Ardee St Marys came desperately close to recapturing the Joe Ward Cup in 2003 but - somehow - the Wee County's most coveted GAA trophy eluded the gallant Deesiders Luckless St Marys couldn't have gone closer to regaining the Joe Ward Cup than they did in 2003. Well, not unless they'd actually won it! Alas, however, the Deesiders, who were celebrating their 75th anniversary, came unstuck at the very final hurdle in a manner than can only be described as extremely unfortunate. The Ardee side's run in the 2003 Louth SFC was nothing short of thrilling. To say that Jim Clifford's team gave their trusty band of loyal supporters value for money would be an exercise in gross understatement. For this was a championship odyssey they'll be talking about in Ferdia territory for quite some time. What a pity Lady Luck refused to smile on the Marys when it mattered most. It's very difficult to believe that a team could play NINE games in the senior championship and still have no silverware to show for their efforts at the season's end. It can happen, though, and St Marys' '03 SFC voyage is proof positive. The Marys went into the premier competition brimming with confidence. And why not? They'd finished the 2002 season on a tremendous high (in December!) by capturing the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup and also made an impressive start to the new term, reaching the final of the ACC Cup. Amazingly, they would go on to contest the SFC showpiece, which meant they had [participated in the final of all three senior County Board competitions within a storming ten-month period. After successfully negotiating the group phase of the senior championship (which hasn't been a formality for the Marys in recent years), the Ardee men went into the knock-out stage knowing they had the beating of every other team in the Wee County. A much-publicised dispute with the Louth management team - where the Marys appeared to get a very raw deal indeed - had served to further strengthen the team's resolve and determination. From here in, never-say-die attitude and pride in the club jersey would be the defining characteristics of the St Marys Class of 2003. In the quarter-final, Naomh Mairtin provided the opposition. The game went to replay before the Marys emerged with a comfortable victory. Two-thousand-and-two finalists St Brides were in the other corner for the penultimate round. The drawn 'semi' was the best game of the entire 2003 senior championship and (trailing by four points late in the day) the Marys dug deeper than ever before to force a replay. Again, they won convincingly at the second time of asking. With that result, the excitement in Ardee began to reach unprecedented levels and the busy mid-Louth town was soon bedecked in a sea of blue and white. The Marys were in the county final for the first time in six years and the enthusiasm of the region's GAA-crazy denizens was clear for all to see. Having beaten their peninsula rivals Cooley Kickhams by 2-0 to 0-5 in a freakish semi-final, St Patricks came through to meet St Marys in the concluding round of the '03 SFC. It was a game with a strong sense of history: Pats had provided the final opposition when St Marys last won the title in 1995 and this would be only their second ever appearance on the county's biggest stage. Furthermore, Marys coach Jim Clifford had actually been in charge of St Patricks for the 1995 decider. Now coached by Peter Fitzpatrick and celebrating their Golden Jubilee year to boot, the Lordship representatives were fiercely determined to exact revenge on the Marys, and to claim the Wee County's blue riband title for the first time ever. Marys, meanwhile, were gunning for their eleventh SFC and they were also celebrating a special anniversary - it was 75 years since the famous Ardee club's genesis. And the Marys could match the Pats in terms of hunger too. By Ardee's high standards, they'd endured a famine of late, with only a solitary county crown to their credit since 1975. The stage was set for a remarkable county final and the encounter did not disappoint. It was a magnificent clash, decorated with some stellar performances and heroic feats, in particular that of St Marys forward Niall Sharkey who fired an unbelievable return of TWELVE points over the hour. In the most resounding individual display of the year, Sharkey landed scores from all angles and distances, and, hardly surprisingly, the Ardee player finished the year as the SFC's top scorer. The most remarkable thing, however, about the county final was that the Marys didn't win it. Somehow, the Pats managed to come away from Dowdallshill with a draw and one could sense that it wasn't going to be Ardee's year. They were the better team in the drawn game. Pats' first goal was decidedly fortuitous and they trailed by four points with only a few minutes remaining. But when substitute Shane Hynes rocketed the equalising goal to the back of the net in the final minute (a shot the player himself subsequently conceded could have gone anywhere!), all Sharkey's and the Marys' good work came undone. St Marys launched one last desperate attack . the ball worked its way to Sharkey and he fired it over the bar. The winning score? Bizarrely, the referee had sounded the full-time whistle while the ball was in mid-air. Sure it happens all the time! The result completed a strange series of draws for the Marys, who had now drawn their quarter-final, semi-final and final outings. They'd also drawn with Stabannon Parnells the last time they