For the second time in four seasons, St. Mary's endured the heartbreak of relegation from the senior ranks in 2006. While acknowledging that it will be difficult for the Rochfortbridge club to bounce back from this latest setback, former All-Ireland winning minor captain Damien Gavin is still looking to the future with much optimism. Two years after they celebrated intermediate championship glory, St. Mary's, Rochfortbridge surrendered their senior status for the second time in three years last October when they were soundly beaten by Tubberclair in the relegation play-off final at Moate. After losing narrowly to county champions-elect Tyrrellspass in the first round of the 2006 senior championship, St. Mary's suffered comprehensive defeats to Coralstown/Kinnegad, St. Loman's, The Downs and finally Tubberclair to make the drop back to the intermediate ranks. Last year's results would suggest that St. Mary's will find it extremely difficult to repeat their 2004 feat of winning the intermediate championship at the first time of asking, but former All-Ireland winning minor captain and county star Damien Gavin certainly isn't without hope. "We bounced back before and there is no reason why we can't do it again," he offers. "I wouldn't be at all pessimistic about our chances in this year's intermediate championship because there is very little between any of the teams in that grade. But it's probably fair to say that we're not as strong as we were when we last won it three years ago." The Cabra-based garda points out that of the team that captured the 2004 intermediate title, less than half are still lining out for the club. The most high-profile player to leave them has been county star Damien Healy, who transferred to reigning All-Ireland club champions Salthill/Knocknacarra at the start of last year. "We've lost eight of the team that beat Bunbrosna in the final, so it was always going to be a struggle to stay in the senior championship last year. "Damien Healy has been a huge loss, as have Eamonn Gallagher and Dave O'Mahony who both transferred back to their native Maynooth. Alvin Mitchell joined a club in Wexford, but at least his brother David is staying with us despite his involvement with the Longford county side." Under the management of Ray Bradley and his assistants Ian Bradley (trainer) and Ray Gavin (selector), St. Mary's most creditable performance in 2006 came against neighbours Tyrrellspass in their championship opener at Castletown-Geoghegan. After falling two points in arrears early on, full forward Austin Bradley landed two frees to bring the 'Bridge level before points from Ian Cunningham and Damien Gavin put them in front. Tyrrellspass regained parity with a brace of Ray Sheeran points, but three unanswered scores from Derek Mulligan and Bradley (two) gave St. Mary's a 0-7 to 0-4 cushion at the break. But that was as good as it got for the green and whites who failed to register a score in the second half. Despite this, they remained in contention until the closing stages when points from John Corcoran, Denis Glennon and Kevin Connell propelled Tyrrellspass to a 0-10 to 0-7 win. That defeat consigned St. Mary's to the losers' group where they suffered further losses to Coralstown/Kinnegad and St. Loman's. Against Coralstown/Kinnegad, St. Mary's were facing an uphill battle after trailing by 0-1 to 0-6 at the end of the first quarter. However, a resurgence by the 'Bridge saw them claw their way back into the game and they had reduced the deficit to the minimum before Gavin Finn scored a debatable goal to re-establish Kinnegad's advantage on the stroke of half-time. The second half was never a contest with St. Mary's only managing two further points - one at each end of the half - as a hungrier, faster and most coherent Kinnegad team picked off their scores at will to run out comfortable winners by 1-15 to 0-7. St. Mary's needed to beat St. Loman's at Cusack Park to remain in contention for a place in the knock-out stages, but another sluggish start left them with it all to do. It took St. Loman's just 18 seconds to open their account through Kieran Lynam and the Mullingar side had surged six points clear by the 20th minute. The margin was still the same at half-time with Loman's sitting pretty on a 0-9 to 0-3 lead. Whatever hopes St. Mary's had of making a second half comeback evaporated when Benny Marshall scored the only goal within minutes of the restart. That score effectively ended the game as a contest, although St. Mary's responded with two successfully converted 45s by David Mitchell. But St. Loman's were never seriously threatened and were full value for their 1-11 to 0-6 victory. The threat of relegation was now hanging over St. Mary's and they were installed as red-hot favourites to make the dreaded drop after they suffered a 23-point drubbing at the hands of 2005 county champions The Downs in a woefully one-sided relegation semi-final at Castletown-Geoghegan. The writing was on the wall for St. Mary's from as early as the third minute when James Conroy fired past Declan Hogan for The Downs' first goal. The black and ambers had eased into a 2-6 to 0-0 lead before Alan Gavin eventually got the 'Bridge off the mark in the 16th minute. But there was no respite for Rochfortbridge who were completely over-run by their Luke Dempsey-managed opponents in the second half. The result left a shell-shocked St. Mary's to scrap it out with Tubberclair for their senior survival. Tubberclair were appearing in their second successive relegation final, having staged a late rally to deny Ballymore in 2005. And they looked to have another battle on their hands when scores from John McNamara, Ian Cunningham and Alan Gavin gave St. Mary's a 0-3 to 0-2 lead after 14 minutes. However, the remainder of the first half was dominated by Tubberclair who registered six points without reply to establish a commanding lead at the interval. A Robbie Kenny free after the resumption raises hopes of a St. Mary's revival, but Tubberclair remained in the driving seat to run out nine-point winners, 0-16 to 0-7. St. Mary's season of woe was complete when Austin Bradley was red-carded following a clash with opponent Niall Walker in the closing stages. St. Mary's league results also made for grim reading. They managed just one victory - against St. Loman's - and drew with Tyrrellspass. Gavin suggests that another spell in the intermediate grade might not be such a bad thing for St. Mary's. After all, the young team that ended the club's long absence from the senior ranks by winning the intermediate championship of 1995 has now virtually broken up and the team is currently in heavy transition. "A lot of new faces have come into the team over the past year or two and they have a better chance of developing as footballers at intermediate level than they would at senior. This year will be a good opportunity for us to rebuild. The young lads will be able to compete better in the intermediate championship. Being able to compete is a lot better than losing which was unfortunately the case for much of last year. "We're not strong enough for senior at the moment, but hopefully we'll put that right over the next couple of years," the 1995 All-Ireland minor winning midfielder says. Damien takes much encouragement from the great work that is being done at underage level at present, and singles Oldcastle native Eugene Coyle out for special praise in this regard. "There is now a big emphasis on the underage which is great to see. Eugene Coyle is doing unbelievable work along with a few others. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we had a very strong underage structure but it was neglected for a few years after that and we've paid the price for that at adult level. But it's great to see that it's now up-and-running again and producing good young players." Tweet

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