Carnaross will have to wait another year for a tilt at Intermediate Football Championship honours following their semi-final defeat at the hands of east Meath outfit Duleek at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday September 19. Royal County asked club chairman Malachy Plunkett: what happened the likely lads? It took Carnaross' intermediate footballers the best part of six months to recover from their humbling at the hands of Navan O'Mahony's in the 2003 Intermediate Football Final; such was the magnitude of the defeat. Their inability to consign the defeat to the annals of history and their reluctance to regroup and prepare thoroughly for the new campaign were contributory factors in the team's failure to progress to final, according to chairman Malachy Plunkett. "It was hard to motivate the lads (at the beginning of the year) after the defeat to O'Mahony's last year. That defeat took a lot out of the lads. In January, February and March, they didn't give their full commitment and ultimately their failure to do the hard work in those months caught up with them," he mused. Despite the best efforts of manager Brian Comaskey and his selectors John O'Reilly and Aidan Gillic, the Carnaross bandwagon failed to pick up the requisite momentum in those crucial three months, when the stamina needed to sustain a summer-long campaign is developed. Carnaross' 2004 campaign got off to a disastrous start with consecutive defeats in their opening two group games, but to their credit they managed to get their season back on track, and ultimately finished third in the group, gaining a quarter-final berth in the process. On their 2003 IFC form Carnaross were expected to open their account with full points, but South Meath outfit Na Fianna inflicted a morale bruising 1-14 to 0-6 defeat in Round 1. It was a thoroughly depressing performance from the North Meath outfit, which looked only a pale shadow of the team that had advanced to the IFC decider the previous year. "Na Fianna always do well in their opening IFC fixture. They beat Ballivor in 2002 and O'Mahony's last year. We had played them a few weeks earlier in the league and had hammered them so perhaps the lads were a little over-confident," Malachy remarked. Carnaross were expected to atone for that defeat in Round 2 when they were pitted against Drumconrath at Kilmainhamwood. However, Drumconrath, who had been outclassed by Nobber in their opening fixture, inflicted another surprising defeat. "We were in striking distance of them the whole way through the game. They did very well in the first half, but we got into the game in the second half, but at the end of the day we just missed too many chances," he recalled. With time running out Drumconrath led by three points but Carnaross had a chance to tie the scores. To their woe Gavin Murphy sent a penalty wide after brother Ollie was fouled. The inter-county star also struck the post when getting a touch to a '45'. Carnaross finally opened their 2004 account with a comprehensive victory over another south Meath outfit, Drumree. Ollie Murphy was at his near devastating best and contributed four points from play in a 2-13 to 2-3 victory. John L. McGee and Daniel Reilly were also prominent in the victory; while Gavin Murphy atoned for his penalty miss against Drumconrath with a well-taken spot kick in the first half. Thomas Farrelly, Paddy and Thomas Nugent were also to the fore in this comprehensive showing. Just when it looked like Carnaross were about to ignite their IFC challenge, they suffered another defeat at the hands of Wolfe Tones in Round 4 at Kells. Despite the best efforts Stephen Yore who netted twice, Thomas Farrelly and Paddy and Thomas Nugent, Carnaross could only get within five points of the 2003 JFC winners on a scoreline of 2-11 to 2-6. "We actually felt we had the beating of Wolfe Tones. Seamus Comiskey got injured with 10 minutes to go, and after that we conceded a dreadful goal, which sealed the victory for them. If hadn't conceded that goal, we would have went on to win that game," Malachy opined. Having been beaten in three of their first four games, Carnaross knew there was no margin for error in their remaining group games. The fact that they were essentially playing knockout football had a galvanising effect on the team. In Round 5 against follow North Meath title hopefuls Nobber; Carnaross came out with all guns blazing. "It was a do or die situation in every game after the Wolfe Tones defeat. Nobber would have been favourites going into that game because they had won all four of their opening games, but we felt we had the beating of them," he elaborated. "Our first half performance (when they led 1-8 to 1-1) set us up for victory. Nobber came back at us in the second half but we still had four points to spare at the finish," he added. He continued: "We picked Paddy Nugent in the corner that night and brought him out as a third midfielder. That left plenty of room for our inside forwards. Ollie Murphy had a superb game for us that night." Thomas Nugent, Thomas, Farrelly, Peter Mullen, Bernard Murphy, Paddy Nugent, John L. McGree and the irrepressible Ollie Murphy were prominent in the victory, which re-ignited their IFC hopes. In Round 6 Carnaross scored probably their best victory of their year when they condemned hapless Curraha to their sixth straight defeat of the campaign, 2-15 to 0-8, when the sides met at Kilberry. Carnaross qualified for the quarter-finals when they scored a convincing victory (2-12 to 0-10) over Ballivor at Kells in their final group game. "It was do or die again. We knew we had to beat Ballivor and beat them well to ensure qualification," Malachy explained. Once gain Ollie Murphy was the chief score getter in Carnaross' impressive 2-12 to 0-10 victory. Declan Reilly contributed a goal and a point, while Gavin Murphy also weighed in with a vital goal. "We knew it could go down to score difference. As it turned out we finished level with Ballivor and Drumconrath on points but finished ahead of them on scoring difference. Drumconrath lost out to Ballivor for the final qualifying place," he explained. After stuttering start to the group Carnaross found themselves in the quarter-finals and just three victories from ultimate IFC glory. They negotiated the first hurdle, Syddan in the quarter-finals at Moynalty, but it took a late late show to secure victory. With the sides locked at 2-7 to 0-13 and extra time looming Ollie Murphy and Seamus Comiskey scored vital points to secure victory. The sides had been level on four occasions, in what was a rip-roaring encounter. The outcome of the result centred around three penalties, which were all awarded in the second half. Gavin Murphy netted twice for Carnaross, following fouls on John L. McGee and Declan Reilly. On both occasions Carnaross were trailing by three points and Gavin Murphy's strikes restored parity. In comparison Syddan squandered their penalty award, which was sandwiched between Carnaross' two efforts. Carnaross 'keeper Tony Morris did brilliantly pulling off a double save from the initial penalty and the resultant rebound. After the match manager Brian Comiskey commented: "Our resilience won it for us. We stayed in the game when everything was going wrong against us. A team with less character would have folded." Their semi-final joust with Duleek at Pairc Tailteann, Navan also went down to the wire, but this time round the North Meath side lost out in the final 10 minutes of the game. With five minutes remaining in normal time they led by 1-9 to 0-10, but by the time the referee blew the final whistle five minutes into injury time they trailed 0-16 to 1-9. That they conceded six points without reply in that 10-minute spell showed the magnitude of the Carnaross collapse. "We were still a point ahead going into injury time. If we had been that much fitter we should have been able to hold out. But when they got the equaliser we couldn't get the ball out of our half of the field. They tacked on another four points in the last couple of moments." Malachy opined. He added: "I felt we would get it quite hard to win the championship because we hadn't the hard work done at the beginning of the year. The players may have felt that they had turned the corner, but unfortunately their lack of conditioning caught up with them in the final moments of the game against Duleek." Looking forward to 2005 Malachy feels Carnaross will be in with a good chance of attaining IFC honours. "I think we will be a lot stronger in the coming year. We'll have Brian and Alan Smith and Peter Nugent available to us, while we are hoping to have Stephen Yore back from Australia." "Then we have the likes of Gary Carroll, Killian Porter, Peter Mullen, Johnnie Brady and Dermott McGee all pushing for places. So I feel we would have a great chance provided the lads put in the required effort." Tweet

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