Glynn has faith
April 30, 2010To say this was a phenomenal achievement would be an understatement given that the club, which would be more traditionally known as a football area, had not competed at adult level for many years.
Club chairman and intermediate team manager Donie Glynn spoke to the Maroon & White about their success to date and he stressed that they were far from the finished article.
The general consensus throughout the intermediate championship last year was that the top four in the grade, meaning the four semi finalists would compete in a senior 'B' championship this year. Not many would have predicted that the Ballymore based club would feature in the last four, but that's exactly what they did as they produced some excellent results during the campaign and deserved to reach the knockouts stages.
Even though the format for this year's championship has since changed and Fr Dalton's will once again find themselves plying their trade in the second tier competition, Donie has no grievances with the hurling board's decision to scrap the new plans.
"We're happy enough to be intermediate for another year and it might even suit us better. This will be a big year for us and we're in with a great shout of winning the intermediate, so hopefully with a bit of luck that will be achieved," said Donie.
Even though the majority of the county was surprised by Fr Dalton's achievements last year, Donie revealed that a place in the last four was their goal from the outset.
"We were definitely pleased with the way the year went. We set out to at least reach the semi finals and that's exactly what we did, so we can't have any complaints."
The opening group game could not have seen Fr Dalton's facing any tougher opposition than championship favourites St Brigid's, who had narrowly lost the previous year's final.
However, the newcomers to the scene showed that they meant business and following a tough encounter, the match ended in a draw and sent out a message to the other teams in the campaign that they weren't to be taken lightly.
"It was great to get a start like that and indeed we could easily have won that match, but a draw was probably the fairest result in fairness."
Defeats to Delvin and Crookedwood were to follow meaning that Glynn's charges really needed to start picking up points in the campaign or face missing out on the knockout stages.
And that's exactly what they did with wins over Turin, Cullion and Clonkill, while they received walkovers against St Oliver Plunketts and Southern Gaels.
This meant that in fact the South Westmeath side finished a comfortable second in the group on score difference and more importantly claimed a place in the semi final against St Brigid's.
However, the Dalystown outfit proved a little too strong on the day and Fr Dalton's fairytale year had come to an end, but Donie and his management team were proud of the players' achievements.
"You couldn't fault the lads in anyway. St Brigid's had that bit more experience on the day. We have a lot of young lads in the side and eight or nine of them would have been on the minor championship winning side of two years ago.
"In fairness, the lads really haven't had a break over the last two years. The junior B final was played on St Stephen's Day in 2008 and they kept going until we were beaten in the semi final.
"I think the break will do them good over the winter. We've no one to fear at intermediate level. There are six teams in the grade and we know we can match all of them. We have a big enough squad and all the lads are very interested in playing hurling, which is half the battle these days."
The club are still developing their underage structure having split from their amalgamation with Southern Gaels last year. Donie admits that there is plenty of work to be done here, but stressed they are heading in the right direction.
"It is going to take a while to have the proper structure in place, but there is a group of people there willing to put in the effort with the youngsters and hopefully we will see the benefits of that in the near future.
"Last year, we felt that we had a very strong under-21 team, but a few lads let us down on the day that we played Raharney, which we lost by two points. It was disappointing that the lads didn't show up as we felt we could have won the championship, coincidentally Raharney did!"
So the 2010 intermediate championship will begin in the very near future and Donie feels that this is the biggest year for the club since their reformation.
"We have been making progress each year so far and we want to continue doing that. It is very important that we do so. There is huge interest amongst the lads as I said and we feel that we are good enough to win the championship.
"The main thing is to keep going and push on from here. The club is still finding its feet, but we're happy with the progression we have made. Hurling has suffered over the years down the south of the county, but that has changed and we hope that change continues for many years to come."
Donie will be joined on the management team by Pat Connaughton, Brian McCabe and Kevin McLoughlin for the 2010 campaign. With such experience in the backroom team, Fr Dalton's will certainly be properly prepared for the coming season and it would take a brave man to discard them as championship contenders. Tweet
