Looking at the results of the opening two rounds of the Dominic Smith Senior Football Championship, it looks as though we are going to have some big battles to secure a place in the knockout stages.
Two teams, Kilanerin and Sarsfields, have won both of their games. This must be a welcome relief for Sarsfields supporters in particular who have endured many nervous championship campaigns, including a few narrow escapes from relegation in recent years. In fact, 2012 was the last time they had managed to win their first two rounds.
St James’ be similarly upbeat about how they have started the campaign, registering a win over Gusserane O’Rahilly’s and a draw against Shelmaliers, both of whom are regular contenders for the title.
Nine of the twelve teams have registered a win, with HWH Bunclody, St. Martin’s and Glynn-Barntown suffering two defeats.
Castletown bounced back in style from their first round defeat to hammer St. Martin’s by 27 points, and so too did Gusserane with a seven-point victory over Glynn-Barntown. Naomh Éanna couldn’t back up their impressive first round form suffering a two point loss to Sarsfields.
In the Ashdown Park & Amber Springs Hotels Intermediate Football Championship, there have been 100% starts by Starlights, Horeswood and St Anne’s Rathangan. These three clubs are among the more fancied ones at this grade, as all three already no strangers to the senior ranks either.
Interestingly, they have each won the Senior football championship four times since the turn of the millennium: St Anne’s in 2000, 2001, 2012 and 2014; Starlights in 2002, 2004, 2017 and 2020, and Horeswood in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011. This accounts for 12 of the last 26 senior titles. I suppose it shows that for most clubs, success at the very top level is a sporadic, transient thing.
Looking further into the history books, St John’s Volunteers won nine titles in eighteen years with the last coming in 1956. At that point they had eleven titles in total and were five clear on the Roll of Honour, ahead of Starlights on six. It would have taken a brave pundit at the time to predict that they wouldn’t win another one for at least the next 70 years and an even braver one to predict that they wouldn’t even get to a final in that time.
Similarly, Ballyhogue won five titles in eleven years with the most recent coming in 1972 and Duffry Rovers won eight titles in nine years ending in 1994.
In hurling, when Adamstown won the most recent of their eleven senior hurling championships in 1942, they had won them all in a span of just seventeen years. They were dominant in Wexford hurling. At that time they led the Roll of Honour on eleven titles and the closest to them were Blackwater and Castlebridge who both had three titles. The current top three on the roll of honour, Rathnure, Oulart/The Ballagh and Buffers Alley, had a combined total of zero titles. Adamstown, despite that apparent dominance, haven’t reached a senior final since. Who would have predicted in August 1942 as the Adamstown captain lifted the cup in O’Kennedy Park, New Ross (then called Barrett’s Park) that 85 years later, they wouldn’t have any more?
If you are fortunate enough to be in a club experiencing success at the moment or with a great chance of winning, it’s important to be aware that you won’t always have a team as good as the one you have now. Don’t leave it until next year to go to their matches. Appreciate them now, support them now and savour the special moments.
If you are in a club going through a tough time, it’s equally as important to be aware that success may be just around the corner. Crossabeg/Ballymurn are a great example. When I started secondary school back in 2005, I got to know a few Ballymurn lads. At that time their first teams were Junior in hurling and Junior ‘B’ in football. Last year they competed in senior in both. So tough times don’t last forever either.
Finally, if you are not a member of a club at all, join one!
– By Peter Mernagh