appeared in a senior county decider, in 1997 - losing that replay too. St Marys never got going at all in the replayed 2003 Louth senior football championship final and the Pats went on to make history. A 2-11 to 0-10 defeat at gloomy St Brigid's Park on Saturday September 27th marked a most anti-climactic ending to a superb campaign. The term 'So Near And Yet So Far' springs to mind. The Marys were in Group C of the 2003 Louth senior football championship and kicked off their campaign with a fine three-point defeat of Clan Na Gael, 1-15 to 1-12, at Knockbridge in mid-June. However, their second outing the following weekend was a complete nightmare: the Marys were totally overwhelmed by Cooley Kickhams at Dowdallshill and lost by a whopping 15 points, 4-11 to 0-8. Still, the Marys were good enough to get their challenge back on track with a 3-12 to 0-12 defeat of Lannleire in Drogheda on July 17th. That victory was sufficient to secure a quarter-final berth as group runners-up. Dunleer was the venue for the August 9th quarter-final date with Naomh Mairtin. A late Nicky McDonnell point earned the Monasterboice side a second bite at the cherry: St Marys 2-8, Naomh Mairtin 1-11. It was a completely different story at the same venue on August 17th, however, when the Marys cruised to a 1-11 to 0-6 victory. What a semi-final we had at Castlebellingham on Sunday August 24th! The Brides and the Marys served up a veritable feast of football and, again, a draw was the end result. Five points on the trot gave the town side an early 0-5 to 0-2 lead and they were still three points to the good at the interval thanks to excellent score-taking from Niall Sharkey, Brian Sharkey and Alan Doherty. Brides went back ahead with five points in six minutes. The Knockbridge side led by four points with ten minutes left but a dominant late period salvaged a deserved draw for the Marys. The game finished: St Marys 0-17, St Brides 1-14. Again, St Marys learned most from the original fixture and the replay at The Grove on August 29th was a one-sided affair, culminating in a 1-9 to 0-4 victory for Jim Clifford's team, who had booked their first county final place since 1997. Ardee were hardly ecstatic over the choice of venue for the final - St Brigid's Park was the scene of their heavy Group C defeat to Cooley; it was just down the road from the Pats; and was also the site of both their quarter-final and semi-final victories! The first county final took place on Sunday September 21st and the Pats were fortunate to get away with a draw, as well as a definite psychological advantage going into the replay. The Marys were left wondering what they had to do to get 'the Joe' back. The Deesiders put in a tremendous second-half performance, with substitute Darren Clarke making a massive impact with three points from play, while the midfield exchanges belonged to Ardee and Niall Sharkey hit everything he went for. Three goals - including one in injury time from substitute Shane Hynes - kept the Pats in the game, with their return of 3-7 cancelling out the Deesiders' impressive tally of 0-16. The Pats started best and led by three points after three minutes. The margin was still intact at the short whistle, thanks mainly to a brace of goals from Damien Connor. But the second half belonged to the Marys. Sharkey scored for fun and impressive substitute Darren Clarke chipped in with three points from play. Leading by four points with two minutes remaining, Ardee looked on course for a famous win but a frantic late scramble saw the Lordship men draw level. The replay took place at Dowdallshill on Saturday September 27th, at 5.45 - hardly the ideal setting for the biggest game of the year. The Pats may have been lucky to get off the hook in the drawn game but made no mistake at the second time of asking. Ray Finnegan made an impressive start for the winners and his three early points were instrumental in the Lordship men's 0-7 to 0-5 interval advantage. The Pats defenders were on top form, restricting the Marys' dangerous full forward line to a solitary point from play over the hour. St Patricks soon led by four - and when Damien Connor struck with two goals for the peninsula side, the 2003 Louth SFC was over as a contest. The St Marys team beaten by St Patricks in the 2003 Louth SFC final replay on September 27th: Peter Duffy; Niall Carroll, Paul Malone, Hugh Diamond; Brian McCoy, Brian Keenan, Ronan Carroll; Robbie Keenan, Alan McKenny; Darren Clarke (0-1), Mark Leavy, Eddie Gray; Gary Quinn, Alan Doherty (0-1), Niall Sharkey (0-6). Sub: Dermot Duffy. Brian was so close to lifting Joe Had St Marys' heroic efforts in the 2003 Louth SFC earned the rewards they so richly deserved, the honour of bringing the Joe Ward Cup back to Ardee would've fallen to Brian Keenan. Speaking to Gerry Robinson, the '03 captain reflects on a year of ups and downs for the Deesiders and, even though it finished on a real downer at Dowdallshill, insists there are many positives to be gleaned from the season's ashes. 