Two-thousand-and-nine has all the makings of a landmark year for St Fechins, who have every chance of making progress under the guidance of new manager Tony Kearney. Enticing the former Wolfe Tones (Meath) boss represents a major coup for the Hoops and last year's captain Harry McArdle believes they can mount genuine challenges in both the junior football championship and Division Three of the all-county league. Arguably the best bit of business carried out 'close season' by any club in the Wee County was conducted by St Fechins in mid-November. The acquisition of Mayo native Tony Kearney as first-team manager represents a massive fillip to the Termonfeckin men, who have stunning facilities, impressive structures, some exciting young talent and now a top-quality manager to match. Kearney would make the 'Wanted' list of most clubs and at one stage he was a popular choice to succeed Colm Coyle as Meath supremo (though he opted not to put his name forward for that position). Before stepping down as Wolfe Tones boss, he led the Kilberry/Gibbstown club to unprecedented success including a clean sweep of junior, intermediate and senior championships inside four heady seasons and an amazing tally of 20 trophies all told. He's hot property and his decision to manage St Fechins in 2009 comes as a huge vote of confidence for the south Louth club. In 2008, the Hoops demonstrated decent form in Division Three but their championship campaign was something of a non-event, with just a solitary draw and four defeats from their five outings in the group stage of the erstwhile knockout competition. Twenty-four-year-old Harry McArdle captained the team in '08 and the corner back is looking forward to joining forces with the new manager: "It's an exciting appointment and I believe Tony can bring us forward. He did brilliantly with his previous club and he can guide us in the right direction. We have a good crop of players here so we just need somebody to come in and instil some professionalism into our approach. With a manager of Tony's calibre, we have every chance. If we can't do it this year, we have no excuse" There's no doubting the latent talent present in the club. The underage amalgamation with Clogherhead reached the final of the county minor league and the semi-final of the MFC, with three of St Fechins' younger players making the county minor team. Fechins/Dreadnots also won the 2008 Louth, U21 FC with a crushing 8-10 to 0-2 defeat of O'Connells/Stabannon in the final at Darver on November 28. And the Fechins collected their first silverware of the decade two days later by beating Annaghminnon Rovers in the Division 4C decider. They also contested the junior 2B final in '08. Not to mention the tremendous strides being made in hurling! Unfortunately, 2008 was a little bit disappointing. St Fechins' only championship performance of note was a 2-8 apiece draw with Naomh Fionnbarra at Drogheda on Sunday July 20, with Brian Devlin and ace full forward Ronan Holcroft firing the goals. That was as good as it got and merely served as an indicator of what the team was capable of, rather than resurrecting a campaign that had got off to a poor start with successive defeat to Stabannon in Ardee (1-10 to 0-9 on June 14), Glen Emmets in Dunleer (1-14 to 2-7 on June 29) and Lannleire in Tallanstown (3-10 to 2-8 on July 13). Following the draw with the Finbarrs, the Fechins closed their group programme with a 1-16 to 0-10 defeat to St Mochtas in the county grounds on August 14. Encouragingly, those first three defeats were of the narrow-ish variety, while their form in the league was consistently good and they were unfortunate not to force their way into promotion contention, finishing the year in a respectable position close to the summit of Division Three. The league was their main priority, according to the man who wore the captain's armband during the course of the season: "We wanted to get promotion and we concentrated on the league first and foremost, with the attitude that the championship would be a bonus. In Division Three, we were in the running right up to the third-last game against Dundalk Young Irelands, which we lost to a last-minute point when we were on the verge of forcing a four-way play-off. We were happy enough with the league but we had a really poor year in the championship, picking up just one point." How disappointing was that? "Very. Even though we focused on the league, we were still hoping to do a lot better in the championship. We hoped to get to a semi-final at least. A lot of the older lads have retired now and we have a very young team, with players who can do better than that. There were five or six minors on the team last year and it'll probably take a bit of time for those lads to settle in. But we're after doing really well at minor and U21 levels - with a lot of Termonfeckin players on those teams - so there's no questioning the ability of the lads who are coming through." As for captaining his club in his seventh season on the first team, Harry was privileged to accept the honour: "I was delighted to get it," he confirms. "We had a meeting at the start of the year and the players picked the captain and I was honoured to do it. "We have the best of everything in the club - good young players, excellent facilities and a good committee. Aidan Butterly, Tom Sweeney and John Savage Jnr. were in charge last year and they had us out in early January. They put in the work and we couldn't ask for more. "We're encouraged by the appointment of Tony Kearney. The fact that he's agreed to take over is a confidence booster for the players. I'd say he sees a bit of potential in us - I hope so anyway! We've had a couple of disappointing years but there's a new team in place now and we can start off fresh," says the dedicated clubman who helped St Olivers VS to an All-Ireland final in the early part of the decade. Looking forward to 2009, what does Harry see as a realistic target for St Fechins? "I honestly think we could do well next year. Both the junior league and the championship are very much there to be taken if we get it right. Neither St Nicholas nor Lannleire beat us in the league last year and that shows what we can do. We are well able to beat any junior team. "Our target is to win both the JFC and Division Three inside the next two years. We'd like to be playing Division Two and intermediate championship football three years from now." A magnificent renaissance could be just around the corner. Tweet

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