Furze Underage finds it’s feet
Seneschalstown enjoyed a successful year at underage level, with the Yellow Furze under 12 and under 14 teams contesting county finals. Pat Sheridan was involved in coaching the under 12s and was understandably proud of their achievements.
With the Seneschalstown senior side failing to qualify for the last eight of the championship, the year’s highlights were to be found at underage level.
The Yellow Furze under 12 team took the Division 2 League title, defeating St. Cianan’s in the final. The under 14s also qualified for the Division 2 League final, but were forced to give second best to Wolfe Tones.
“We were happy enough with the way the year panned out,” says under 12 coach Pat Sheridan.
“We won the Under 12 Division 3 title last year and it was nice to be able to move up a division and win that out this year. We also did well at under 14 level which augurs well for the future.”
Under the tutelage of Pat, his brother Eamonn and Billy Collins, the under 12 team enjoyed a memorable season. In qualifying for the Division 2 decider, they defeated Donaghmore/Ashbourne (twice), Wolfe Tones and Duleek. Their only defeat was suffered at the hands of Drumconrath/Meath Hill, with two points separating the teams at full-time.
Yellow Furze renewed acquaintances with St. Cianans’s in the final at Rathkenny in June. The Duleek side led by three points at the interval but the blue and golds staged a fine second half recovery to run out five-point winners.
“We were delighted with the win because the situation hadn’t looked good at half-time. Some of our players had just returned from holidays and it took them a while to get into the game. But when they did, they played some great football,” explains Pat, who also highlighted the contribution of the three girls on the team.
The under 14s, who were coached by Seamus Byrne, Leo Sheridan and Leo Ledwidge, appeared to have little chance of reaching a county final after they suffered a heavy defeat to Skyrne in their first outing of the year. But they recovered well and actually beat Skyrne en route to the final.
As it transpired, they were denied outright success by a slicking moving Wolfe Tones team. There was some consolation to be gained from the fact that two members of the Yellow Furze team – Stephen Sheridan and Graham Crosby – were called up to the county under 14 squad.
The under 13 team, who operated in Division 1, were under the same management as the under 12 team. They had a reasonably good year but, according to Pat, were “only breaking the ground” for next year.
“It was the first year that the under 13s competed in Division 1 and they did better than expected,” the former Navan O’Mahony’s player says.
“But it was a learning experience as much as anything. Most of the team will be eligible for the grade again next year and hopefully they will go all the way in Division 1. The club has never played in the All-Ireland Feile and that is a driving ambition of ours. We have an exceptional group of under 12s at the moment and we’re expecting big things from them in the future.”
It was also a good year for the Seneschalstown senior ladies football team who retained the county championship with victory over St. Ultan’s in the final at Dunsany during September. It was the third consecutive year that Seneschalstown had contested the ladies final – losing the first to Dunsany before capturing their first title at Summerhill’s expense in 2000.
As far as the minor, under 21 and senior footballers were concerned, however, there was nothing but heartbreak.
The minor team reached the championship semi-final but were defeated by Dunboyne by a goal. O’Mahony’s also ended Seneschalstown’s interests in the under 21 championship at the second round stage. Seneschalstown had a player sent off during the first half but were only a point in arrears at the final whistle.
The seniors made an excellent start to the championship, defeating Summerhill by four points in April. But, following a two-month lay-off, they lost to Trim by the narrowest of margins. St. Patrick’s were next up for Seneschalstown and the blue and golds duly secured their second championship win with nine points to spare.
A place in the quarter-finals now beckoned for the Damien Sheridan-trained team but their hopes were dashed by Walterstown in their final group game. All was not lost, however, as Seneschalstown then went into a play-off against St. Patrick’s. Having recorded a comfortable victory over the Stamullen men earlier in the championship, Seneschalstown were expected to repeat the dose but St. Pat’s proved a different proposition on this occasion and emerged as winners by 3-8 to 2-10.
Played at Donore, this was one of the games of the championship but such was of scant consolation to Seneschalstown who found themselves chasing the game from an early stage.
First half goals from Martin Kirk, Ivan Curran and JP Ryan earned St. Pat’s a 3-1 to 0-4 advantage at the interval and they were still six points clear with nine minutes of normal time remaining.
But Seneschalstown then awoke from their slumber, with Joe Sheridan finding the net. Graham Geraghty converted a free to reduce the deficit to two points before Daithi Whyte hit back with two points for St. Pat’s.
Joe Sheridan was denied a goal by St. Pat’s goalkeeper David Mooney in the 59th minute but the Seneschalstown full forward made amends in the third minute of injury-time when he blasted home his second goal. Unfortunately for the Yellow Furze outfit, it came too late to save them from defeat.
While disappointed by the manner of their championship elimination, secretary Jimmy Mullen believes that it was a satisfactory year for the senior side.
“Because we have so many young players on the senior team, I was actually fearful that we might get sucked into the relegation dogfight at the start of the year,” he admits.
“But the team did very well and, with a bit of luck, might have qualified for the knock-out stages of the championship. It was disappointing to lose to St. Pat’s, especially as we had beaten them so well earlier in the year. We were short a couple of players who might have made a difference, but I wouldn’t like to use that as an excuse.
“Next year, we should have a more experienced team and I think we’re capable of going places.”
The man from kerry
Selflessly and very much behind the scenes, Mickey Dillon played a major part in Seneschalstown’s metamorphosis into one of the most respected clubs not just in Meath but anywhere in Leinster.