'Wee County 2002' had already gone to press by the time St Marys brilliantly captured the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup in late December, beating county champions Mattock Rangers in the final. It was a tremendous win for the Ardee men and clearly signalled their intent for the new season. The prevailing feeling in Ardee was that the team hadn't done themselves justice in recent championships and they went into the 2003 campaign determined to set that particular record straight. If they could win the senior league, then why not the senior championship? The Marys went on to prove over the course of nine senior championship outings that they are indeed one of the Wee County's top senior sides, going agonisingly close to reclaiming the Joe Ward Cup for the first time in eight long years. Even though they were certainly the better team in the drawn county final at St Brigids Park on Sunday September 21st, victory somehow eluded Jim Clifford's team. Off the hook in a big way, St Patricks made no mistake in the replay six days later. It was tough luck on the Marys. They had deserved more. Looking back upon the events of a roller-coaster season, team captain Brian Keenan admits that defeat in the replayed championship final was a real anti-climax: "It was, no doubt. Losing a county final after a replay is a tough way to finish off any year. We wanted this championship badly and everybody associated with the club invested a huge effort. It was agonising to see it slip away like that." At the start of the year, though, not many would've tipped the Marys as potential county champions. Bearing that point in mind, can the players draw a lot of encouragement from their performances during the 2003 season? "People are saying we came from nowhere this year, but I would have to disagree with that. We have now reached the last ACC Cup, Cardinal O'Donnell Cup and senior championship finals, so we're a form team. We are without doubt one of the best senior teams in the county and it was no surprise to me or to any of the players that we got as far as we did. But to go that far and not have anything to show at the end of it was very disappointing." The general consensus is that the Marys lost it the first day. They made little of the underdog tag and stayed with the hotly-tipped Pats all the way before completely dominating the second half. Marys led by four points with a couple of minutes remaining and - metaphorically speaking - Brian had one hand on the Joe Ward. However, a combination of factors kept the Lordship side in the game and they were very lucky to get a second chance. Once the Pats scraped the draw, many felt that St Marys' chance had gone ... and so it came to pass. Does Brian agree that the game was effectively lost on the 21st? "To be fair, you have to give credit to the Pats. A goal lead is always shaky and they pulled it out of the fire. People said they had the psychological edge going into the replay but it's difficult to say for sure - they said the same about us when we just about got the draw against Stabannon in '97 but it didn't work out that way and we were well beaten the second day. "Sometimes these factors can be overplayed and over-analysed. The bottom line is that we were as determined going into the replay as we were the first game, but it was our third replay in a row and this time we were well off the pace. Maybe we have to question the wisdom of staging a county final replay six days after the original game." Though not offering it as an excuse for their defeat, St Marys were most unhappy with the scheduling of the replay. Brian asks: "Where's the wisdom in staging a county final on a Saturday evening? It wasn't a fitting occasion for the final of Louth's premier competition and it definitely took away from the game. I think anyone who was in the gloom of Dowdallshill that evening will agree with me on that. "I know it's inevitable that a replay won't be as hyped up as the drawn game. The first day gets all the hype and there's a big build-up in the media ... it's never as glamourous the second day, but the County Board should be doing everything it can to ensure that its county final gets the prestige it deserves. Fixing the replay for a Saturday evening made no sense." As captain of the team, was Brian perhaps more disappointed than his team-mates when it became apparent that 2003 wasn't going to be the Marys' year after all? "I was devastated, but not because I was captain. Of course it would have been a great thrill to collect the Joe Ward but it was a privilege to captain the club anyway and I was delighted to get that honour. "I was more gutted for Niall Sharkey and some of the other lads on the team who produced amazing displays of skill and didn't deserve to finish on the losing side. I felt sorry for those players, not for myself. It was an honour to captain such a great team and I hope we can come back again next year." Brian has yet to feature on the winning team in the SFC. He was a sub for the 1995 defeat of St Patricks and was on the losing side against Stabannon in '97, actually receiving his marching orders in the replay! Having played in four finals without any joy, he's more determined than ever to play on a winning SFC team: "We're still very hopeful for the future. It's not as if this Marys team is coming to the end of its days or anything. Our minor teams have been very close to winning minor championships in recent years and this year they were beaten in the semi-final after a replay. It's heartbreaking for those lads too. When you think about it, we were only a kick of a ball away from a senior/minor double, so there's plenty of reason for optimism in Ardee at the moment. "Ronan Carroll has come through onto the first team and there are two or three others who could also stake claims once afforded the chance. There's a good string of talent coming through and it's a testament to the hard work and dedication of the underage mentors in the club. A lot of our present first team