Garrycastle's hopes of a fourth senior football championship success in five years were dashed when they succumbed rather tamely to The Downs in this year's county final. While disappointed with the club's performance, key forward James Duignan is confident that the Athlone outfit can bounce back in 2006. Garrycastle's unbeaten record in championship finals at adult level ended in bitterly disappointing circumstances on October 9 last when they were relieved of the Flanagan Cup by The Downs. After qualifying for the final without ever having to break sweat, the Athlone side were warm favourites to capture their fourth senior football championship crown in five years. On the day, however, they failed to come to terms with The Downs' ferocity and could have few complaints after succumbing to a 0-10 to 1-10 defeat. "You can't take anything away from The Downs. They had their homework done on us and beat us fair and square," says Garrycastle wing forward James Duignan. "They wanted it more than us and that was why they won. We didn't have the same hunger as them and we know that we let both ourselves and our supporters down. The Downs are always very difficult to beat when they get to a final and I suppose we found that to our cost this year." Duignan, who played for the county under 21s in 2002, rubbishes suggestions that Garrycastle had one eye on the Leinster club championship before they played the county final. "There was no complacency in our camp whatsoever. There was a lot of talk about us giving the Leinster club championship a good crack, but I can assure you that we never looked beyond the county final. We knew The Downs were going to provide us with a huge test and they're one team you cannot afford to take for granted." James recalls how the Garrycastle players were keen to impress the new management team at the start of the year. After leading the club to unprecedented success in the previous four years, Cavan native Martin McCabe decided to step down as manager and was replaced by Ken Kinihan. Despite his commitments to Leitrim, Dessie Dolan Snr took on a coaching role, while Ken Dolan and Tom Donohue were appointed as selectors. "We were all out to impress the new management. They left no stone unturned in preparing us and Dessie Dolan's training was complimented by a weights programme we were put on by Padraig Lynn from Mullingar. It certainly wasn't the management's fault that we didn't win the championship." The 'Castle had a relatively smooth passage to the final, winning all of their games in the group stages before accounting for surprise package St. Malachy's in the semi-final. It was against St. Malachy's that they opened their campaign on May 8, and they very nearly paid the price for taking their foot off the pedal in the second half when they Castletown-Geoghegan men came from nine points in arrears to lose by just two. Despite being forced to line out without David O'Shaughnessy and Gary Dolan, Garrycastle controlled the first half and led by 1-8 to 0-3 at half-time. On the restart, Alan Daly extended their advantage to nine points, but an Alan Mangan inspired St. Malachy's dominated the final 20 minutes, leaving Garrycastle relieved to hear the final whistle. Ken Kinahan's charges defeated Mullingar Shamrocks 1-9 to 1-8 in their second outing, but the game had a controversial ending when Dessie Dolan slotted over the winning point from a free which had been quickly taken but was called back by Moate referee Tom Duffy. Shamrocks were further infuriated when the final whistle sounded as they pressed forward in search of an equalizer. Garrycastle's title hopes appeared to suffer a major setback when Dessie Dolan was ruled out for three months after sustaining a knee injury while playing for Westmeath against Tipperary in an All-Ireland qualifier match at Semple Stadium. But despite the absence of their All-Star forward, the Athlone outfit moved another step closer to the knock-out stages when edging out Castledaly by 0-12 to 0-10 in what was a repeat of the 2004 county final. There was little to separate the sides throughout and it took a late point from Donal Ryan to seal Garrycastle's win. A brace of goals from team captain Justin McAteer helped the 'Castle to a 4-7 to 1-12 victory over St. Mary's, Rochfortbridge, and they made it five wins from five when comfortably seeing off a struggling Ballymore team by 2-11 to 0-7 in their final group match. As group winners, Garrycastle automatically qualified for the semi-final where they renewed acquaintances with St. Malachy's at Cusack Park. With Dessie Dolan making a surprise return to their line-up, the green and reds never looked in danger after Paul Dillon and Justin McAteer netted in the 16th and 32nd minutes to give them a 2-3 to 0-2 lead at the interval. St. Malachy's reorganised their defence for the second half, but the damage was already done and Garrycastle booked their place in the final on a 2-7 to 0-6 scoreline. The final was dubbed as the battle of champions, with The Downs having preceded Garrycastle as Flanagan Cup holders in 2003. In the event, Garrycastle were a huge disappointment and such were their shortcomings in attack that none of their starting forwards registered a score from play. By contrast, The Downs scored freely with Tommy Cleary and James Conroy being especially prominent in this regard. Despite having corner back Sean Loughlin sent off for a second yellow card offence 11 minutes into the second half, the team in black and amber was never troubled after Stephen Devine scored the only goal on the stroke of half-time. That left Garrycastle four points adrift at the break, having played with wind advantage in the opening 30 minutes. It was tit for tat in the early stages with Cleary and Dolan notching four frees between them in the first 10 minutes. The challengers then enjoyed a purple patch which yielded two more frees from Cleary and the opening score from play by James Conroy in the 20th minute. Three unanswered frees from Dolan levelled the scoring before The Downs made a decisive breakthrough in the 30th minute when a high ball in by Cleary was flicked to the net by corner forward Stephen Devine. Cleary immediately followed up with his fifth point of the half to make it 1-6 to 0-5 at the interval. Cleary increased The Downs' advantage from a '45' just after the restart before a brace of Dolan frees left a goal between the sides. After Cleary restored the underdogs' four-point lead, Garrycastle registered their only point from play through substitute Paddy Mulvihill in the 39th minute. But not even the dismissal of Loughlin could unsettle The Downs, who went four clear again when Conroy pointed. Another Dolan free reduced the deficit, only for Conroy to reply with an excellent score in the 57th minute. Dolan left a goal in it again in the second minute of injury-time, but The Downs defended resolutely to lift the Flanagan Cup for the ninth time. "Even though we won all of our games with the exception of the final, I don't remember us clicking into top gear at any stage this year," Duignan says. "We had a good 10-minute spell before half-time in the semi-final against St. Malachy's, but that was probably the only time when we played close to our potential. I think there was a definite lack of appetite in the team this year. We've been on the go since 2000 when Mullingar Shamrocks beat us in the semi-final and in that time, we've won three championships, three leagues and a Feis Cup. It's hard to be successful every year." Duignan is confident that Garrycastle can recover from this year's disappointment, pointing out that the average age of the team is only 25. "We're well capable of bouncing back, just as we did in 2004 after we had made a dreadful championship exit at the hands of Mullingar Shamrocks the previous year. Senior success came early for this team and most of us are still in our mid-twenties. There is another four or five good years left in this team and we want to win as much as possible while we're still able. "While there hasn't been many changes to the team since 2000, I'll be surprised if the likes of Kevin Hogan, Conor Cosgrove, Donovan Hambushe, Mark Fox and Mark Ruane don't come through next year. These young fellas are putting the established guys under a lot of pressure, so there should be fierce competition for starting places," he concludes. The Garrycastle team which contested the SFC final was: Cathal Mullen; Tom McHugh, Karl Henson, Padraig Rattigan; Doran Harte, Seanie O'Donoghue, Enda Mulvihill; David O'Shaughnessy, Justin McAteer; James Duignan, Gary Dolan, Robbie Fox; Alan Daly, Paul Dillon, Dessie Dolan (0-9). Subs: Noel Galvin for Fox, Paddy Mulvihill (0-1) for Daly, Donal Ryan for Dillon, Robbie Shine for Duignan. Tweet

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