McEneaney targeting Division 3 title as season ends on a downer
GAA SCOREBOA
JIM McEneaney believes Louth’s next target should be to win Division 3 after a largely successful season ended on a downer in Owenbeg on Saturday evening.
At just 25, the Geraldines’ man is one of the more experienced members of Colin Kelly’s young squad and he feels that with a bit of elbow grease and some fine tuning, the sky is the limit.
I’d be going into Division 3 looking to win it,’ he insisted. ‘I don’t think there’s any point in playing if you feel otherwise. That’s a young team in there and there are some great footballers coming through in the last couple of years.
‘I remember coming through in 2012 and you think you’re there, but you still have a lot to learn and you have to commit to the strength and conditioning work. But if the whole group comes back stronger and fitter there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be pushing on to win Division 3.’
Saturday’s defeat seemed harder for the Louth camp to accept than the Meath loss six days previously as they led for long periods and only fell away in the closing stages when they appeared to run out of steam.
‘Meath were the better team on the day and that’s why we wanted to come up here and give a better version of ourselves. Maybe we did, and maybe the tiredness got to us a bit but they finished the game stronger. Games are won in the last 15 minutes and they pushed on.’
Derry did find a cou-couple of extra gears when the finish line approached, but McEneaney agreed that they had a distinct advantage over Louth in that regard.
‘They came in with four weeks to prepare and we had six days. It’s rough enough to take but that’s probably what cost us in the last 15 or 20 minutes, lads running on tired legs. We had subs coming off and back on and it needed that kind of effort.
‘When they were breaking and we were breaking, they seemed to be able to do it with a bit more pace and intensity. They were the better team in the last 10 or 15 minutes. But as I said last week the six-day turnaround is a joke.’
Derry’s blanket defence also made for a frustrating afternoon for McEne- aney who started in the full-forward line after finishing up there against Meath. Myself and Burnsie were in the full forward line and when you’re playing against that you’re trying to stand on the endline to create space further out the field. As a full forward who wants to win the ball and take a man on it’s horrible. I don’t think myself or Burnsie got a chance to run at our men in the first-half at all.’ While they adjourned a point up at the break, the Louth camp felt they could do better, particularly in attack. ‘We weren’t that happy in the dressing room at half-time. On the scoreboard we were a point ahead, but we had something like 15 offensive turnovers, we were just giving the ball away too cheaply. Our shot choice was poor and we kicked a lot of wides. ‘We went in a point ahead and we took positives from that but we weren’t happy with our performance in the first-half. We needed to be a bit more patient because Derry had a lot of men behind the ball and we needed to work it around a bit. We were all guilty of rushing shots or passes in the first-half.’
While the six-day turnaround was a major bone of contention for the Reds, McEneaney hinted that the build-up to the Leinster Championship could have been handled better closer to home too.
‘Things were going great when we won the league and we prepared for the championship as best we could. We were being dragged here and there by club league games. You want to play with the club too so it was a bit hectic, especially the Meath game and how important it was - well it was very important to us, I’m not so sure show important it was to other people. But then that’s what was dealt to us.’
McEneaney’s attention now swings back to the club scene and he was playing down Geraldines’ chances of Joe Ward glory.
‘My dad probably wouldn’t say that [we will win it]!’ he joked. ‘But we have to re-group and lift it now over the next few weeks. We’re going quite well in the league but the championship is a whole different animal and other teams will be looking to re-group and peak around now. We’ll just concentrate on getting out of the group again and see where that takes us. It’s a very tough group.’ Monday 20th June Tain League Division 2A Newry Shamrocks 2-20 Pearse Óg 3-25 Division 4 League Kilkerley Emmets 2-6 Newtown Blues 2-15; St Patrick’s GFC 1-9 Ardee St. Mary’s G.F.C. 1-15; Naomh Fionnbarra 3-14 Clan na nGael 1-9 Division 5 League Glen Emmets 0-10 Roche Emmets GFC 2-18; Sean O Mahonys 1-14 Dundalk Young Irelands 1-10; St Fechins GAA 2-13 Oilibhéar Pluincéad 1-13; O’Connells GFC 1-10 Dreadnots 4-14 Division 6 League Annaghminnon Rovers 0-10 St Kevins 1-15 The Argus U14 Division 1 Naomh Mairtin 3-6 Roche Emmets GFC 1-6 The Argus U14 Division 2 Kilkerley Emmets/Naomh Malachi 5-5 Clan na nGael 0-2; St Fechins GAA 5-8 St Patrick’s GFC 2-9; St Brides 2-2 Mattock Rangers/Hunterstown Rovers 7-11; Cooley Kickhams 6-13 Sean O Mahonys 0-2 The Argus U14 Division 3 Newtown Blues 2-6 O’Connells/Stabannon Parnells/John Mitchels 5-11; Geraldines P St Mochtas/Glyde Rangers/Westerns/Sean McDermotts P; Wolfe Tones Football P Na Piarsaigh/ Dowdallshill P; Dreadnots 6-14 St Nicholas GFC 0-5; Glen Emmets P Dundalk Young Irelands P
GAA Football All-Ireland SFC Derry 1-18 Louth 2-10 The Argus U12 Division 1 Geraldines 4-7 Glen Emmets 1-6 John West Feile na nGael Boys Div 7 Borrisokane 1-8 St Kevin’s/Mattock Rangers/Glen Emmet 0-3 John West Feile na nGael Boys Div 7 Shield Graignamanagh 5-5 St Kevin’s/Mattock Rangers/Glen Emmet