contested the 2000 minor final, so the team in general is still very young." Still, to the outsider looking in, the Marys were struggling for form and appeared to be in a bit of a slump up until twelve months ago - what was that all about? "We had a great team in '95 and probably should have picked up another county championship with those players. But once that side started to break up we were in transition and it's taken a while to get new players through. They're certainly coming through now though! "Great credit must go to Jim Clifford for the excellent job he has done since coming in. We were at the lowest of the low when Paddy Carr left but we have been in three senior finals in three months and that's a great endorsement of Jim's managerial skills. Jim has been a shining light to this club ... his integrity and loyalty to the players knows no bounds." Higher-profile managers were appointed in the past, but never got the same response from the players. Says Brian: "You can't help questioning the motivation 'outside' managers have when they take on a job. Are they really into it or is it just a means to an end? Jim has been absolutely awesome and he's a great friend of all the players..." The Marys were inadvertently catapulted into the headlines during the summer when their players were unceremoniously removed from Louth's senior squad. Not surprisingly, the heavy-handed tactics deployed have left a bitter taste in the mouth, as Brian confirms: "I can tell you one thing: the club had no need of motivation this year. As far as we're concerned the treatment of our players and officials over the course of the year has been nothing short of disrespectful and disgraceful. "I don't know what the County Board is playing at or why they want to alienate so many people - especially young men who can serve the county well in the future. Niall Sharkey, Darren Clarke and Peter Duffy are three young men who have been left totally disillusioned by Louth football and they've done nothing to deserve it. "The powers-that-be must have their own agenda. Traditionally the Marys have had a strong representation on county panels and we have backboned many successful Louth teams in the past. We have some super footballers at the moment and you have to wonder why they're not getting their chance with the county. "Big changes are needed in the county if we're going to move forward. The fixtures are a joke. We [St Marys - Cardinal O'Donnell holders!] still had a full programme of league games to play in October and there was talk of competitions being held over until 2004. The league is being treated with total disrespect. Louth didn't have a run in the championship and it was the best summer we've had in years for playing football and still the fixtures weren't played off in time." The facilities at Dowdallshill are another bone of contention for the man who captained his club in 2003: "Every credit to Dowdallshill - to the club and the groundsman who have an excellent playing surface in place. But the facilities there aren't good enough for a county final. There were four teams on duty for the final and the players didn't even have the use of a toilet! In this day and age, after all the effort we put in, that was nothing short of an insult. "It's no fault of Dowdallshill's, but where is the logic in fixing the county final for a venue without adequate facilities? Where is Louth football going? There are plenty of good venues in the county that could've hosted those games. St Marys have been criticised in the past for our facilities - which are now up there with the best in the county - but we always had toilets for the players. For the county final, we had to queue up with spectators to use a toilet..." From the point of view of health and safety, Brian has one other point to raise. The St Marys player is deeply concerned that a lack of adequate precautions at big games is going to result in a serious injury at a Louth venue: "They're going to have to change the rules regarding admission to the sidelines. The situation at the moment is ridiculous. A child is going to get seriously hurt or worse, because it's a free-for-all in there. "The linesmen can't do their job properly because they're completely over-run. As part of my work, I attend matches in surrounding counties and only authorised personnel are permitted onto the sideline. The County Board is squeezing an extra euro or 50 cent out of people to let them watch the game from the sideline but it's not safe in there. I hope they wake up before it's too late." A fully-qualified physiotherapist who runs his own practice from Smarmore Castle, Brian Keenan was pleased with St Marys' dramatic return to form in 2003 and is confident that the Deesiders can use their '03 progress as a launching pad to greater things. "It was a great year," he notes. "But we're a big proud club and we want to be winning it. We'll definitely be back for more next year! "The club was 75 years in existence this year and I think that got glossed over. We wanted to win it for that reason, to mark our anniversary." I put it to Brian that 76 is a nice round number too: "It is for sure! We have everything in place now and Jim has indicated that he wants to stay on and finish the job, so we'll give it another shot next year. It was great the way the people of the town got behind us and it won't be long coming around again. "Please God we'll bring the Joe Ward back to Ardee in 2004!" Tweet

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