Polished Peter’s crush rivals
Counsel couldn’t live with pace and power of victors
A SLICK-MOVING St. Peter’s outfit delivered a serious statement of intent on home soil on Wednesday when they dumped arch-rivals Good Counsel out of the running for Top Oil Leinster Schools Senior football ‘A’ championship honours with an eye-catching performance.
This knockout derby in the round of 16 aroused tremendous interest, but I don’t think anyone present in Power Park would have predicted the one-sided nature of proceedings beforehand.
St. Peter’s tore the opposition defence to shreds in the first 20 minutes, with Tomás Murphy running riot as he rattled home a trio of goals to push his side into a commanding 4-3 to 1-2 lead.
From that point onwards, all they had to do was keep their composure in order to maintain significant distance between the sides, and that was accomplished with aplomb to secure an away clash in the quarter-final with Coláiste Eoin of Stillorgan.
Good Counsel enjoyed an edge in most of the key derby games of the past, notably the Leinster finals of 1995 and ’96, with the former won after a replay.
And Power Park itself hosted one of the most memorable matches of all, with Philip Doyle’s goal for the Barrowsiders in the sixth minute of added time earning a 3-3 to 1-8 quarter-final success in their subsequent All-Ireland winning year of 1999.
Rarely, if ever, have I seen a Counsel team in such complete disarray for a game of this magnitude, and their inability to even raise a gallop against such familiar opposition was surely a huge source of disappointment to their mentors.
The absence of regular fullback Killian Griffin through injury undoubtedly disrupted their plans, and the initial ploy of starting Jack
Kehoe in the corner to keep tabs on Shane Pettit backfired.
The Horeswood defender is the team’s strongest ball-carrier but, even though he was moved swiftly to centre-back where he had more influence on proceedings, the cracks had already appeared.
Peter’s led by 1-3 to nil at that stage, and the quality of their attacking had to be applauded.
With Jack O’Leary drifting out towards the ’40, it left ample room inside for the pacey Conor Kehoe and the elusive Tomás Murphy to inflict maximum damage on their rivals.
The game was only 56 seconds old when Peter’s were handed a significant boost in the shape of the opening goal.
Luke Kavanagh picked out Conor Kehoe who cut in from the left before popping a handpass to the far post for O’Leary to palm home, and they never looked back.
Points followed from the impressive Conor Mahoney, Kehoe and a Pettit free before a struggling Counsel briefly managed to stem the constant flow towards their own goal, shortly after Jack Kehoe’s move to centre-back.
A foul on Donal Porter led to Cian Byrne looking up and picking out A.J. Redmond with an inch-perfect crossfield free kick, and last year’s top-scoring Wexford Minor hurler showed his prowess with the big ball as he slotted a neat shot out of county colleague Cian Byrne’s reach (1-3 to 1-0).
Peter’s showed no signs of being rattled, though, with Tomás
Murphy stepping up to leave a lasting imprint on the game with a three-goal haul in just over nine memorable minutes.
A turnover near midfield led to the first, with Conor Kehoe picking out the unmarked Blackwater lad who skipped by the despairing lunge of netminder Seán McCormack before knocking the ball into a gaping net from close range.
The Counsel backs seemed to be confused by their marking duties, and Murphy couldn’t believe his luck almost four minutes later when he was left in acres of space to collect a Jack O’Leary free and extend his side’s lead to 3-3 to 1-0.
He nearly completed the hattrick after collecting a Shane Pettit free close to the endline and making room for a half-hit shot that McCormack keep out with his lower body.
However, two minutes later the Peter’s faithful were chanting the name of ‘Mossy’ once again as he availed of the advantage played by Laois referee Tomás Moore to shake off a foul tackle and blast to the net as the Peter’s advantage widened to an amazing twelve points.
Counsel were clearly rattled, with the sickness suffered by midfielder Mark Kehoe in the lead-up to the game another factor that didn’t help their cause.
