Athlone's anniversary incentive
April 01, 2010Joe Fallon still can't believe 12 years have slipped by since Athlone last tasted senior championship glory. Then a rising star of Westmeath football, Fallon was among the goals as the Shannonsiders defeated Coralstown/Kinnegad to claim their 20th senior crown. But since then, it has been nothing but frustration for the former county sharpshooter as far as his club career is concerned.
"Myself, Paul Mullen and Fergal Murray were all under 21 at the time and we probably thought we would be winning county championship every couple of years," he reflects.
"We've now gone 12 years without winning a championship, which is one of the longest stretches in our history, and that isn't acceptable for a club of Athlone's size, tradition and history. The closest we came was in 1993 when The Downs beat us in the county final after a replay. And we haven't been at the races in the last few years."
Fallon, who won All-Ireland under 21 and Leinster senior championship medals during a distinguished inter-county career, says Athlone had high hopes of breaking their duck last year but, after a promising start to the championship, they failed to make it beyond the group stage for the fifth year in succession.
"We had high expectations for last season and that was partly due to the fact that Brendan Clarke was back as manager. He won senior championships with us in 1988 and '98, and everyone was hoping that he would be able to repeat the trick again last year.
"But after beating St. Malachy's and Coralstown/Kinnegad in our first two games, we lost our next three and missed out on a place in the knockout stages for the fifth year in-a-row. It's very frustrating because we know we are good enough to be at least playing in quarter-finals and semi-finals. I think we have been underachieving quite a bit," he adds.
The Shannonsiders made an ideal start to the championship when they overcame St. Malachy's by 3-8 to 0-9 at Moate's Hogan Park. In an ill-tempered affair which saw both teams finish with 14 players, Fallon opened the scoring from a close-in free before the same player slotted over a 45. Mickey Greene made it 0-3 to 0-0 before Ronan Whelan got St. Malachy's off the mark. But almost immediately, Greene netted at the opposite end and Athlone went into the break leading by 1-4 to 0-4.
Athlone extended their advantage to seven points on the resumption when a Tom Stuart-Trainor goal was followed by another Fallon point.
Malachy's got to within three points before points from Fallon and John Connellan pushed the margin out again. And Athlone finished in style when young John Egan bagged their third goal.
Athlone produced their best performance of the year in defeating county semi-finalists Coralstown/Kinnegad by 1-12 to 0-10 in their second outing at Moate. Brendan Clarke's men were a little fortunate to find themselves 0-5 to 0-4 in front at the break after Kinnegad had kicked a number of wides and Alan Giles had a 25th minute penalty saved by Richie Daly.
However, Athlone were much improved after the restart - helped in no small part by the introduction of Martin Keena and Alan Gaughan - and increased their lead when Mickey Greene drove the ball to the roof of the net in the 35th minute.
Colm Coyle's Kinnegad reduced the deficit to two points, only for Athlone to respond with four unanswered points in an eight-minute spell from Fallon (two) and Connellan (two). Kinnegad again closed the gap before Fallon sealed the win with his fifth point in the dying moments.
All of a sudden, Athlone were being spoken of as championship contenders, but their season took a turn for the worst when Tyrrellspass inflicted the first of three successive defeats on them. The Shannonsiders once again started brightly with John Connellan kicking two points inside the opening five minutes, but then disaster struck when goalkeeper Richie Daly and midfielder James Tobin both went for the same ball, leaving Tyrrellspass' Tim O'Regan with the simple task of palming into an empty net from just three yards out.
Athlone quickly regained the lead through points from Connellan and Paul Bannon, but they wouldn't score again until the third minute of the second half. In the intervening period, Tyrrellspass added 1-3 with their goal coming from a David Glennon penalty.
Trailing by 0-5 to 2-3 at the break, Athlone scored the first three points of the second half per Connellan, Alan Gaughan and Mickey Greene to reduce the margin to two. David Glennon put a goal between the sides again before Connellan hit two more points to leave the minimum in it.
When Richie Daly made a brilliant double save, firstly from David Glennon's penalty and then from Ronan Dunbar's follow-up, the omens looked good for Athlone. It remained a one-point game until the closing minutes when John Corcoran and Philip Sheridan both found the target for Tyrrellspass to give them a 2-7 to 0-10 win. To compound matters for Athlone, county player Dermot Bannon was stretchered off with a serious knee injury which ended his championship involvement.
The Shannonsiders still had two bites at the cherry left to reach the knockout stages. But they didn't take either as they crashed to further defeats to The Downs and St. Loman's.
They were expected to overcome The Downs, who had failed to register a win up to that point, but the concession of a John Smyth goal just before half-time left them playing catch-up for the remainder of the game. Trailing by 0-4 to 1-5 at the interval, Athlone levelled through a Joe Fallon penalty before Dermot McManus put them in front.
But their lead proved to be short-lived as The Downs responded with scores from substitute Shane Power, Barry Conroy and Declan Lynam to secure a 1-11 to 1-9 victory.
A campaign which had promised much ended in disappointment for Athlone when they succumbed to St. Loman's by 0-11 to 0-16 in their final group at Cusack Park. Although they battled hard, Athlone relied heavily on the free-taking prowess of Fallon, who accounted for all but two points of their tally. The signs looked ominous for Brendan Clarke's men when they went into the break on level terms, despite having played with a strong wind to their backs in the first 30 minutes.
And with young guns John Heslin and Conor Lynam to the fore, St. Loman's gradually pulled away in the second half. A miserable day for the Shannonsiders was completed when full back Paul Mullin received his marching orders.
This year marks Athlone's 125th anniversary and with a new manager in place, Fallon is hoping for much better.
"The club is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, so that's a huge incentive in itself for us to do well," says the Athlone Community College teacher, who also writes a weekly column for the Athlone Advertiser.
"I'm not going to make any bold predictions, but it goes without saying that we'll be bitterly disappointed if we don't reach the knockout stages at least. The goal is to get out of the group - we're not going to look any further than that.
"We have a new manager - Malachy Gately from St. Dominic's in Knockcroghery - and he's eager to do well. But a manager can only do so much, it's really down the players at the end of the day and the effort they put in."
While last year's top scorer isn't sure what former All-Star Rory O'Connell's future intentions are, he confirmed that long-serving goalkeeper Richie Daly won't be returning for another campaign.
"Richie's retired, but I don't know what Rory's situation is. He's had a lot of injuries over the past few years, and it remains to be seen if he will give it another year. Richie will be a big loss, but the opportunity is there now for one of Scott Gaynor, Aidan O'Dea and Darren Costello to make the goalkeeper's position their own," he concluded. Tweet
