The undoubted highlight of Geraldines' year occurred at Dowdallshill on the afternoon of Sunday September 23 when the club claimed a historic 2007 Louth Minor Football Championship final victory over Dundalk Young Irelands. The superb 1-12 to 1-7 win completed an astonishing streak of success for this particular crop of players, underlining the Haggardstown/Blackrock outfit's reputation as the Wee County's most progressive club. At St Brigid's Park on the penultimate Sunday of September, the Geraldines minors - managed by county senior boss Eamon McEneaney - wrote themselves into the history books with a thoroughly-deserved five-point defeat of Young Irelands in the 2007 county MFC decider. They were the better side throughout the hour and reached the winning post with something to spare. As he received the Fr Larry Murray Cup, full forward and captain Alan Breen immediately dedicated the triumph to his mother Kathleen, who had passed away only eleven days before the final. The players had rallied around their grief-stricken captain and pledged to win the title for him and his mother - a gesture that speaks volumes about the togetherness and solidarity of this special group of players, who are on an extraordinary winning streak and look eminently capable of landing a Joe Ward Cup somewhere down the line if they continue to develop. But that's all conjecture and talk for another day. John Pepper, who along with Padraig Hamill, Seamie Breen and Colm Mackin, was one of Eamon McEneaney's selectors with the club's U18s, agrees that the minor win took pride of place in the Gers clubhouse in '07: "The highlight for the Geraldines in 2007, particularly at underage level, was the success of the minor team in beating Dundalk Young Irelands in the county final." The minor class of '07 created their own special piece of history in more ways that one, as John reveals: "First of all, they made history in that this is the first time a Geraldines Minor team won the minor championship as 'Geraldines'. On previous occasions - in 1995 when we won the minor football championship and in 2002 when we won the minor 'B' championship - we were playing as St Furseys. But in recent years we've used the same name for our adult and juvenile teams. So there's a significant sense of history to this win. "Secondly, most of these players have now won every county competition including championship and league titles at U10, U12, U13, U14, U15, U16 and now this year's minor championship winners are the same group that has been under Eamonn's tutelage since U10." "Thirdly, most of the lads have represented Louth at Feile na nOg over the past five years. Geraldines represented Louth in the All-Ireland Feile for four of the past five years, so most of our players have got a feel of what it's like to represent their county. A number of them are also on the various county Development Squads." After winning the minor football championship in Louth, the Geraldines began preparations for the Leinster minor club championship hosted by Eire Og in Carlow. On 17 November they had a comprehensive victory over Sarsfields, the Kildare champions, on a winning score of 5-9 to 0-9, putting them through to the Leinster quarter-final to be held in December against the Wicklow Champions, Blessington. All things considered, we are talking about an uncanny period of dominance. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most successful crop of underage players Geraldines has ever produced. "It didn't happen overnight," John explains. "Structures were put in place for underage development around 1999/2000 and since then a lot of hard work has been invested in harnessing the talents of these players. Our current juvenile committee under the chairmanship of Danny Gallagher is constantly striving to ensure that nothing is spared in helping our juvenile players develop their skills so that they can do the green jersey proud. We are fortunate to have such a committed, gifted and enthusiastic group of young players, and they have all worked very hard for the successes they've enjoyed." Geraldines GFC has been transformed into a veritable hive of activity, with huge demand on their facilities. A nice problem to have - but one that nonetheless needs to be addressed! "We have a rapidly growing population in Haggardstown and Blackrock and the Geraldines field has become a magnet for young people to come and participate in football at various levels from U8 up. We're fortunate to have a very committed group of mentors - including many former high profile intercounty footballers, who are dedicated to taking these young players on and developing their skills." "These include former club chairman and county player Paul Renaghan, Eamon McEneaney, Gerard Hoey, Bernie Murray and Eamon Dunne. With each group of players, there is a management team in place comprising a combination of former Geraldines players and people who have come to live in the area, joined the club and want to contribute to the preparation of underage teams." The minor team wasn't the only Geraldines underage side to impress in 2007. The U13s, under Lonan McDonald and Tony Taggart, won the 'B' section of the all-county blitz. The U15s reached the final of the all-county league but were pipped by a Brides/Mochtas amalgamation after a replay. And the U14s once more represented Louth in the All-Ireland Feile in July 2007. "The vision and hard work of current club chairman Gerry Reenan and his predecessors Paul Renaghan and Stephen Thornton and the work of a very industrious committee have resulted in excellent facilities in Haggardstown. We have a main pitch which is floodlit and which was upgraded this year with a sand base, a separate training pitch and also another area for training younger juveniles. The dressing-rooms have also been upgraded, but we'll soon have to think seriously about how we're going to cope with the increasing demand on these facilities. Next year will see our training pitch floodlit as well. "Success breeds success and we have increasing numbers of young people who want to play football for the Geraldines. The recent success of the county team has also been a factor and the dual role of Eamon McEneaney as county senior manager and Geraldines minor manager has brought prestige to the club. His presence was an incredible motivating factor to the Minor team. To know that they are being managed and trained by the Louth senior manager was a major bonus and instilled justifiable confidence in the players." So what does the future hold for the Geraldines? Can these young players transfuse their underage success into major adult success down the line? "I expect several of the minor team will make the transition onto the intermediate panel next year," John notes. "A number of minor players including Darren Carney, Gerard Hoey, Brendan Connolly, Cathal O'Brien, Michael Rogers and Jim McEneaney [Man of the Match in the MFC decider], played in this year's intermediate football championship with other minor players, Sean Watters, Patrick Hoey and James Craven participating in the league. "The ambition of the club is to win the Joe Ward Cup and hopefully we can make a serious bid in the not-too-distant future with the nucleus of the team that won the minor championship in 2007 and others who are coming through. But we can't afford to lose the run of ourselves. That's for the future. In the meantime, we have to knuckle down and do a lot more work. We're not competing at senior level at the moment so it's premature to be talking about winning senior championships. Our first priority has to be to get out of intermediate and that'll be one of the main objectives in 2008. While we are gratified with the Geraldines intermediate team retaining their intermediate status for next year, the junior team are to be commended for their success in winning the junior 4B league for 2006 which was completed in February this year. "A ladies team took the field this year also at adult and juvenile levels with the adult side managed by Tom Molloy, with selectors Audrey Lynch, Paula Hand and Brenda Rogers, making their mark in their first year by winning the Louth junior championship." Away from his club commitments, John (who serves as Geraldines vice-chairman) is also Liaison Officer with the Louth senior team, on the management team with clubmate and county team manager Eamon McEneaney. As such, as well as liaising with the County Board secretary, Pat Toner, this role involves John looking after team affairs by ensuring that the support infrastructure around player welfare, expenses, communication, transport as well as hotel accommodation for away matches is in place to facilitate the county players individually and collectively so that they give their best to achieve success for the county. Busy times, but thoroughly exciting. Geraldines, 2007 Louth MFC winners: Darren Carney; Sean Watters, Gerard Soraghan, Patrick Hoey; Cathal O'Brien, Gerard Hoey, Eoin Hamill; Jim McEneaney (0-6), Michael Rogers (0-3); James Craven, Aaron Smith, Brendan Connolly; Barry Hamilton (0-1), Alan Breen (0-1), Christopher Dalton (1-1). Subs: Johnny Breen, Ross McEnteggart, Stephen Reidy, Tiernan Hand, Kevin Pepper, Paul Molloy, Michael McKevitt, Christopher McGeady, Paudi Gallagher. Tweet

Most Read Stories