First memory of Roche

Rolling down the hill in “Jack’s field” (the old Roche pitch) when going to Roche matches with my father when I was about 5 or 6.

Another memory I have is hanging around the dressing room waiting for a few sweets from Jack Treanor. Jack was a great man for a pocket full of sweets! A follow on memory of that is the smell of wintergreen (Deep Heat)... it was strong enough to knock a small horse!

Best day supporting Roche

Funny that I have no memory of the last senior final that Roche played in 1985 even though I would have been eight. However, I have vivid memories of the winning minor final the following year when Roche overcame the Clans in Dromiskin. As a nine-year-old, Paddy Durnin in goals always struck me as a real cool customer. Other good days out as a supporter were the two minor final wins in 1991 and 1992 before I played in the 1993 final.

Even though all the above were great days, the recent junior final win in 2019 trumps them all for me. What made this win extra special was the fact that I had my son (Dylan) at the game with me and I was able to celebrate in the clubrooms that night with Dylan and my father… great memories to have.

Dermot Craven coaching the next generation in Roche, including his son, Dylan.

Most memorable win

The minor final win in 1993 was my first ‘big’ trophy and that was a great day beating the Newtown Blues in Drogheda. Another win that stands out was at the other end of my playing career when we defeated the Oliver Plunkett’s in Haggardstown in 2011 to maintain our position in intermediate.

My most memorable win, however, has to be the Cardinal O’Donnell final against the Pat’s in Dowdallshill in 2001. It’s the most memorable not for the game itself but for what that win represented, i.e. being the most consistent senior team in the county that year as we also captured the ACC Cup (Paddy Sheelan Cup).

Hardest defeat to take

I’ll change this to the hardest result to take as opposed to the hardest defeat. It was the drawn match against the Newtown Blues in the semi-final of the senior championship in Castlebellingham in 2000.

I was made captain that year but, unfortunately, I was sick and couldn’t play that evening. One ambition I always had was to lead a Roche team out behind the band and ironically that evening there was a band and Paddy McArdle, who was vice-captain, led the Roche team in the parade around the field.

We played really well and when Gerry Craven fisted the ball to the net with time up visions ran through my head of leading Roche out on senior final day. Unfortunately, that thought was short lived as the Blues took a short kickout which progressed up the field and Simon Gerrard scored the equalising point.

I returned for the replay but we didn’t reach the standard that we did in the first match and were beaten.

Dermot was a junior team selected with Aidan McCoy, the late Peter McShane and Mickey Sharkey back in the day.

Biggest rivalry

Without doubt, the team I enjoyed beating most was Cooley and we had some memorable wins against them, not least the win in Dowdallshill on our return to the senior championship in 1998, when it was knockout.

The biggest rivalry over my playing days was against our neighbours, Kilkerley. We had some serious battles with them and games down in Kilkerley really stand out. Most games involved either a melee or some sort of controversy.

We also met them in the championship a few times. Derek McKeown’s winning point down in the Malachi’s would have marked a great win only for the referee to blow the final whistle as the ball was in mid-air, heading over the crossbar, and the game was called as a draw (horrendous decision)… as you can see, I let things go very easily…

Roche dream team

(I know I’ll get a few messages over this!)

Aidan McCoy; Kenny Gartlan, Ciarán Nash, Brendan Callaghan; David Quigley, Mickey Craven, Colm Callaghan; Martin McQuillan, Paddy McArdle; Kevin Callaghan, Gerry Craven, Martin Craven; Colm Reilly, Aidan O’Neill, Barry O’Hare.

Best player you played with

This was the hardest one to pick but, after a lot of thought, I’m happy with my decision. Firstly, the most naturally talented footballer I played with was Aidan O’Neill.

Secondly, the player that epitomised everything I valued, i.e. pride, commitment, passion, ability, inspiration and longevity, was Aidan McCoy.

But the player I’m choosing is Martin McQuillan. Different reasons ran through my head for not choosing Martin, such as he only played with us for a few years and the fact that he transferred into us from another club, but the man was ‘immense’.

He would regularly take a pass from Aidan McCoy inside our 21-yard line, play a few one-twos up the field and pop a pass to Kevin Callaghan inside the opposition’s 45 for a point. He was 37/38 when he played with us but was still one of the fittest players on the squad. He was also great with younger players, including myself, and had a few nuggets of wisdom which he passed on.

Some indoor coaching!

Dressing room joker

Kenny Gartlan and Mickey Sharkey. Both were liable to come out with anything and no-one was safe!

Toughest opponent

Playing in the full-back line a lot of the time in the noughties meant that I regularly marked one of Louth’s sharp shooters at the time. Without blowing my own trumpet, I felt that I always could raise my game against any of these (Ollie McDonnell, JP Rooney, Mark Stanfield, Shane Lennon).

I did find Niall Sharkey (St. Mary’s) to be a hard man to handle and he gave me a bit of a run around in different games. To be honest, I was more likely to get a roasting in a pre-season challenge match below in somewhere like Silverbridge marking a lad called ‘Speedy’ or ‘Jinksy’ that no-one ever heard of.

Your Roche in three words

Tradition, pride, progress.