After being denied a sixth senior hurling championship victory in eight years, Lough Lene Gaels are hell-bent on making amends this year according to club secretary Damien Conaty. It's not often that Lough Lene Gaels play a county final and leave the cup behind them but that's exactly what happened in 2004 when they suffered a narrow defeat to Castletown-Geoghegan. Since coming to the fore in 1996, the Gaels have contested eight county finals (including one replay), five of which resulted in victories. They entered last year's decider as warm favourites but for once, failed to perform on the big day and were beaten by Keith Gorry's last-gasp point. It has since been suggested that the Gaels were complacent going into the final and didn't take the Castletown challenge seriously enough, but this is totally rejected by club secretary Damien Conaty. "It annoys me when people say that we took Castletown for granted," he says. "There was a headline in one of the local papers the week before the final that said we were odds-on favourites to win and people seemed to assume after we lost that we read too much into that. "But I can tell you that there was no complacency in Lough Lene Gaels before the final and I thought it was very unfair of the paper in question to print a headline like that. We have always given our opponents the respect they deserve and never go into a game thinking we are going to win. "We certainly didn't take Castletown for granted. After all, we were lucky to beat them in the county finals of 1996 and 2002 and they were probably due a win against us. Castletown were worthy winners and fair dues to them," he adds. Conaty, whose family are synonymous with the Collinstown club, believes that had the Gaels performed to their potential in the final, they would have taken the spoils. "We had been the most consistent team in the championship going into the final, averaging about 18 points a game. If we reached that total in the final, we would have won but unfortunately it didn't turn out that way. "I would have taken a draw with a few minutes to go but I don't know if we deserved to take anything from the game. We simply didn't perform on the day and couldn't really have any complaints," he comments. Under the guidance of manager Mick Cosgrove and his co-selectors Matt Kennedy, William Williams Jnr and Noel Briody, the Gaels qualified for the decider on the back of an unbeaten run, although they had to be content with draws in their first and third round games against Castletown-Geoghegan and Castlepollard respectively. In what was a dress rehearsal to the final, the Collinstown side looked set to start the campaign with a win when points from Killian Cosgrove and Cathal Murtagh gave them a four-point lead with five minutes remaining. But despite being reduced to 14 players, Castletown staged a late rally which culminated in Ronan Whelan landing a 65 metres free in injury-time to earn them a share of the spoils. The Gaels bounced back to run out easy 2-22 to 2-2 winners over newly-promoted Delvin in their second outing on May 30. The outcome was never in doubt with Killian Cosgrove's goal helping the purple and golds to a 1-13 to 0-3 lead at the interval. It continued to be one-way traffic after the resumption with a second goal from Daniel Carty putting the seal on an emphatic victory. After drawing with Castlepollard (0-13 to 1-10), the Gaels secured their second win when overcoming Ringtown by 4-9 to 0-9 on June 26. Ringtown held a one-point lead after 20 minutes, but then a three-goal blitz saw the Gaels take a 3-5 to 0-5 advantage into the break. A fourth goal from Paul Williams extended the Gaels' lead to 4-8 to 0-6 before late points from Aaron Corrigan (two) and Donal Meehan put a more respectable look on the scoreline from a Ringtown perspective. Lough Lene Gaels secured a place in the knock-out stages when they overwhelmed Brownstown by 3-16 to 2-5 in Delvin. A shock result looked to be on the cards when the Archerstown outfit raced into an early four-point lead, but the Gaels recovered to lead by 1-8 to 1-3 at half-time and made sure of victory with second half goals from Daniel Carty and David Cunningham. Against Clonkill in their sixth outing, the Gaels again trailed by four points early on but had reduced the deficit to two points at the interval. In the second half, Mick Cosgrove's charges played some of their best hurling of the year to emerge as comfortable 1-17 to 1-9 winners, the goal coming from Daniel Carty. The Gaels completed their programme of group matches with a fifth win over Raharney on July 25. They laid the foundations for victory in the opening half when a Jim Connell goal helped them to a 1-11 to 0-7 lead at the break. Raharney showed a big improvement after the changeover and restricted the Gaels to a solitary point in the final 20 minutes. But the purple and golds still came out on top by 1-15 to 0-13. The semi-final pitted Lough Lene Gaels against their old rivals and defending champions Castle-pollard. The blue and golds had the better of the early exchanges but their failure to turn good possession into scores came back to haunt them when three goals in quick succession from John Kennedy and Daniel Carty (two) saw the Gaels lead by 3-4 to 1-4 at the break. The Gaels increased their lead to eight points on the restart before Castlepollard cut the gap to three points with a goal from Barry Kennedy. When Aaron Farrell followed up with a point, Castle-pollard supporters were on their feet. However, David Cunningham gave the Gaels much-needed breathing space when he replied with a goal and they eventually ran out winners by 4-11 to 2-11. The final didn't go according to plan for the Gaels who were forced to give second best to a Castletown-Geoghegan team winning their first senior crown in 14 years. The black and ambers' success was richly deserved as the Gaels were far too reliant on 17-year-old Killian Cosgrove for scores. Cosgrove scored all but one point of his side's tally and brought the Collinstown men back from the brink when he blasted a 21 metre free to the net to level proceedings with two minutes of normal time remaining. But having lost to the Gaels in heartbreaking circumstances in 2002, Castletown were not to be denied with Keith Gorry's injury-time point giving the black and ambers a 0-13 to 1-9 victory. The Gaels were always chasing the game, having trailed by 0-4 to 0-8 at half-time. While acknow-ledging that the county final loss was a setback to the Gaels, Conaty - who is in his third year as secretary - is confident that they can make amends in the coming year. He also dismisses the notion that the current team's best years are behind them. "I fully expect to see Lough Lene Gaels back chall-enging for the county title this year," he says. "While some of the lads have a lot of mileage on the clock, their hunger remains as great as ever. There's a percep-tion that we're an old team but that's not the case. Two or three new players have been blooded every year and that trend will continue in the year ahead. When you have the likes of Killian Cosgrove and Derek McNich-olas coming through, it keeps everyone on their toes." The Gaels also lost last year's junior 'A' final to Raharney while there were championship final defeats too for the club's under 12 and minor teams. But the under 14 side's victory in Feile na nGael decider ensured that they didn't finish the season empty-handed. The Gaels' 4-11 to 2-2 triumph over Clonkill atoned for the disappointment of their defeat to the same opposition in the championship semi-final. Full forward Jonathan Clarke scored 1-5, while Sean Og Doyne chipped in with a further 1-2. "Our underage structure remains very strong which augers well for the future. Overall, things are progressively nicely and we're looking forward to 2005 with a lot of optimism," Conaty concludes. The Lough Lene Gaels team which contested the SHC final was: Mark Briody; Aidan Keogh, Michael Murtagh, Seamus Carroll; Brendan Williams, Christo Murtagh, Ciaran Williams; Mark McNicholas, Paul Williams; Gary Briody, Killian Cosgrove, John Gavigan; David Cunningham, John Kennedy, Daniel Carty. Subs used: Derek McNicholas, Martin Williams, Francis O'Farrell and Jim Connell. The Feile na nGael winning team was: Thomas Doyle; Jamie Nolan, Patrick Simpkin, Emmet Sheil; Derek Healy, Stephen Bardon, Alan Fitzsimons; Philip Reilly, Stephen Grace; Stephen Jennings, Thomas Owens, Brian Caffrey; Niall Lynch, Jonathan Clarke, Sean Og Doyne. Subs used: Ross Craig and Gary Cosgrove. Tweet

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