Damian Freeman reflects on Magheracloone’s most famous day when they won their one and only Monaghan Senior crown

By Shaun Casey

THE first one is always the most important one. The first one, can never be repeated again. No matter how many trophies will be welcomed home to Magheracloone in the future, it’ll never match the first one.

A strong batch of talented players all came together to create history for the club and put Magheracloone on the map in 2004. They’d lost the county final after a replay in 2002, their first appearance in the showpiece, but more than made up for it two years later.

In 2004, Magheracloone became the most recent first-time winners of the Monaghan Senior Championship title and had to battle their way towards the Mick Duffy Cup. And it was all worth it in the end.

The Mitchell’s were never going to be stopped. While they had Scotstown, the leader in the Monaghan roll of honour, standing in their way, there was only going to be one winner on that fateful day in St Tiernach’s Park.

Monaghan stalwart Damien Freeman, more known for his roaming runs forward as a wing-back in the blue and white, played on the edge of Magheracloone’s attacking square and linked up brilliantly with his younger brother Tommy.

Cousin Bernard was among the backs as well and the Freeman clan perfectly represented the two groups of players that aligned to make everything possible.

“Anytime you win anything with family members or friends, it’s great,” explained Freeman, who kicked 0-1 in the final.

“It’s a bit different now, because all you really had back then was football and you went to school with all these boys in one parish. You had a great understanding of where to be on the pitch.

“I knew where Tommy was on the ball and Tommy knew where I was on the ball. Even if he went to run a different way first, I would have known he was going to turn back the other way and he was the same with me.

“When we first came on the scene, we were up and down between intermediate and senior and then we got a good group of players together. We brought through two sets of players at the one point and that made it easy.

“We won a senior league title in ‘99 and we lost out narrowly after a replay to Clontibret in 2002 (championship final). It was heartbreaking because we felt we had it and let it go.

“But we were building from the ‘99 where you had my generation of Paul Jones, Padraig Kelly, Bernard Freeman, Donal Kindlon and then you had Tommy’s batch coming at that time as well.

“You had Paudie (Finnegan), Tommy, Frankie Dougan, Fintan Kindlon, Shane Duffy. It was driven within that group of players to try and succeed.”

Freeman says the players harboured an inner drive that ultimately propelled them to their historic Senior Championship triumph.

“I know when we went up, as is always the case, the first thing we wanted to do was survive in senior football and after that initial first year of going up, we got a taste of the league, and we wanted to drive on and get that Senior Championship.

“We had a good base around us and then it was just driven on from within the team. I think that’s where all success comes from, – when you have a driven team and that’s basically what happened.”

While Scotstown are the dominant force in the Farney County these days, back then, the glory days were more spread out. As Freeman testifies, there were at least five teams that fancied their chances of landing championship silver.

“We just wanted to get that championship so badly and everyone put everything into it. We achieved that goal and got that county title, and we definitely deserved it. In that era, any one of five teams possibly were in with a shout to winning it every year.

“You had Latton, Clontibret, Castleblayney, Scotstown. Ballybay was coming as well so there were five good senior teams and only one of them could win it. Whoever won it really deserved it because you had to go to the very last minute of every game.”

That 2002 season primed their assault on the 2004 campaign; 2002 lay the blueprint. That experience was key two years on, and the players made sure that they wouldn’t leave Clones with any regrets like they did the first time.

“The build-up was massive in 2002 and there were possibly more nerves that time because it was our first final. That wasn’t the case in 2004, we were very confident,” Freeman continued. “We were playing well throughout the year and to be honest I don’t think we were ever going to lose.

“We were so ready for it and so up for it and every man knew what they had to do in the final against Scotstown. Every man stuck to their task, and we got through it thankfully.

“In the game itself, you just focus so much on what you need to do so it’s a blur, but the final whistle was the one thing that you won’t forget. It was fantastic, knowing that we’ve done it, and that the hard work paid off.

“The supporters came into the pitch, the older generation that was craving to see a senior title finally had their moment. There were some great men there and I think the biggest thing was the celebrations, they were really good.”

Unfortunately, the Magheracloone story is like plenty of tales told before and there is rarely a happy ending. As much as the club battled to grab a second senior title, that achievement heartbreakingly eluded them.

After their heroic triumph of 2004, Magheracloone reached the finals again in 2005 and 2006 but lost out to Latton and Clontibret before returning to the decider in 2010 but once again falling at the feet of Clontibret after a replay.

“Within the club and within that group of players that we had, we felt that we should have come away with at least three or four championship titles,” recalled Freeman. “We were very unlucky in at least two of those finals. It was just luck, that was it.

“There were a lot of really, really good teams at that point and you really needed that little bounce of the ball, that little bit of luck to go your way to get across the line and we just didn’t get it those years.”

He continued: “Maybe we didn’t put as much in as we did in 2004, I don’t know. in 2004 everyone was obsessed and maybe there was a wee drop here or there that you don’t notice.

“Clontibret beat us in 2002 and in 2010 after replays, they were really good games of football, but Clontibret just got that bounce of the ball and there’s nothing you can do about it.

“It is a sore point. The consolation to that is that we got a couple of Senior League titles to make up for it, and they weren’t easy won back then because it was an 18-game league, home and away, and we finished in the top two or three and top sometimes for a number of years.”

Reflecting on whether his playing days were overall a success, he said: “When you think about it, we won one Senior Championship and three Senior League titles, it’s not bad but definitely the championship ones that got away are still a sore point to this day, it definitely is.”

Freeman was retired by the time Magheracloone hit the headlines again in 2019. Demoted to Intermediate, the Mitchell’s rallied and won the Monaghan Championship before going all the way in Ulster as well.

They were the northern provinces representatives on the national stage that season, but they came up short in Croke Park against Galway opponents Oughterard in the All-Ireland final, with 10 points separating the sides in the end.

Fast-forward to 2024 and Magheracloone are back in the Intermediate grading, but have their eyes set on returning to the dizzy heights of 20 years ago in the not-too-distant future.

“It was a good run, and it brought a bit of buzz back to the club,” Freeman added of the 2019 campaign. “But ultimately, the club wants to be senior and stay senior and be back to a dominant senior team at that.

“There are a couple of groups of players coming again but they’ll be fighting their way out of intermediate and then have to do the work again to consolidate their place within the senior ranks.”