The personable club Chairman and former long-serving Seneschalstown player has invested a virtual lifetime of honest work and know-how into nurturing young talent in the area and the club has been the main beneficiary
It all bore fruit in 1994 and will undoubtedly do so again some day soon. Mickey’s not resting on his laurels, however, despite everything he’s achieved already. The man in the Chair is as busy as ever and still has big plans for his adopted club.
Says the Kerry native: “In terms of future developments, one of our main concerns at the moment is that we only have one pitch, which just isn’t enough to cater for all the teams we have now. We’re in the process of a development which will leave us with a main pitch and a training pitch as well as improved facilities.
“Ladies football has taken off here in a big way too and even though it’s technically a separate club we’re all working together towards the same objective. Our dressing-rooms have to be upgraded to enable us to cope with the extra demand.
“Of course, all this will require financing and one of the biggest challenges facing any GAA club when it comes to renovations and improvements is generating the funds. Personally, I think the club should be in a position to generate its own income, maybe with a gym or some kind of bar or social centre. Something like that would certainly give us a much better image in the community and would also remove the necessity for us to go around begging all the time and asking people to put their hands in their pockets.”
Mickey Dillon’s family settled in the Royal County in the late ‘sixties. In his native Kerry, he had played football with the Duagh club (near Listowel) and also with the local national school and vocational schools teams before moving to Balrath, joining the nearby Seneschalstown club in 1968.
He played minor and junior B in ’68. The following year he represented the under 21s and played his first game for the seniors against Greg Hughes and his Kells comrades in the first round of the championship.
Mickey’s arrival on the scene coincided with something of a golden era for Seneschalstown. The club won three successive county under 21 championships, with the eager half back featuring on the first two of those teams in 1970 and ’71.
Then in 1972, the big breakthrough: Seneschalstown won the county SFC for the first time ever. “I played up until the final but lost my place when Mickey Collins returned from injury. We ended up beating Navan O’Mahonys after a replay. It was a remarkable achievement for the club because we’d only won our first intermediate championship in 1967,” he recalls.
Mickey wore the primrose and blue at various levels right through into 1986-87, lining out mainly at wing back or corner back, although he played a lot of junior football at centre half. He collected numerous league honours as well as a Feis Cup medal and was involved in 1977 when Seneschalstown lost the county final to Summerhill. When next they returned to the county decider (in 1986), he was no longer playing senior football.
The present day club Chairman also has mixed memories of the 1983 junior A final, which they lost to a late goal from St Michael’s, for whom a young man named Martin O’Connell was prominent.
In spite of all he achieved as a player, it is arguably as a coach, administrator and motivational driving force that Mickey Dillon has made his biggest mark with Seneschalstown.
He first got involved in the juvenile arm of the club in the early-to-mid-eighties when his own sons took up the game and was instrumental in building the side that brought honour to the club by winning the Keegan Cup in ’94 and reaching the Leinster club final.
“Basically myself, my brother Billy, Tommy McDonnell and Tommy Finnegan began to work with the young lads and we had a team with a lot of good players. We had a strong side coming through and won two under 12 championships in 1985 and ’87.” Mickey stayed more or less with that same crop of players right the way up through the grades and they won an U21 crown in the early ‘nineties.
“We also won four U17 leagues on the trot,”he points out. “Graham Geraghty was the star player but it was anything but a one man team. We had four men on the Meath panel that won the All-Ireland minor championship in 1990 and had many other fine players. The likes of Alan Finnegan, Stephen Dillon and Tony McDonnell all played with St Pat’s and the county minors too and we just seemed to have a steady flow of top class players coming through, all of which culminated in 1994 with the county championship and Leinster final appearance.”
Those were great days – any chance of them returning? “I think our future prospects are bright. We [Yellow Furze] have good underage teams coming along again and our U13s and U17s both got to county finals in 2001. We reached the minor semi-final [losing to Dunboyne] and were by far the best team against Navan O’Mahonys in the under 21 quarter-final when we lost by a point. There’s every reason for optimism.”
Seneschalstown are moving in the right direction off the pitch as well: “Also bearing in mind the plans we have to improve our facilities, I think the future is bright. However, I do feel that the GAA has some testing times ahead as it is about to be challenged strongly by other sports, which are gaining more exposure. There are a lot of international sports getting exposure and the threat from them is a very real one. It’s a very serious situation as there’s no proper international dimension to our games and limited opportunities to promote them.
“The new championship structure means we’re soon going to have full time county players – and I think the players deserve that. They deserve to get paid for the entertainment they provide and I think it’s a disgrace that the extra money generated from this year’s championship wasn’t put back in.
“One thing that really annoys me about the GAA is the amount of constant fundraising that has to be done by the clubs while seemingly no money at all comes out of central coffers. Meath were in the All-Ireland in 2001 and once more the onus fell on the clubs to raise funds for the team. We’re always going with cap in hand to the begging board, when clearly central council should be looking after these matters.”
A love of football runs in the Dillon family. Mickey’s youngest son Paul played minor with Yellow Furze this year and also featured on the 2000 Feis Cup winning side, thereby becoming the third member of the family to collect a winners medal for that particular competition (Mickey won one himself in the early ‘seventies and another son David won two during the ‘nineties).
And in what could hardly be termed a surprise development, Mickey’s daughter Elaine plays with the Seneschalstown ladies. Her dad notes: “The ladies game has really taken off here and it’s very strong. It’s great to see because it gives us all a real boost. Our ladies have won the last two county senior championships and have also done really well in Leinster. It gives the club and the GAA added strength in depth and we’re all fully behind it.”
