Mochta’s win IFC title against the Fechin’s
CTI Business Solutions IFC Final RUMOURS of the death of Gaelic football are greatly exaggerated.
Some of the doomsday merchants have already penned the epitaphs, but maybe they just need to get out more, because the old girl was alive and kicking in The Grove on Sunday.
On a sun-kissed and almost balmy afternoon in mid-October the entire villages of Louth and Termonfeckin seemed to descend on the O’Connell’s superbly appointed arena.
The Fechin’s contingent may have left disappointed, no-one could say they were shortchanged.
It’s a rare treat in a final, but this one had it all - skill, quality, excitement, drama, agony and ecstasy.
Two teams that know how to defend, but love to attack, battling to the bitter end for club and parish.
Maybe it was a pity that one had to lose, but the winners were more than worthy.
Seamus Flood will take up temporary residency in Louth Village for the first time since 1981 and, much more importantly, senior football awaits in 2019.
Winning captain Darren McMahon revealed in the build-up that the Mochta’s players paid very little attention to the championship draws last March, but you can bet your last euro that they’ll have their eyes peeled and ears cocked next spring.
On behalf of his colleagues, McMahon dedicated the moment of glory to a Mochta’s stalwart and dear friend Ken Meegan who died tragically and all too soon last year.
For very different reasons their thoughts will also be with Ciaran Byrne, who suffered what looked like a serious leg break just 12 minutes after entering the fray as a half-time sub.
If the former Louth underage and senior star looked a little ring-rusty last time out against Mattock Rangers, he was very much back in the GAA groove, kicking a wonderful point and posing a potent threat before his untimely departure.
Rumour had it the Aussie Rules convert was planning to come home anyway, so for his AFL club Carlton, the news of his injury will probably pale in comparison to the revelation that they could be losing one of their top prospects for good.
All of that is up in the air for the moment, but if he does stay put in Ireland this winter, there’ll be senior football waiting at the end of that long, hard road back from injury.
Everything we’ve seen this summer would suggest the Mochta’s won’t be out of their depth in the senior grade and there was further evidence of that on Sunday.
They made exactly the start Seamus McGahon would have wanted, lost their way a bit as Fechin’s came with an inevitable backlash, and then showed immense character to pull through in a dramatic finale.
Throughout, their county star Declan Byrne led by example, ably assisted by McMahon, Philip Englishby, Conor Garland, Stephen McCooey and Eamonn O’Neill.
For their part, St Fechin’s will rue that opening 15 minutes or so when they fell 0-6 to 0-1 behind.
Jamie McDonnell chalked off Darren McMahon’s opener, but Mochta’s responded with the next five points, Byrne with three frees and one from play and a point from O’Neill.
But if the opening quarter belonged to Mochta’s, their opponents eventually discovered their mojo and closed the gap to 0-8 to 0-6 at the interval.
It looked all over when Mochta’s rattled off 1-2 without reply in the opening five minutes of the second period.
Declan Byrne converted another free and then picked out his brother with a raking crossfield pass to make it 0-10 to 0-8.
Both sides will feel they conceded soft goals on the day and the first went Mochta’s way when Stephen McCooey cut in from the right close to the endline, appeared to lose possession, but somehow poked the ball past Niall McDonald to the far corner, 1-10 to 0-6.
It seemed unlikely that St Fechin’s could find a way back from that, but they rattled off four points, before Byrne’s injury, which triggered a 12-minute delay to proceedings.
But Fechin’s picked up where they left off when play resumed and hit the front when a Holcroft free was quickly followed by a Brian Devlin goal, which much like McCooey’s goal at the other end, looked largely preventable from a defensive point of view.
The goal came in the fourth of 15 added minutes, so there was still plenty of time for more drama as Mochta’s regained the lead almost immediately through Declan Byrne and Andrew English.
But the pendulum swung back swung back to the Fechin’s almost as quickly, Holcroft with his first point from play followed closely by another from his county teammate Bevan Duffy.
But it was Mochta’s who dug deepest in the sprint for the line as O’Neill levelled it, McCooey edged them back in front and substitute Ciaran McMahon added the insurance scorer with almost the last kick of the game.
ST MOCHTA’S: Jason Callan; David Lennon, Philip Englishby, Liam Lawlor; Gareth O’Reilly, Andrew English 0-1, Conor Garland 0-1; Darren McMahon 0-2 Eamon O’Neill 0-2; Barry Mulholland, Gerry Garland 0-1, Jamie Farrell; Declan Byrne 0-5 (3f), Stephen McCooey 1-1, Emlyn Clerkin. Subs: Ciaran Byrne 0-1 G O’Reilly (ht), Ciaran McMahon 0-1 for C Byrne (56), Danny Kindlon for J Farrell (64).
ST FECHIN’S: Niall McDonald; Conor Haughney, Leo McGrane, Niall McCabe; Colm O’Neill, Paul Matthews, Matthew Flanagan; Bevan Duffy 0-2, Brian Devlin 1-1; Jamie McDonnell 0-1, Donal Ryan, Joseph Corrigan 0-1f; Eoghan Duffy 0-1, Niall Devlin, Ronan Holcroft 0-7 (6f). Subs: Harry Haughney for P Matthews (38).
REFEREE: Stephen Murphy.