Kells youth swaps Meath for Drogheda United

DARRAGH McNamara was delighted to see Meath defeat Offaly to win the Leinster MFC final last week although he also felt more than a tinge of regret that he wasn"t involved when the winners paraded the Fr Larry Murphy Cup around Croke Park. The 17-year-old from Kells had played in Meath"s 1-14 to 1-9 victory over Louth in the opening round of the Leinster MFC championship. He subsequently left the panel when it became clear he was destined to take a different path. Just a day before the young Royals defeated the Faithful County in the provincial showdown McNamara signed professional soccer forms with Drogheda United. His contract runs until the end of 2009. For the previous few weeks McNamara had been training with the other professionals on the books at United Park. After finishing his Leaving Cert early this summer the final moves were made to add McNamara to Paul Doolin"s full-time playing staff. The young Kells man is the latest local player to emerge through the Drogheda Utd youth academy. Cian Byrne and Martin Clarke are others who have made the grade. A skilfull midfielder McNamara now has the perfect opportunity for any youngster to play full-time football, work on his game and see where it takes him. 'I was gutted to miss out on an opportunity to play in Croke Park,' said McNamara soon after he finished training with the Drogheda United squad at Mosney on Friday morning. 'I had a ankle injury so no matter what way you look at it I would have missed the game. I missed out but it was great to see them win,' McNamara"s footballing talents have been well recognised from his earliest games at schoolboy level and at one stage Manchester City had shown an interest. He turned out for Kells Celtic and was part of an all-conquering Shelbourne youths team that also included another Meath minor star Michael Newman, The teenager recognises he has a lot of hard work ahead of him if he is to break into the Drogheda Utd first team and that is a view echoed by club head coach Darius Kierans. 'We"re all delighted for Darragh. Since he came to the club, we knew we had a very talented player on our hands. But the hard work starts here for him. If he does work hard though, he can go far,' he added. While Darragh has been looking to improve his prospects on the soccer front his brother Rory continues to work on improving his golf. Last week Rory McNamara helped Leinster win the interprovincial u-23 title in Cork winning all his single matches. He defeated his Munster opponent 4 & 3, his Connacht rival 7 & 6 while he got the better of his Ulster counterpart 3 & 2. Now McNamara turns his attention to making his debut Leinster in the senior mens inter-provincial championships in Athlone in a few weeks time. Rory McNamara has already played for Ireland at boys and u-23 levels and he will be looking to make an impact at the inter-provincials and hopefully put himself in the frame for a senior international cap.