Rosemount's confident hopes of making an immediate return to the senior ranks were dashed by surprise packets St. Malachy's in last year's intermediate decider. County star John Keane is hoping that the black and ambers will have the edge over their intermediate rivals this season. For the second year in succession, there will be a notable absentee from the ranks of senior football. When Rosemount were relegated after 72 unbroken years as a senior club in the latter part of 2000, it was widely believed that their stay in the intermediate championship would be a short one. But a shock defeat to St. Malachy's in last year's intermediate decider means that the black and ambers face another season without senior football. "We don't want to get stuck in a rut," stresses Rosemount county star John Keane. "Having been a senior club for so long, it was very strange to be operating at intermediate level last year. We expected to come back up but St. Malachy's stopped us in the intermediate final. Hopefully, we can make up for that disappointment this year," the 22-year-old adds. John, who is the latest member of the Keane family to represent his county at senior level, notes that it was extremely difficult for those associated with the club to come to terms with relegation. "Relegation was a very difficult thing for us to swallow. When I was growing up, Rosemount were one of the top teams and I can remember seeing them play in the county finals of 1989, '93 and '95. We still regard ourselves as a senior club even though we're not." Rosemount seemed to be on course for a quick return to the senior ranks until they lost to St. Malachy's. It has since been claimed that they took the Castletown-Geoghegan men for granted but Keane dismisses this. "We were confident going into the final but not overly-confident," the talented defender says. "We had played St. Malachy's earlier in the championship and had drawn with them. We knew it was going to be a very tough game and that's what it proved to be. Unfortunately, we didn't come out of it with the right result." With Brendan Lowry back at the helm, Rosemount made a winning start to their intermediate championship campaign, defeating Ballinagore by 1-13 to 0-8 at Drumraney on May 6. They followed that up with facile victories over Athlone (4-18 to 0-5) and Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall (1-19 to 1-7) before drawing with St. Malachy's (1-9 apiece). On August 19, they trounced Killucan by 4-21 to 1-5 at Rochfortbridge. Automatic qualification for the semi-final beckoned but the concession of a late goal against Milltownpass in their final group game resulted in a 0-11 to 2-6 defeat and they had to be content with a quarter-final spot. Maryland provided the quarter-final opposition on September 8 at Moate and Rosemount emerged as deserving 1-15 to 2-8 winners. With Cathal Keane in outstanding form, Rosemount had established a six-point lead at the interval. When Keane added a goal early in the second half, Brendan Lowry's charges were nine points clear. Rosemount had increased their advantage to a whopping 11 points before a Maryland rally yielded 2-1. However, it came too late to trouble the dominant Rosemount men. In the semi-final, the black and ambers were pitted against Ballymore. Rosemount played with the wind in the first half and were 0-7 to 1-2 in front at the break. Within three minutes of the restart, however, Ballymore had taken a four-point lead following goals by Dermot Farrell and Anthony Kearney. Rosemount refused to panic and a great goal from Damien Kelly had them back in contention. Declan Keane brought the sides level in the 17th minute but a point each from Louis Meares and Kearney had Ballymore two in front with three minutes remaining. It looked to be the end of the road for Rosemount but two late points from veterans David Keane and 'Jockie' Healy earned them a second chance. The final score was Rosemount 1-12, Ballymore 3-6. The replay proved to be another tense affair with Rosemount only emerging victorious after extra-time. The first half was a low-scoring affair with Rosemount taking a 0-3 to 0-2 lead into the interval. Ballymore had restored parity within a minute of the restart but with seven minutes of normal time remaining, Rosemount had edged two points clear. However, Derek Molloy scored two late points to force the game into extra-time. The teams only managed two points between them in the first period of extra-time, but Rosemount outscored Ballymore by three points to one in the final 15 minutes to book their place in the final. Despite their draw earlier in the championship, Rosemount were installed as hot favourites to beat St. Malachy's in the intermediate decider at Cusack Park on October 14. But after leading at half-time, Rosemount lost their way in the second half and eventually succumbed to an unexpected 0-10 to 1-11 defeat. Rosemount conceded the first two points but battled back to lead by 0-6 to 0-3 after 20 minutes. When Cathal Keane extended their lead to four points, the signs looked encouraging but Malachy's stormed back with three unanswered points to trail by just the minimum at the interval. Alan Mangan brought Malachy's onto level terms just after the restart but points from Damien Kelly (two) and Ronald Mullen gave Rosemount a 0-10 to 0-8 lead with 20 minutes still to play. Incredibly, Rosemount were not to score again as Malachy's took a stranglehold in midfield and proceeded to score 1-3 without reply in the time remaining. "It was a devastating defeat," recalls John, who lined out in his favoured centre back position. "When you go into a game with such high hopes, it's always harder to take defeat. I really don't know what happened to us. When you fail to score in the last 20 minutes, you cannot expect to win a county championship. "From a personal point of view, it was the most disappointing defeat I have ever suffered. When we (Westmeath) lost to Meath in the All-Ireland quarter-final replay, I wasn't as disappointed. At least we had achieved something in getting that far," he adds. Not surprisingly, Keane and his clubmates are determined to make amends this season. Brendan Lowry had moved on to manage his native Ferbane and, at the time of writing, club stalwart Tom Darcy was carrying out the training duties. "Brendan will be a big loss to us because he got the whole buzz going last year. Our heads were hanging after being relegated but in fairness to Brendan, he came in and got everyone back training again. "Tom Darcy is training us at the moment and he is getting a good response. We hope to learn from last year's experience." The NUI Maynooth student, who according to Meath legend Bernard Flynn has the potential to become Westmeath's greatest ever centre back, is hoping that Rosemount's continued participation in Division One of the All-County League will give them the edge over their intermediate rivals. "Playing the top senior clubs on a regular basis in the league has to be an advantage. But we have to perform in the championship. I think it's vital that we win the intermediate championship this year because it is only going to get harder the longer we are competing at that level." The Rosemount team which contested the intermediate football championship final was: Pat Fox; Derek Keenan, Tom Darcy, Raymond Keenan; Micheál Loddick, John Keane, David Keane; Des Collins, Declan Keane; David Mullen (0-2), Martin Loddick (0-1), Cathal Keane (0-2); 'Jockie' Healy (0-2), Damien Kelly (0-2), Ronald Mullen (0-1). Subs used: Paddy Wade, John Keenan, Andy Smyth and Jonathan Keenan. Tweet

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