Dunderry GAA Club as I see it.

Theses last few years I have attended as many adult Dunderry matches as I was able to and have been so doing for many many years.
In the late 1990.'s  we had three Senior Teams in the Parish,Football,Hurling and Camogie,the only rural Meath Club to be so endowed until Blackhall Gaels joined us.
Theses last years we have just the one Senior Team ,the Hurling team and are getting it fierce hard to make the step up to Senior in Football as indeed are the Ladies at the Camogie.
I am full of admiration for the dual players who put so much effort and time and pride into  the jersey for so little reward at the end of the day.
On a personal level all my four daughters and three sons have played the Gaelic Game for Dunderry as long as they were able,reflecting the ethos of myself and my eight siblings who played for St.Brigids ,Blanchardstown in our day.
Before us again my uncles and grandfather's family played for Dunderry.My grandchildren are now involved.
So you can see the reason I regard the affairs and direction of Dunderry GAA as akin to a sacred trust that must be perpetuated in an honourable fashion ,
Getting back to 2016 the Hurlers were never going to win out as Kiltale are miles ahead of any other Club in the County and  were never going to be caught out by us.We did well to survive in 2016 and will need to be in top form in 2017 to stay up.
Our cause has been greatly hurt by the retirement of our Evan who gave it his all for the Club in both hurling and football since he was a teenager .He owes us nothing and has been persuaded to be a selector with the footballers for the coming year.
On the plus side two talented players Jamie Leavy and Tommy Conroy have graduated up from minor ranks and I expect good things from them.
On the football side in 2016 it was a case of so near and yet so far.We were beaten in a Final replay by Saint Colmcilles who went on to contest the All Ireland Club FINAL only to lose out to Westport.
Many say that we should have taken Colmcilles the first day when Graham Reilly got gate but I disagree.Both our Evan and Conor  O Shea suffered serious injuries before the replayed Final and I contend that their presence would have more than cancelled the full fifteen for Colmcilles in the replay.
In my view by far the most important player Colmcilles had in 2016 was the Rugby man Neill Ronan .who was the fulcrum of the team notwithstanding the many other fine players they had.,
Evan is gone for this year..Paddy Kenneally is again injured and Simon Carty is gone to the USA  for the year.Three huge losses and three men who were instrumental in last year's surge,
On the plus side Jamie Leavy,Thomas Conroy and Barry Calleghan's son Morgan have been added to the panel and Liamie Dempsey has has a long overdue groin operation and will be back in harness sooner rather than later,
And the lift that last years run gave us has made us believe in ourselves again ,an indefinable quality but one which is nevertheless very real.
The residual fitness we have as a result of last year's run will give us an early season edge but we will be the team to beat and everybody will be having a cut at us.
Here's hoping.
I have been either watching OR PLAYING Gaelic Games for over 60 years now and cannot understand why the Mc Entees have not given Stephen Coogan and Conor Farrell a chance at County level .They are good enough and deserve that chance..
On the Camogie front it is well past the time that we adorned the Senior ranks and it escapes me why we have failed to convert our undoubted talent into tangible  results.I fully expect this year to be the year but we will have to find more scorers than Aoife Minogue.