Maryland's senior 'B' and under 21 13-a-side victories capped a fine year for the Drumraney - based club.

Since their Celebrity Bainisteoir victory in 2008, the club have gone from strength to strength as they lifted the intermediate title the same year and then reached the senior football championship quarterfinal in 2010. A remarkable achievement for a club that has a small catchment area to choose their players from.
The fact that they failed to qualify from the group stages of the 2010 campaign was seen as a failure, such is the high targets that all involved in the club have set themselves.
Maryland secretary Danny Connaughton spoke to 'Maroon & White' about the direction the club is heading and he epitomises the spirit within this rural outfit that has brought them to the top flight.
Drawn in a group alongside Coralstown Kinnegad, St Loman's, St Tubberclair, Killucan and Athlone meant that there would be no easy game for the blues, but as Danny explains they fear no one.
"We would fear no team no matter how big they are. Its only in the last few years that we have got used to playing the likes of Garrycastle and Mullingar Shamrocks and even though there are much bigger clubs than us, we would not be afraid at all," said Danny.
"Even before the draw was made, we knew regardless of who we got, it was going to be a tough campaign as all the teams in the senior are very strong."
Maryland opened their campaign against a Coralstown/Kinnegad side that had reached the semi final just a few months earlier, but undaunted by the task that lay ahead, Finbar Egan's charges set about their task with confidence and it proved effective as they recorded a 2-9 to 0-10 victory.
If they thought facing the previous year's semi finalists in the opening round was tough, then it was to get a whole lot tougher as Maryland faced St Loman's, who were the 2009 runners up in their next outing.
However, once again the side rose to the occasion and a sterling performance yielded their second win of the campaign. The final scoreline being 3-9 to 0-16.
Maryland were now on the verge of qualification for the knockout stages for the second year running with three games remaining. Nonetheless, a break in the club championship was to prove detrimental to their campaign. When the group stages resumed, Maryland suffered a three-point defeat to Athlone, before going down by ten to Killucan, while in their last match, Tubberclair came out on top by 2-12 to 2-10, which brought their season to a close.
"It was very disappointing not to reach the knockout stages, particularly after they start we had. There was great momentum being built and then the break came and it just didn't help us at all. We were also decimated by injuries, which didn't help our cause. The likes of David Reynolds suffered a horrific injury when he broke his ankle and damaged all the ligaments in it. He also had an ongoing shoulder problem, which he had operated on earlier in the year and he will miss the entire campaign this year."
Despite the disappointment of being eliminated from the group stages, Danny admits that it was vitally important to secure their status in division one of the league.
"You get used to playing the teams in the top division and even though they are usually understrength for the league, you can learn a lot from playing them. Staying in division 1 is one of our aims this year."
The club's senior team may not have captured any silverware, but Maryland were crowned both the senior 'B' and under-21 13-a-side champions in 2010.
"To win both the senior 'B' and the under-21 was a great achievement and just shows the strength in depth that we have. This was actually the under-21s second win at this level in four years and both wins were ironically against Coralstown/Kinnegad."
Having held the lead for the greater portion of an entertaining Westmeath Under 21 (13-a-side) FC final, Maryland deservedly took the title at its conclusion - but not before they had to endure a last quarter bombardment from a heroic Coralstown/Kinnegad side.
The reds revival in fact shot them ahead briefly as the minutes ticked down. However, a brilliant Kieran Martin goal, just on the 60th minute, ultimately secured victory for the Drumraney lads, who survived further Reds pressure in the three minutes of injury time allowed by referee Mick McAdden, ensuring that the honours rested with the South Westmeath club.
The senior 'B' side had a much easier game to take the title as they defeated St Malachy's by 4-10 to 0-4. The goals came from Kieran Egan (2), Thomas Browne and Joe Harte.
After a poor first half, in which it took fourteen minutes for the first Maryland score to arrive and a further fifteen for Malachy's to get off the mark, the home side blitzed their opponents in the second with three goals in four minutes to put the game beyond reach.
St. Malachy's had no answer to the scoring power of Maryland with the highly effective full-forward line of Joe Harte, Stephen Martin and Kieran Egan finishing the game with a combined total of 3-6.
Emigration is a problem that has hit every club in the country and the rural ones more so. The Drumraney outfit are no different as they have lost three key players due to this scenario.
"Ronan Moran, John Cunningham and Eoin Farrell have all left the country. Ronan and Eoin are gone travelling, while John is working in Germany and they will be a big loss to us.
"However, we do feel that we have the players to come in and pick up where those lads left off. Our aim this year is to reach the knockout stages, but for the time being we won't be looking beyond the first round match against Bunbrosna."
For this year's campaign, Maryland have turned to Longford native Mickey Harkin to manage them following Finbar Egan's decision to step down from the position.
Egan leaves a legacy behind that will be hard to follow, but Harkin has a wealth of experience and guided Abbeylara to the Longford senior football title in 2006, while he has also worked with the midlanders' under-21 team.
"Mickey Harkins has great experience and has done well in the past, and hopefully he can continue the progress and good work which has taken place at Maryland over recent years." Tweet

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