RONAN’S MOORE’ ARE THE MERRIER
AT 37, four years after quitting inter-county football, you might imagine Kildare selector Ronan Sweeney would have long since knocked club activity on the head.
Yet when Moorefield’s need has been greatest throughout the 2017 season, it’s been the big full-forward that they’ve consistently looked to for inspiration.
Back in August, the Newbridge side trailed Naas by three points and were down a man in the Kildare League final when Sweeney came on, scored 1-4, and engineered an unlikely win.
He was the first player introduced on county final day too when, reduced to 13 men this time inside 20 minutes, and after missing a penalty, they somehow conjured an even more important win.
But by far their most sticky situation of an unforgettable year came yesterday in Portlaoise when they trailed St Loman’s by six points with a minute of normal time remaining.
Two minutes later, having not got a sniff of a goal all afternoon, Moorefield stole possession high up the field and worked the ball out to Sweeney on the right who rifled in a goal, his first since that League final.
A couple of Éanna O’Connor frees then tied the game up before the Kerry man pulled a free attempt left, demanding another Sweeney intervention and a clever punch which redirected the ball to Kevin Murnaghan to tap over the winner.
Someone suggested to Sweeney afterwards that it was a little like coming from six down at half-time with Kildare in the 2000 Leinster final against Dublin.
‘We’d a whole half to do that — this was just five minutes!’ smiled Sweeney. ‘It was incredible really, I just can’t put it into words.’
Like Sweeney, manager Ross Glavin admitted he thought the game was up approaching the hour mark. Even the cup in the main stand was being hastily prepared with blue and white ribbons.
‘It looked dead and buried, let’s call a spade a spade,’ said Glavin. ‘But one thing that this group of players have is a belief and a neversay-die attitude. I know it’s easy saying that now but it’s no coincidence that they get these wins. The Portlaoise game, even though it was a lot tighter and not as much scoring, it still kind of looked like maybe a step too far but, again, they never gave up and the momentum swung for us.
‘I think they [Loman’s] lost their discipline in the last eight minutes. Their game management at that stage probably was poor having been immaculate for the first 25 minutes of the second half.’
As for Sweeney, five years his senior, Glavin praised him for a strong all-round display.
‘He’s been primed for today,’ said Glavin. ‘He didn’t start many games in the Kildare Championship, his first full 60 minutes of Championship football was actually three weeks ago against Rathnew in the semi-final so his body is coming right now, he peaked at just the right time. He was a big influence on kick-outs and possession in the second-half. Just a top man for us.’
‘The players are shell-shocked, I’m shell-shocked myself,’ said Loman’s manager Luke Dempsey who managed Moorefield to back-to-back Kildare titles in 2013 and 2014.
Loman’s trailed by three points at half-time, 0-7 to 0-4, but restarted with an unanswered 1-3, the goal coming from ex-Offaly forward Ken Casey, and they added a second goal through Ronan O’Toole in the 54th minute.
Their supporters believed the job was done and weren’t overly concerned when Casey was blackcarded in the 58th minute. But they tried to play keep ball in defence after that and spilled the ball to James Murray, Moorefield’s centreback, who capped a great game by passing to Sweeney for the crucial Moorefield goal.
Murray also won the kick-out that led to O’Connor’s eighth point of the day in the 64th minute, tying up the game at 2-10 to 1-13 and laying the platform for Murnaghan’s winner.
Moorefield, previously winners in 2006, will play Corofin or Fulham Irish in the All-Ireland club semifinals on February 17.