They did manage to steady themselves somewhat before halftime with points from a Cian Byrne free and A.J. Redmond, but Donal Porter had a goal attempt blocked before pulling another shot to the left and wide after latching on to a Pádraig Dempsey cross.
Peter’s remained polished and utterly dominant on the re-start, with Conor Kehoe set up by Zac Firman for an early point before Shane Pettit converted a brace of frees (4-6 to 1-2).
Counsel, now with wind advantage, were expected to make some inroads, and they did enjoy their best spell of the game between the 37th and 45th minutes when points from free-takers Rory O’Connor and Cian Byrne (two) were followed by an outside of the boot effort from A.J. Redmond.
The gap was still nine points, though, and it increased to double digits once again when Conor Mahoney kicked a fine score from the right before Luke Kavanagh picked out Jack O’Leary to make it 4-8 to 1-6.
David Cantwell’s first touch after his introduction produced a goal in the 51st minute, with Conor Kehoe and Kavanagh combining to put him in the clear.
He added a point for good measure, after Shane Pettit had tapped over his fourth free, with a weak shot on goal by Pádraig Dempsey at the other end kept out comfortably in between.
While Counsel did grab a consolation goal from Cian Byrne, after a driving run down the middle by Emmet Cullen, and Rory
O’Connor finished the scoring with a neat point, this was a dismal day for the losers whose dual players will now focus exclusively on the Leinster semi-final against St. Kieran’s (Kilkenny).
Conversely, Peter’s are out of the running in the small ball code, so they will be going all out to overcome the stiff challenge that Coláiste Eoin will present in Ballyboden this Wednesday. The winners will play St. Joseph’s (Rochfortbridge) or the combined Louth Schools in the Leinster semi-final on February 29.
St. Peter’s: Cian Byrne (St. Mary’s, Rosslare); Diarmuid O’Leary (St. Martin’s), James O’Leary (Our Lady’s Island), Stuart Hession (Volunteers); Zac Firman (St. Martin’s), Leigh Newport (Our Lady’s Island), Leigh Whelan (Ballyhogue); Liam Schokman (St. Anne’s), Conor Mahoney (Glynn-Barntown, 0-2); Justin Moran (St. Anne’s), Tomás Murphy (Blackwater, 3-0), Luke Kavanagh (St. Martin’s); Shane Pettit (St. Fintan’s, capt., 0-4 frees), Jack O’Leary (St. Fintan’s, 1-1), Conor Kehoe (Sarsfields, 0-2). Subs. - David Cantwell (St. Martin’s, 1-1) for Firman (50), David Codd (St. Martin’s) for Moran (55), Dylan O’Neill (Shelmaliers) for Jack O’Leary (55), Jude Bates (Kilmore) for Kavanagh (58), Seán Carley (Kilmore) for Kehoe (60+2).
Good Counsel: Seán McCormack (Bannow-Ballymitty); Páraic Wickham (Adamstown), Jamie Sheehan (Gusserane), Jack Kehoe (Horeswood, capt.); Conor Foley (Horeswood), Dylan Whelan (Fethard), Pádraig Dempsey (Mullinavat); Emmet Cullen (Gusserane), Mark Kehoe (Gusserane); A.J. Redmond (Rathnure, 1-2), Adam Sinnott (Taghmon-Camross), Cian Byrne (Fethard, 1-3, 0-3 frees); Rúairí O’Brien (Adamstown), Donal Porter (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown), Rory O’Connor (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown, 0-2, 1 free). Subs. - Paddy Whitty (Cloughbawn) for M. Kehoe (38), Eoin O’Brien (The Rower-Inistioge) for Wickham (39), Joe O’Sullivan (Horeswood) for R. O’Brien (39), Gary Porter (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown) for Sinnott, inj. (49), Stephen Dundon (Clongeen) for Whelan (52), Jason Murphy (Horeswood) for Foley (56).
Referee: Tomás Moore (Laois).