Common sense from Seneschalstown
A bit of common sense goes a long way in any walk of life and Seneschalstown GAA club is certainly adopting a sensible approach to life, protecting its future carefully by investing great endeavour into its juvenile structure. In 2011, more hard graft was put in at underage level. An ultra-busy juvenile section should ensure that Seneschalstown is not just a club with a great history but also one with a bright future. We spoke to juvenile chairman Ian Maguire about the ongoing work.
Things didn’t go quite according to plan for the club’s seniors in 2011, but Seneschalstown enjoyed another hectic year at juvenile level. An unbelievable amount of work was invested into the club’s vibrant juvenile section and this should ensure that the conveyor belt of talent continues to tick over nicely, bringing a steady supply of fresh talent through to the adult teams and giving the club every chance of adding to its haul of four Keegan Cups sooner rather than later.
“From a juvenile point of view, we had a very busy year, with players from Under 6 up to minor kept active from March right through into October,” notes juvenile chairman Ian Maguire. “The U6 is really just a nursery and they don’t take part in any County Board competitions, but we also had teams at Under 8, Under 9, Under 10, Under 12, Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17 levels as well as U14, Under 16 and minor. So, as you can imagine, it was a very, very busy year.”
Numbers-wise, the club took responsibility for somewhere in the region of 200 juveniles, as Ian confirms: “We had between 20 and 25 Under 6s; around 35 Under 8s; more than 20 Under 9s; about 20 Under 10s; 28 Under 12s; 18-20 Under 14s and the same at Under 16 and minor. These are good enough numbers. We wouldn’t be a huge club in terms of numbers and we don’t have two teams at any age group, but we’re happy enough with the turn-out.
“Our U12s got to the seven-a-side tournament final in Simonstown and a league final as well and they played a lot of football. Getting to finals is an achievement in itself and there was certainly no shame in losing to Summerhill, who were very strong in the seven-a-side this year.”
Ian was pleased with how the year in general panned out: “There is a conveyor belt there now and we have quality players coming through. Our focus is to look after these players and to keep them interested in the club. That’s the main goal – making sure their interest levels don’t drop. If we could win silverware, that would be a bonus, but I’d be more concerned with making sure as few of these lads as possible slip through the net.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about looking after the youngsters. We have a healthy relationship with Kentstown soccer club now and we liaise with them to make sure there are no conflicts with trainings and games. We wouldn’t have talked to each other in the past but we keep each other in the loop now and that’s a much healthier position to be in. We ring them on a regular basis and this is in the best interest of the young lads. It’s all about the kids at the end of the day.”
Seneschalstown, of course, boasts a tremendous record of bringing talent through its system. Of the side that won county senior football championships in 2007 and 2009 (adding to the club’s previous SFCs of ’72 and ’94), all of them would have emerged through the juvenile section. “Every one of them except the Sheridans, who joined at U13, would have come right through with us from U8. So we like to think we are doing something right. The main thing now is to keep all those players together. We have ten from last year’s minor team who are playing either junior ‘B’, junior ‘C’ or senior already. Cormac Noonan, Niall Groome and James Conlon have all come through onto the senior squad as well as three or four minors from the year before. That’s a good turnaround and we’d be happy with that. It’s creating healthy competition for places in the senior side and they are all getting plenty of games. The junior ‘B’ team also went well in 2011 and the players got a lot of experience through that.”
None of this happens by accident. It’s all pre-planned and then fulfilled through hard work and painstaking organisation. Ian confirms: “We have a bit of a five-year plan in place at the moment to get them to make the step-up first of all from Under 16 to minor and then from minor to senior. We have lost a lot of players at 18 over the years and we’re working hard at remedying that. Lads at that age seem to lose touch with the club and we need to plug that hole. To this end, we’re trying to get them jobs as close to home as possible and we were quite successful with that in the past year.
“Shane Finnegan, who is a fantastic clubman, has been great to the club in this respect. He employs five or six of the first team and that’s a major boost to Seneschalstown in the current economic climate. It keeps lads at home. We have already lost a number of players to emigration – as indeed has every club in the county – so Shane is more than playing his part in keeping clubmen in the area and keeping the show on the road. We can’t thank him enough.”
Great input is being made into the juvenile section by current senior players, which is nice to see. All in all, Seneschalstown is blessed with a large number of juvenile coaches, though they could always do with more! “We have current players coaching in the schools. We started in the national schools in Kentstown and Yellow Furze last September (2010) and Joe Sheridan goes in there twice a month, on the first and third Thursdays. We have a couple of coaches working at that and it’s run in conjunction with the County Board. We expect to reap the rewards of that and to attract more and more young lads – and girls – into the club. We have three or four coaches involved with each underage team – and many of these are current adult players – but we’re trying to get as many coaches as possible. More faces would definitely be welcome and we would like to get more ladies involved. We’re delighted with the attitude of our current seniors to underage development and all I can say is ‘Fair play to them’. It’s a very positive development. These lads have won Keegan Cups themselves and the young lads look up to them and can learn a great deal from them.”
