county got finished, even where there was little or nothing left to play for." All in all, though results might not back the claim up, Naomh Moninne are slowly turning a corner. "Results-wise, it's been a disappointing year but we have a small group of players with some very nice hurlers amongst them and we will get more talent from our improved juvenile set-up. People like John Murphy have put huge work into that and they deserve enormous credit for their efforts." Though their numbers are limited, Moninne showed that they still possess ample spirit and heart by winning a match at the Kilmacud All-Ireland Sevens - even though they only had a squad of seven players at their disposal! Regarding the mooted new pitch, Ger notes: "It would be fantastic. After 48 years, we still have no pitch or dressing rooms and it's very difficult to attract kids in this day and age if you have no facilities. There are people in the background working very hard to get that going but we've had so many disappointments on that front. Hopefully this time it'll work out. Togging out at the side of the pitch and driving home for a shower isn't good enough in 2007 - especially for visiting teams. "Naomh Moninne have a huge legacy. You have to remember that two other clubs were formed out of Naomh Moninne and those splits were not down to fighting or acrimony. There were no rows. It was just a matter of forming new clubs as we had such large numbers and were so strong. But Naomh Moninne has given a lot to Louth hurling. "Collon are coming along now and making great progress under Tony Corcoran. The more clubs we have, the better. Competition is always good and hopefully Naomh Moninne will soon be challenging for major honours again." JUVENILE ACTIVITIES 2007 2007 once again proved a very busy year for all those involved with the clubs juvenile teams with Moninne fielding teams at under 8,10,12,14,16 and minor level in competitions organised by an Coiste Iomana Chontae Lu, while also taking part in the Louth camogie league at under 14 level. Supervised training under the guidance of head coach Paul Drumm on the grounds of the Marist College in Dundalk commenced in March and continued on until October The Minor hurling league got competitions up and running in April where our minors recorded wins over Mattock Rangers and St Fechins to qualify for the Final. Unfortunately a below par performance against Knockbridge, who made full use of home advantage, saw them lose in the final by 10-9 to 0-6. In the Minor Championship Semi Final Moninne were unable to repeat the victory recorded over St Fechins earlier in the year when the Termonfechin boys proved to strong running out winners on a scoreline of 7-13 to 2-6. Naomh Moninne minor panel 2007: Daniel Begley, Liam Blundell, Oisin Drumm, Jamie Kerr, Donal Griffin, Chris Heeney, James McArdle, Andrew Mackin, Dean Carolan, Donal Rafferty, Ronan Geogaghan, Donal Lee, Mark McDonnell, Richard Shaw, Vianius Formaniankus, Sean O Reilly, Noel Doyle, David Bellew. The Moninne under 16 hurlers were limited to just one outing in the league where they suffered a 5-8 to 1-2 defeat to Mattock Rangers. In the Championship Semi Final they came up against St Fechins where their inability to take their scoring chances saw them fail to reach the final by virtue of a 1-13 to 2-2 defeat. Naomh Moninne under 16 panel 2007: Daniel Begley, Jamie Kerr, James Mc Ardle, Donal Griffin, Donal Lee, Chris Heeney, Liam Blundell, Oisin Drumm, Ronan Geogaghan, Robert Shields, Anthony Collins, David Yore, Adam Kelly, Conor McBride, Mark McDonnell, Neil Murphy. Hopes were high that the clubs under 14 side would do well in 2007 and they easily qualified for the Feile na nGael final with a comfortable win over Mattock Rangers in the semi final. However against Knockbridge in the Final they failed to perform in front of a big support as their opponents qualified to represent the county at the Feile later on in the year with an easy victory. It did not get much better when the under 14 league got up and running as Moninne suffered successive defeats to St Fechins and Knockbridge, and they recieved a walkover from Mattock Rangers in the 'B' Final late in the year. One of the highlights of the year was when the club hosted a special under 14 Feile blitz at Dowdallhill on Saturday September 8. The Moninne boys put up a very spirited performance on the day recording the following results;Naomh Moninne 3-1 Clane (Kildare) 4-3, Naomh Moninne 0-4 Brownstown (Westmeath) 4-3, Naomh Moninne 0-3 Knockbridge 2-2. Naomh Moninne under 14 panel 2007: Padraig McKeever, Colin O Connor, Jamie Kerr, Conor McBride, David Bellew, Adam Kelly, Robert Shields, Liam Blundell, Ronan Geogaghan, James McArdle, Ben McLoughlin, David Yore, James Shields, Mark McDonnell, Anthony Collins, Neil Murphy, Shane Lynch, Orla O Hagan, Lorcan Rafferty, Conor Kelly, Lauren Matthews, Maeve O Hagan, Cody McGill, Jordan Lee, Conor McGeown, Tom O Hanlon, Dannan Cummiskey, Ciara O Connor, Tadhg McEneaney, Conal McEneaney. Activities for the clubs under 12 team centred around several challenge matches including a successful trip to Belfast on Saturday August 18. The boys had to wait until late September to take part, as holders, in the under 12 O Broin Shield Blitz where they lost out to St Fechins in the group final. O Broin Shield results: Naomh Moninne 5-5 Mattock Rangers 1-1; Naomh Moninne 4-2 Knockbridge 0-0; Naomh Moninne 0-2 St Fechins 3-2. Naomh Moninne under 12 panel 2007: Colin O Connor, Tiernan Shields, Dara Flanagan, Ronan O Reilly, Cody McGill, Ben McLaughlin, Ryan Donnelly, Tadgh McEneaney, Conal McEneaney, Sean McGill, Brendan Vorster, Martin Connolly, Darren Whyte, Liam Lynch, Aaron McMahon, Emmet O Driscoll, Shane McBride, Andrew Lynch, Patrick McArdle, Stephen Bellew, Joseph McCann. The Moninne under 11 side also fell short of capturing some silverware in 2007 when they competed in the McCreesh Shield in Collon on Saturday September 15. Having recorded group victories over the home side, St Fechins and Knock- bridge they qualified for a final meeting with Mattock Rangers losing out narrowly in an exciting Final. Having entered a camogie team for the first time in the clubs history the previous year Moninne once again competed in the under 14 league with mixed success. Despite losing to St Kevins, Stabannon and Collon the club recorded their first ever victory at this level when they defeated Cooley girls in Cooley on Tuesday June 5. Camogie league results: Naomh Moninne 2-2 St Kevins 3-0; Naomh Moninne 2-0 Stabannon 6-2; Naomh Moninne 2-1 Cooley 0-0; Naomh Moninne lost to Collon. Naomh Moninne under 14 camogie panel 2007: Christine McKenna, Sinead Mc Gill, Ciara Kelly, Micheala Woods, Megan Dillon, Clodagh Fennell, Orla O Hagan, Lauren Matthews, Alanna Finn, Clare Copas, Amy McEvoy, Maeve O Hagan, Grace Heffernan, Aine Stanley. 2007 also saw Moninne making a trip to Croke Park in Sunday August 12 for the All Ireland Hurling Semi Final between Waterford and Limerick. The club would like to thank the management of the Marist College in Dundalk for the continued use of their facilities for the training of our juvenile teams and express our gratitude to all our sponsors. Tweet

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