Having waited so long to capture their first junior championship, St Joseph's could have been forgiven for resting on their laurels in the intermediate grade last year. However, the Streamstown outfit comfortably achieved their objective of remaining in the middle tier. County star Brendan Nannery spoke to the Maroon and White about the year gone by and his hopes both for club and county in 2006. Having made his competitive debut for Westmeath in the comprehensive O'Byrne Cup win over Carlow in January, Brendan has established himself in the squad for this year. Despite being eligible for the under-21 for the next two years, the young St Joseph's player has packed in a lot of football having represented his county at most grades. St Joseph's entered the unknown of intermediate football during 2005. Placed in a group along with Moate, Killucan, Castletown/Finea/Coole/Whitehall, Caulry and Shandonagh, the Streamstown outfit were expected to struggle. Nonetheless, they are made of stern stuff down that direction and their performance against championship contenders Moate was to set the tone for the year. St Joseph's were forced to field without the services of the talented Nannery, who was suffering from a hamstring injury, but they equipped themselves very well and were unfortunate not to take something from the game. Moate's experience shone through at the end and the South Westmeath side had three points to spare over St Joseph's who could take great heart by their performance in their first ever outing in the intermediate championship. "Our aim at the start of the year was stay up. Thankfully, we achieved that, but maybe we should have went even further. We should have won a few more games. In the Moate match, the lads played very well and were unfortunate not to take something from the game," said Brendan. "Maybe that was down to a lack of experience, but hopefully we will learn from that this year. We have a very young squad and will definitely be looking to make the knockout stages." The Streamstown outfit were left with an uphill struggle when in their second outing Killucan inflicted a heavy defeat, although as the championship unfolded, this result was not as surprising as first thought. "Killucan were definitely dark horses in the championship. At the start of the year, you could have picked any of possibly five teams that had a realistic chance of winning the title, although in fairness Killucan would not have been one of those sides," added Brendan. Two games played and two defeats. A win was badly needed or the side faced the dreaded prospect of being relegated after just one year in the top flight. St Joseph's had to dig deep against a skilful Shandonagh side, but they came out with the right result as they collected their first two points of the campaign courtesy of a 2-6 to 1-7 win. "We were relieved after the Shandonagh match. If we lost that one, we were in serious trouble. We played well on the day and definitely deserved to win the match. It gave us great confidence when we won that game, but we were soon brought back down to earth in the next outing," revealed Brendan. St Joseph's biggest defeat of the year came against Castletown Finea/Coole/Whitehall as the North Westmeath side easily defeated the Streamstown outfit by 2-10 to 1-4. "We played very badly that day. Nothing seemed to go right for us and we were left in the situation that we had to win our last match against Caulry to avoid a relegation play-off." Caulry were the opponents in the last match. They too had struggled during the campaign and desperately needed a win also. The match was a tightly contested affair with both sides showing signs of nervousness in the early stages. However, it was St Joseph's who settled quickly and some fine scores by Aidan Lennon and Declan Nannery put the Streamstown outfit in the driving seat and they went on to win by 0-12 to 0-8. "It was a close match against Caulry and one that we would not afford to lose. If we had one point more we would actually have qualified for the quarterfinals, which shows how tight the group was. In fact, we did finish ahead of Castletown Finea. So that is a good base to build from for this year," he said. The forthcoming campaign will be a big test for St Joseph's as Ballinagore have come up from junior and are tipped by many to stay in the intermediate grade, but Brendan believes that St Joseph's have learned enough in 2005 to help them take the next step. "We only have one or two lads over 30 and the majority of the rest would be under 25. Definitely, last year's experience will help us a lot, but it will be tough. The intermediate championship is very even with a lot of teams in with a chance of winning it. "This year, we have the likes of James McCormack and Ronan McDonnell back. James is just back from army duty and he will be a big help, while Ronan has suffered his fair share of injuries, but hopefully he will be fully fit for this year's campaign," stressed Brendan. "It is not all good news though as Damien Lynam has emigrated to Australia and he will be a big loss, but with Aidan Lennon retiring from the county, he will be able to give more time to the club." Brendan also paid tribute to Matt Geraghty who has decided to step down as manager of the team after four glorious years in charge of St Joseph's, during which time the club enjoyed their biggest achievement. "Matt has done great work with the team over the last few year, but he decided that it was time to move and you have to respect his decision, although he will be greatly missed and whoever takes over will have a hard act to follow. Maybe, it will help us, only time will tell," he said. Having to choose from a small panel of players means that St Joseph's must rely on every player to make a huge effort throughout the year and in recent years that has been the case in Streamstown. "We would have a small panel of players, but everyone gives great commitment and numbers at training are always good. We are joined with Kilbeggan at underage level and have had success in the last few years, which has helped keep the lads interested." Brendan admits that his own game has improved since he joined the Westmeath panel last November and pointed out that the influence of Tomas O'Flatharta and trainer Jason Cowman has had a positive affect on him. "The training we're doing with Jason is brilliant, it is easily the best I have ever done and Tomas is very good as he can talk to players individually and he gets his point across very easily." Brendan Nannery is embarking on his biggest season so far and one that see him become a household name throughout the county. With St Joseph's genuine contenders for the Intermediate championship and Westmeath one of the favourites for the Delaney Cup, there could be a lot of celebrations down in Streamstown this year. Tweet

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