Taking everything into account, the club’s juvenile chairman is pleased with the direction Seneschalstown juveniles are moving in… “Our coaches have done a huge amount of work during the year and all the teams improved on the previous year. We performed better in the competitions we contested and we had greater numbers. It was a very busy season.
“We have good coaches programme and we had people like Colm O’Rourke, Peter Canavan and Fergal Logan in to talk to our coaches, and we’re also planning to build a skills wall. We have a lot of good plans – if we had the money to put them all in place. We have a proud tradition in Seneschalstown and the current team has done us proud already, whether or not they add more senior titles. They are going to be a hard act to follow. But that’s the challenge facing our younger members and the current U14s, U16s and minors will be the next crop of players trying to win Keegan Cups for Seneschalstown.”
In 2011, Damien Sheridan announced that he would step down after five years in charge of the Seneschalstown seniors. During this time, he led the club to two SFCs and two Feis Cups. They also contested the 2010 county final.
Seneschalstown were in Group B of the 2011 Meath SFC, losing three times and winning twice. They lost their opener to Dunshaughlin by 1-10 to 0-9 at Pairc Tailteann on April 15th but bounced back with a 0-10 to 0-5 win over Rathkenny at the same venue two weeks later. Then came a 2-12 to 0-14 defeat to Nobber at Rathkenny on May 15th; a 0-10 to 1-5 victory over Navan O’Mahonys at the county grounds on June 12th and a 1-13 to 0-13 loss to Donaghmore/Ashbourne at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday August 7th. That result meant they missed out on a quarter-final place.
Seneschalstown ladies regain their senior crown
Seneschalstown regained the Ladies SFC title at Ashbourne when proving too strong for first time finalists Na Fianna on a scoreline of 1-20 to 2-5.
Na Fianna made life difficult for Seneschalstown early on before the Yellow Furze outfit stamped their superiority on proceedings to run out decisive and deserving winners.
Seneschalstown were never headed but Na Fianna regained parity having conceded the opening two points to Mary Sheridan.
There was just one point, 0-3 to 0-4, between the sides before Seneschalstown posted six points on the spin in the run-in to half-time.
Grainne McNulty’s effort was the pick of them while Fiona Mahon was having an increasing influence on proceedings from play and placed balls.
Mahon finished with ten points (six frees) to her credit while Louise McKeever and team captain Orla Sheridan were next best for Seneschalstown in the scoring stakes with
By half-time the scoreboard read 0-10 to 0-3 in Seneschalstown’s favour. Things got even better for Jim Rooney’s charges within seconds of the resumption Orla Sheridan goaled having got on the end of a move started by midfielder Mary Sheridan.
By the 42nd minute Seneschalstown were 1-14 to 0-4 ahead before Na Fianna enjoyed their best spell of the hour as they bagged two goals.
The Baconstown/ Enfield/ Rathmolyon outfit were eight points in arrears after 47 minutes, 2-4 to 1-15.
Seneschalstown reasserted themselves in the latter stages, outscoring Na Fianna by 0-5 to 0-1.
Seneschalstown – A. McCluskey; E. McGrane, P. Sheridan, A. McAdam; S. Hickey, G. Nulty (0-1), A. Carolan; M. Sheridan (0-2), S. Sheridan; F. Mahon (0-10, 6fs), O. Sheridan (1-1), S. Byrne; E. O’Carroll (0-2), L. McKeever (0-4), R. Nulty.
Minors ease to Division 4 title
Despite not making the knock out stages of the Meath SFC the future of Seneschalstown football looks bright with this showing from their minors. Moynalty were totally outclassed, 4-13 to 0-5, in the MFC Div 4 decider at a wet Pairc Tailteann.
Corner foward Niall Lyons was a handful for the Moynalty defence all night. The Seneschalstown number 13 got the game’s opening score and added another three in the opening half. Eamon Sheridan was wearing the full back jersey but was playing all over the pitch and he got in for the games opening goal to put Seneschalstown 1-5 to 0-1 up after twenty minutes. Seneschalstown led at half time 1-6 to 0-3.
The heavy rain left Pairc Tailteann very slippy but this didn’t effect the Seneschalstown performance in the second half. Centre foward James Meade had the game in the bag after a minute with the winners second goal. Three unanswered points from the brilliant Lyons left Moynalty 2-9 to 0-4 behind. William Mullen raced through from the half back line for a point and Brendan Lynch added their third goal. Ross Howard closed out the game in the last minute when he netted after a great solo run.
Eamonn Sheridan, William Mullen, James Meade and Niall Lyons were outstanding for the winners.
Seneschalstown scorers: Niall Lyons 0-8, James Meade 1-2, Eamonn Sheridan, Brendan Lynch and Ross Howard 1-0 each, William Mulllen 0-2, Darragh Geraghty 0-1.
Seneschalstown: P. Brady, J. Smith, B. Mc Kendry, D. Mc Loughlin, N. Mc Cabe, W. Mullen, A. Gargan, T. Cummins, E. Sheridan, B. Lynch, J. Meade, R. Howard, N. Lyons, E. Meade, E. Noonan. Subs: D. Geraghty for Noonan, H. Maguire for E. Meade, M. Mc Keown for Mc Kendry, S. Cunningham for Lynch, M. Fox for Mullen.
