St. Mary's, Rochfortbridge were a much-improved outfit last season, but according to club development officer Colm Arthur, the senior team continues to underachieve. Whither the hugely promising St. Mary's team which powered to an intermediate championship success in 1995? It's a question GAA followers in Rochfortbridge have been asking themselves for quite a few years now. While most of the team are still there, the expected success at senior level has never materialized. Having dodged relegation in 2001, the 'Bridge showed a big improvement last year and were extremely unlucky not to reach the latter stages of the championship. But the sense of underachievement still persists. "When we won the intermediate championship in 1995, we expected to be challenging for a senior title in the space of a few years," says club development officer and former player Colm Arthur. "We had an excellent young team which appeared to have everything going for it. But, in truth, we haven't come close to winning a senior championship since then. That's eight years ago and most of the lads are now pushing 30. If these lads are to win anything, it's going to have to happen fairly quickly because time is no longer on their side," he adds. While most footballers don't reach their peak until they're in their late twenties, Arthur expresses concern at the fact that the top senior sides in the county at present have a considerably lower age profile than St. Mary's. "We should be at our best right now, but it's difficult to be optimistic when you see how young the likes of Garrycastle, Castledaly and St. Loman's are. Most of the Garrycastle players are only around 23 or 24, yet they have already won two championships," he notes. Arthur isn't without hope, though, claiming that St. Mary's could have a major say in this year's championship if every player is available to them. "We face two big problems every year when it comes to our senior team," he explains. "The first is that we have a lot of lads working away from home and it's difficult for them to give the full commitment. Our second problem is that we seem to be without our three county players (David Mitchell, Damien Healy and Damien Gavin) for most of the year. "When they come back to us after they're finished with the county team, they tend to be burnt out and find it hard to lift themselves. Some of the bigger clubs are able to get by without their county players, but we don't have the strength in depth to get by without ours. "If we could address these two problems, I have no doubt that we would be a much stronger outfit. I think it is vital that we make a breakthrough this year, not just because we are running out of chances, but because the draw is favourable." Under the guidance of Tom Mitchell and his co-selectors JJ O'Connor and Mick Dunne, St. Mary's made an excellent start to last year's championship when they recorded a 1-13 to 0-11 victory over Coralstown/Kinnegad. Ian Cunningham's goal had the green and whites 1-3 to 0-4 in front at the end of the first quarter, but Coralstown/Kinnegad battled back to restore parity at half-time. St. Mary's, however, regained the initiative in the second half with points from Aussie Bradley, Alan Gavin, Declan Gavin and Cunningham propelling them to a comfortable win. The Rochfortbridge men secured a second brace of points on June 10 when they overcame Ballynacargy by 0-12 to 0-7 at Cusack Park. With Adam Nolan, Barry Pierce, Damien Gavin, David Mitchell and Ian Cunningham to the fore, St. Mary's had built up a 0-9 to 0-2 lead by half-time. Although Ballynacargy improved on the restart, further points from Mitchell (two) and Cunningham sealed victory for the 'Bridge. Garrycastle brought St. Mary's winning run to an unceremonious end when they claimed a 1-13 to 0-5 victory at Moate on June 25. St. Mary's were facing an uphill battle after Gary Dolan's 24th minute penalty had helped Garrycastle to a 1-6 to 0-3 lead at the break. On the restart, Tom Mitchell's side missed a string of chances before Dessie Dolan shot the champions to victory. St. Mary's hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages suffered another setback when they succumbed to Mullingar Shamrocks by 1-8 to 1-17. Again, the 'Bridge were left to reflect on a host of missed chances, most notably from Damien Gavin and Ian Cunningham. Despite Cunningham's first half goal, St. Mary's trailed by 1-2 to 0-9 at the interval. In the second half, Shamrocks stepped up their performance another notch to run out nine-point winners. St. Mary's 1-11 to 0-12 defeat of St. Malachy's in their final group game proved insufficient to give them an automatic third spot as a result of Coralstown/Kinnegad's shock 2-4 to 0-9 victory over Garrycastle. So a play-off between St. Mary's and Coralstown/Kinnegad was required to determine which team would reach the quarter-finals. Having already beaten Coralstown/Kinnegad, St. Mary's had reason to fancy their chances. But the team in red were a different proposition the second time around, powering their way to a 3-13 to 2-7 victory. The writing was on the wall for St. Mary's when they found themselves five points in arrears inside the opening 10 minutes. However, goals from Alan Gavin and Ian Cunningham had reduced the deficit to three points, 2-3 to 1-9, at the interval. When Eamon Fleming scored a second goal for Coralstown/Kinnegad in the 39th minute, the game appeared to be over as a contest. But St. Mary's continued to battle away, bringing the margin back down to three points. That was as close as they came, though, as Coralstown/Kinnegad hit an unanswered 1-3 in the closing stages to secure a somewhat flattering nine-point win. "We were very disappointed to lose that game, especially as we felt we shouldn't have been involved in a play-off in the first place," Arthur recalls. "On all known form, Coralstown/Kinnegad should never have beaten Garrycastle. But they managed it and we couldn't really have any complaints when they beat us in the play-off. "Overall, though, the year was a big improvement on 2001 when we were involved in a relegation play-off with Kilbeggan. But we'll be expecting further improvement this year. Nothing less than a quarter-final spot will suffice," he adds. There was better luck for St. Mary's at underage level with the Clann Braonain amalgamation (St. Mary's, Tyrrellspass and Milltownpass) capturing the under 16 'premier' championship after a replay. Following a 0-11 to 2-5 draw with St. Earnan's, Clann triumphed in the replay by 1-9 to 1-7 with David Glennon's first half goal proving decisive. But despite the success, Arthur fears that there could be more lean years ahead for the 'Bridge. "I hate to sound pessimistic, but when the current senior team breaks up, there will be a bit of a gap until the next crop of players come along. We haven't been doing that well at underage, and while the Clann Braonain success was great, we only had a handful of players on the team. "Because there has been so many new houses built in Rochfortbridge lately, there's a perception that we are benefiting from the population boom. But that isn't the case. What we've found is that fellas coming into the town are staying with their clubs in Dublin. "Maybe in a few years, we'll benefit when the children of the families who have recently moved to the town start coming through. But, in the meantime, I think it's vitally important that our senior team delivers on its promise," he concludes. Tweet

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