Ballynacargy paid a costly price for not taking last year's intermediate football championship seriously enough claims long-serving midfielder Paddy Jordan. Ballynacargy's hopes of making an instant return to the senior ranks were ended at a surprisingly early stage last year. Defeats to Rosemount, Ballymore and Kilbeggan Shamrocks meant that Ballynacargy failed to progress beyond the group stages, which had been the minimum requirement for the blue and golds. While pointing out that Ballynacargy were only narrowly beaten by Kilbeggan and were held to a draw by Ballinagore, long-serving midfielder Paddy Jordan feels that they paid a heavy price for not taking the championship seriously enough. "I don't think we were in the right frame of mind," he says. "Having just come down from senior, we probably felt that we wouldn't have to put in the same effort to win an intermediate championship. In hindsight, that was a very costly mistake. "We took a laid back approach to training and it showed in our results. In a lot of our games last year, our lack of work on the training pitch was very apparent. We didn't have the fitness to win games we would normally be capable of winning." Ballynacargy opened their championship campaign in encouraging fashion when they defeated newly-promoted Caulry by 2-11 to 0-12. Caulry led by 0-10 to 1-5 at the interval, having played with the advantage of a strong wind. But Ballynacargy took control on the restart and aided by a Ger Heduvan goal, opened up a seven-point lead. The Mount Temple men rallied in final quarter without ever really threatening Ballynacargy's advantage. Bal' suffered their first setback of the campaign when they lost to Rosemount by 0-9 to 2-11 on June 15. Rosemount were superior in most aspects of the game with all of their scores coming from play. But for a fine stop by goalkeeper Michael Penrose from a 'Jockie' Healy penalty in the 53rd minute, Ballynacargy would have lost by an even greater margin. There was further disappointment for Bal' a fortnight later when they succumbed to eventual champions Ballymore. The blue and golds actually led by 0-4 to 0-3 at the break, but with the breeze to their backs in the second half, Ballymore pulled away for a 0-12 to 0-8 victory. What made the defeat particularly hard for Ballynacargy to accept was the fact that they had beaten the same opposition by eight points in a league encounter just four weeks earlier. Bal's faint hopes of making the knock-out stages were finally dashed when, after a tremendous battle with Kilbeggan, they came out on the wrong side of a one-point defeat. For long spells, it seemed as if Ballynacargy - playing with renewed spirit and vigour - would take something from the game, but a Mattie McCormack point four minutes from the end consigned them to a third straight defeat. A Ger Heduvan goal had helped the blue and golds to a 1-5 to 0-5 interval lead, but scores were much more difficult to come by following the restart and Bal' eventually lost out on an agonising 0-11 to 1-7 scoreline. Bizarrely, Ballynacargy's form improved after it became apparent that they wouldn't be figuring in the knock-out stages. Their best performance of the year came against Mullingar Shamrocks when they recorded a facile 5-19 to 2-6 victory. The game was over as a contest at half-time with Bal' a whopping 19 points clear. An impressive statistic from the game was that all bar one point of Ballynacargy's total came from play. Against Ballinagore in their penultimate outing, Ballynacargy needed a last-gasp point from centre back Mark Wallace to salvage a 0-11 to 1-8 draw. For long periods, it looked unlikely that Bal' would take anything from the game as they struggled to keep apace with Ballinagore. However, their perseverance paid off when Wallace sent over the equalizer in the eighth minute of injury-time. Bal's disappointing campaign had a happy ending when they recorded a 0-15 to 1-9 victory over Maryland in what was a repeat of the 1999 final which was only decided after three games. After an evenly-contested opening period, the blue and golds found an extra gear to establish a 0-8 to 0-4 lead at the break. Maryland, who were already assured of a quarter-final spot, staged a fine recovery after half-time and were back on level terms after 43 minutes. But Bal' finished with a flourish as Michael Loran, Dwayne Maher, Declan Farrell, Richard Murphy and Mark Murphy all notched points to seal a three-point win. Ballynacargy also experienced mixed fortunes in the All-County League. They suffered defeats to Tubberclair, Maryland and Athlone, but consolidated their position in Division 2 with wins over Tang, Killucan, Ballymore and Ballinagore. Their involvement in the Intermediate Cup proved to be shortlived with eventual winners Shandonagh inflicting a heavy defeat on them in the first round. The junior 'B' team were beaten by Caulry, who also went to taste outright success. While conceding that Ballynacargy were below-par for much of last season, Jordan argues that they were not helped by the unavailability of key players for crucial games. "For some reason or another, we never had a full team out," he says. "We lost both Dwayne and Shane Maher through suspension after they were sent off against Caulry and Kilbeggan, while Richard Price had only a minor part to play in our championship campaign. "A big problem of ours is the fact that so many of our players are based away from home. We have a huge amount of lads either working away or away in college which means that it is very difficult to bring everyone together for training," adds Jordan, who himself works in Dublin. The 30-year-old, who was a key figure in Ballynacargy's intermediate championship successes of 1996 and '99, expects the blue and golds to be a much-improved outfit under new manager Gerry Nohilly this year. Nohilly brings to a wealth of experience to the club, having guided the fortunes of Mullingar Shamrocks and St. Brigid's (Offaly) in the past decade. "Gerry has an excellent track record in management and I'm sure that he'll be able to get the best out of us. Fellas weren't properly tuned in last year, but hopefully Gerry will put that right. "Our target will obviously be to win the intermediate championship, something which we are well capable of doing if we knuckle down in training. One thing I'd like to see happening this year is the younger lads taking on more responsibility. Some of them have been playing at this level for a few years now and it's time they stood up and were counted," he concludes. Tweet

Most Read Stories