The sunny side of the street?

A very long time ago, a well travelled Gael, who was, shall we say, a bit of a negative Norman, stated, in his own self promoting ‘learned’ way, “Townie teams are generally soft-centred, rugged country teams bowl them over and muscle them out”.

Naturally, being a disciple of a ‘townie’ outfit myself, the retort was quickly dispatched that Navan O’Mahonys’ status as the most decorated club in Meath football history gives lie to such hypothesis. Likewise with Trim in terms of hurling.

However, it’s surely worth pondering the fact that, prior to Wednesday of this week, there were two Navan clubs and one from Kells involved in relegation play offs. And, maybe most surprising of all given the expanded demographics of the area, so too were St Colmcille’s.

Now, in mitigation for the seasiders, it must be said that they were without key players such as James Conlon, Christian Finlay, David Bell and Shaun Leonard for at least some of their matches.

Add to that – and the following is only my own view – the stupid rule precluding minor footballers playing adult football at club level, and that ruled other emerging talents for the two shades of blue such as Eoghan McBrearty and Cillian Murphy. To name but two.

Somewhat ironically, though, players who were just marginally older than those listed above – Rian Earley and brothers John and Andrew Gormley played crucial roles as Gaeil Colmcille won the battle of the same saint at Seneschalstown on Wednesday night.

Moreover, the fact that the three players listed  in the previous stanza played such leading parts in the Kells club’s surprisingly simple salvation of their senior status would be a fair indicator that going forward it’s unlikely they will find themselves in such turbulence as much, or at all, in the years ahead.

Also, though it might seem strange this morning in view of the fact that they are facing in to a relegation final which could see them drop to the third tier of Meath football, I genuinely believe Navan O’Mahonys are actually not that far away from returning to the sunny side of the street. Hear me out. For the first time in what feels like a few years, representatives of the famed hoops have begun to reappear on county underage teams.

Thus, even if what not all that long ago would have been deemed unthinkable does come to pass, with talented youngsters like Sean Betson and Cormac Nugent, in particular, continuing to progress in their careers, it surely won’t be long until the Brews Hill footballing brigade are the right way back up the ladder.