Rockchapel ward off St. John’s to win Nevin Cup Group final
Rockchapel 1-10 St. Johns 0-7
ROCKCHAPEL ground down a stubborn St. Johns challenge to land the Nevin Cup FL Group 2 played under the Millstreet lights.
Though the sides met in a championship decider a week earlier, St. Johns landing a victory yet on this occasion, a stronger Rockchapel selection were expected to turn the tables. Yes, Rockchapel did record their first outright victory in the grade in 16 years but they were made to work much harder than many expected.
Steadiness under pressure emerged most in evidence after Rockchapel negotiated a sticky patch.
Indeed, the more experienced Rock side gained control and when required, they embarked on a holding operation to successfully complete a rewarding outing.
Rockchapel had got off to a perfect start, benefiting from lead points to Nicholas Linehan and Kevin Collins. Still St. Johns were clearly up for a battle, their forceful play yielded points from Brian Kelleher and John O’Mahony for parity.
As the game developed, Rockchapel pushed on, John O’Callaghan, Joseph O’Sullivan and Maurice Stack blocked the gates in a dominant defence with Jack Curtin and Conor Kepple picking up good ball at midfield. And Rockchapel held the better attacking combination with the effective Nicholas Linehan and Kevin Collins despatching a run of points to forge a 0-8 to 0-3 advantage at the interval.
St. Johns restarted with a renewed sense of purpose, growing in confidence from the efforts of Denis O’Keeffe, Pa Rohan, David Barrett and John O’Mahony. The trend of the game took a swing to St. Johns with points to Rohan, Peter O’Sullivan and Jamie Kelleher narrowing the arrears 0-9 to 0-7 at the three quarter stage.
But when the most searching questions were asked, Rockchapel came up with a massive response in the 47th minute. Good work by James Forrest found Jack Curtin in support, the latter fired home the game’s lone goal.
With the scoring rate drying up significantly, St. Johns battled bravely and manly to the end, their efforts just weren’t enough to save the outcome. ROCKCHAPEL: T Collins; D Keating, J O’Callaghan, D Murphy; J O’Sullivan, M Stack, S Curtin; C Kepple, J Curtin 1-0; J Walsh, K Collins 0-3, P Stack; N Linehan 0-6 (2f), P Collins 0-1, M Geaney. Subs: M Murphy for P Stack, J Forrest for P Collins, B Cahill for J O’Sullivan, J O’Callaghan for D Murphy, M Daly for M Geaney.
ST. JOHN’S: H Sheehan; P O’Keeffe, D O’Keeffe, C Lane; S Kelleher, K Sheehan, P Rohan 0-2; D Barrett, J O’Mahony 0-1; N Corkery, E Barrett, B Kelleher 0-1; A Sheehan, J Kelleher 0-1f, P O’Sullivan 0-1. Subs: T Sheehan 0-1 for P O’Sullivan, A Shine for N Corkery, M Buckley for J O’Mahony.
REFEREE: M J O’Keeffe (Dromtariffe)