Despite their senior championship final collapse against Garrycastle, 2002 was the most successful year in Castledaly's history to date. Just as Garrycastle had been to the 2001 senior football championship, south county rivals Castledaly were a breath of fresh air to last year's championship. Having amassed a whopping 20 underage titles in a 10-year period from 1989, Castledaly's first ever appearance in a county senior final was hardly a surprise. The only downside was that they didn't do themselves justice against a Garrycastle side who were clearly in no mood to surrender their county title. Despite their county final loss, 2002 was the most successful year in the club's history to date. For so long a junior club, Castledaly finally entered the intermediate ranks in 1983 when they defeated Milltown. Following defeats to St. Loman's and St. Paul's in the 1986 and '89 intermediate deciders, the club secured promotion to the top flight with a replay victory over St. Mary's in '94. Given the high age profile of that team, Castledaly were not expected to remain in the senior ranks for any great length of time. But it wasn't long before the club's hugely successful youth policy began to pay dividends. With what could be considered a new team, Castledaly contested their first county senior semi-final in 1999 where they lost to Athlone after a replay. The following year, the long wait for a senior title was finally ended when they defeated Mullingar Shamrocks to capture the Feis Cup. But last season's achievement surpassed all. Under the management of Ferbane man Brendan Clarke, who had been at helm when Athlone won senior championships in 1988 and '98, and his co-selectors PJ Fanning and Ger Duffy, Castledaly entered the championship in a confident frame of mind. But they suffered an early setback when they lost to The Downs by 0-10 to 3-5 in their opening game on May 19. Castledaly trailed by three points at the interval, but within six minutes of the restart, they had levelled matters. However, Brendan Murtagh then scored a third goal for The Downs, to which the green and golds had no reply. The second round clash with Athlone was a game Castledaly couldn't afford to lose, but such seemed a possibility at half-time when they trailed by 0-7 to 1-6. Castledaly showed a vast improvement on the restart, however, with a string of points from JP Casey, Niall Duffy and Niall Kelly propelling them to a 0-15 to 1-10 victory. Castledaly collected their second brace of points on June 23 when they powered to a highly satisfying 1-10 to 2-3 victory over neighbours Moate All-Whites. With Gordon Duffy and Russell Casey on top at midfield, the Castledaly forwards received an ample supply of possession. Despite this, their lead was just two points, 1-4 to 1-2, at the break. An Anthony Malone goal early in the second half brought Moate onto level terms, but sensing danger, Castledaly then stepped on the gas with scores from Niall Kelly, Niall Duffy, JP Casey, Damien Doyle and Tommy Daly making sure of the win. Brendan Clarke's charges moved a step closer to the knock-out stages when they overcame St. Loman's by 0-11 to 2-1 on July 14. In what was a disappointing game between the top two sides in the group, Castledaly always had the upperhand with points from JP Casey, Russell Casey, Damien Doyle and Derek Heavin helping them to establish a 0-6 to 1-1 lead at the interval. Further minors from Doyle and the Casey brothers, JP and Russell, had Castledaly five clear before Vinny Gavin pulled back a goal for St. Loman's. But a brace of late points from JP Casey put the result beyond all doubt. The prolific Casey - who had been such a loss to his club in 2001 - produced arguably his finest performance in a Castledaly jersey on July 21 when his superb tally of 2-7 inspired the south county side to a stunning 2-16 to 0-9 victory over 1999 champions Tyrrellspass. In control from an early stage, Castledaly led by 0-10 to 0-4 at the break and when Casey crashed home a penalty 30 seconds after the restart, the game was effectively over as a contest. Ten minutes from time, Casey added a second goal to send Castledaly through to the semi-final as group winners. Now only traditional giants Mullingar Shamrocks stood between Castledaly and an historic county final spot. Shamrocks were given at least a 50-50 chance, but they never looked like denying the emerging force of Westmeath football. That the game was devoid of any real quality hardly mattered to Castledaly who were in no way flattered by their 0-10 to 0-5 victory. Shamrocks led by 0-3 to 0-1 early on, but Kenneth Larkin, JP Casey and Damien Doyle responded with points to give Castledaly a 0-6 to 0-4 advantage at the break. Castledaly completely bossed the second half with further scores from Casey and the two Nialls, Kelly and Duffy, wrapping up a comprehensive win. But there was still one step to go. Could Castledaly, in their first county final, bring home the Flanagan Cup? On the evidence of their displays against Athlone and Tyrrellspass in particular, such seemed possible but reigning champions Garrycastle would represent a major step-up in class. And so it proved. Whether it was a case of county final nerves or Garrycastle being just too good, Castledaly were simply unable to perform to their usual standards and subsequently crashed to a 0-9 to 4-11 defeat. This was a source of huge disappointment to their passionate supporters who had helped to swell the Cusack Park attendance to over 6,000. At the interval, Garrycastle held a 0-6 to 0-3 lead but, in truth, they would have been out of sight but for three missed goalscoring opportunities. Dessie Dolan hit three of their first half points, with a well-marked JP Casey kept the challengers in touch from placed balls. The second half turned out to be an absolute nightmare for the first-time finalists with Gary Dolan's goal from a penalty opening the floodgates. The impressive Donal Ryan rounded off a brilliant move to score Garrycastle's second goal in the 36th minute before Gary Dolan added a third three minutes later. Points from Casey and Damien Doyle gave Castledaly a glimmer of hope, but with David O'Shaughnessy reigning supreme at midfield, the supply into the Garrycastle forward line never dried up and the Athlone outfit completed an impressive day's work when substitute Padraig Cosgrave scored their fourth goal on the stroke of the full-time. To their credit, Castledaly picked themselves up to qualify for another final - this time the Feis Cup - towards the end of the year. But, despite having home advantage, the green and golds succumbed to St. Loman's by 1-7 to 0-11 in a game which was immeasurably better than the championship meeting between the sides a few months earlier. Favoured by the breeze in the first half, St. Loman's led by 0-7 to 1-2 at the interval with Alan Kelly accounting for the Castledaly goal. The Mullingar side stretched their advantage to four points on the resumption, but points from JP Casey and Niall Kelly reduced the gap to two. Kieran Kilmurray restored St. Loman's three-point cushion before Casey responded with a brace of frees. Despite applying strong pressure in the closing stages, however, Castledaly were unable to conjure an equalizing point and, disappointingly, finished the year without any reward for their efforts. Surprisingly, Castledaly also failed to win any silverware at underage level with the under 14 side being pipped by Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall on a 1-9 to 2-8 scoreline in the 'A' championship decider. The north county outfit led by 2-7 to 0-7 on entering the final quarter, but a goal from Eanna Gavin left just two points between the teams. When Brendan Kelly followed up with an excellent point to reduce the deficit to the minimum, it looked as though Castledaly might salvage something from the game. But a late point from full forward Ronan Geoghegan ensured Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall of the spoils. The Castledaly team which lined out in the senior championship final was: Willie Glynn; Brendan Fitzgerald, James Galvin, Ciaran Henson; Derek Heavin, Kenneth Larkin, Enda Kelly; Russell Casey, Gordon Duffy; Alan Fitzgerald, Niall Duffy, Tommy Daly; Damien Doyle (0-2), JP Casey (0-4), Niall Kelly (0-2). Subs used: MJ McLoughlin (0-1), Joe Casey, Sean Connell and Alan Duffy. 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