Village off the mark thanks to early blitz

Coolkenno recover well but Rathnew hold out

RATHNEW 1-13 COOLKENNO 1-08 THIS was as strange a game as you’re likely to see this summer.

It’s a rare occurrence for a football team to be scoreless at half-time but that’s where Coolkenno found themselves against Rathnew in Joule Park, Aughrim, after the Village had oened their 2017 championship campaign with 30 minutes of competent and clinical play.

An early 1-01 for Harry Murphy’s men was like a smack in the mouth for the Coolkenno side. Rathnew were looking to lay down a marker in their opening game and Mark Doyle’s converted free and Graham Merrigan’s well place goal after three minutes fulfilled that desire.

Doyle’s free came from a foul from full-back Paul Keogh, his second in two minutes according to referee Robert Whelan from Kilcoole.

The game settled a bit after the frantic start but Rathnew had the look of a team who had picked up the scent of a vulnerable prey on the summer breeze. Every single ball looked to be a step along the road to a score, every instinct seemed to be primed to attack, attack, attack.

Eddie Doyle pointed a free won by Jody Merrigan who was fouled by Philip Timmons, six gone and Rathnew lead by 1-02 to 0-00.

Coolkenno were battling hard and trying to get to the pace of the game. Tackling was heavy and slightly over zealous at times. Jim Cushe worries the Rednagh Hill uprights for the first time in the game after nine minutes but his shot from distance drifts harmlessly wide. Still, it gives his besieged defence a bit of a break for a few minutes.

Coolkenno attack again but Eamonn Rossiter’s effort drops down into the shovel-like hands of Peter Dignam who clears to his centre-half back Nicky Mernagh and away he goes up the field. He exchanges with Eddie Doyle, feed John Manley, steadies, offloads to James Stafford who clips a lovely ball over the tope to Eddie Doyle who has James Gregan on his case. Doyle sells the dummy with a bounce, steps inside and manages to drop over a sweet score with 10 on the clock. This is good stuff from Rathnew but hardly a hand is being laid on them.

Moments later Eddie Doyle collects ball at midfield and fires it over to Nicky Mernagh who saunters towards the 45 and wallops it over the Coolkenno bar.

The worrying thing for the Carlow border men is that Leighton Glynn has hardly touched the ball yet and their own danger man, Conor Walker, has been largely absent from proceedings.

Glynn eventually does get a ball and despite the attentions of Shane Walker fires over superbly and then Jody Merrigan collects about 30 from goal and, with nobody within an ass’s roar of him, dros over a bomb of a point to make it 1-06 to 0-00 and where exactly Coolkenno were going to get scores from was incredibly difficult to see at this stage in the game.

Paddy Dalton got an opportunity to ask questions of Nicky Mernagh soon after and the Coolkenno man won a free and opted to take it himself but fired wide. Mernagh’s natural instinct to attack should have given Coolkenna a toll-free route to the Rathnew 21-yard-line but they were never in a position to exploit that space in the opening half.

It was like the football gods had taken a distinct dislike to Coolkenno at this stage. Eamonn Rossiter offered up what looked to be a certain score only for the man mountain Peter Dignam to pluck it from above the crossbar and clear easily.

At the other end Paul Keogh was skating on paper thin ice when he fouled Mark Doyle in front of goal. Eddie Doyle did the necessary and it was all way too easy for Rathnew. Don Jackman, clearly carrying an injury of some kind, had moved to full-forward at this stage and two minutes later the Coolkenno sideline called Paul Keogh ashore with Cathal Rossiter going back to mind the house.

Coolkenno had chances for the remaining few moments of the half but the last say of the half was from Leighton Glynn who capped off a lovely move up the field with a fine score to leave Rathnew in a commanding lead of 1-08 to 0-00. The only negative thing for Harry Murphy’s men was the loss of Paul Merrigan to a black card for a foul on Conor Walker. Enan Glynn replaced.

Two minutes into the second half and Coolkenno were off the mark thanks to a massive Conor Doyle point off the outside of his right boot. Either side of that score Eddie Doyle popped over two frees.

Conor Walker, now in the full-forward line with Don Jackman and Eoghan Dolan, finally clicked into gear in the next move when he was picked out by a nifty Eamonn Rossiter pass and he found a yard or two on Enan Glynn and fired over.

The game was turning. That cutting edge was gone from Rathnew and Coolkenno were starting to gain a foothold but they could only produce wides as the finished product until the 13th minute when Paddy Dalton had an acre of space to run into before firing home superbly for a precious goal for Coolkenno. Rathnew were protesting to Robert Whelan that Theo Smith had taken a bang to the head in that move but the goal stood and Smith was substituted a moment later with Stephen Byrne taking his place. Ben Jackman had come in for Cookenno moments before in place of Don.

This was a good spell for Coolkenno. Conor Walker pointed a free won by Ben Jackman off Damien Power and Harry Murphy switched Leighton Glynn with Jody Merrigan before Nicky Mernagh got his second of the day to make it 1-11 to 1-03.

Coolkenno almost had a second goal but for a super save from Peter Dignam who deflected Conor Walker’s shot over the bar for a point and then Ben Jackman did what no Coolkenno man had done all day, win tough ball, and he pointed an excellent score despite the attention of Damien Power.

A Paddy Dalton point and two converted frees from Conor Walker left just four between the teams and Rathnew were looking a little shaky but a tremendous longrange point from Jody Merrigan closed out the scoring and gave Rathnew an opening day victory as they look to capture Miley again later in the year.

A bizarre day for Coolkenno. They’re certainly nowhere near as poor as they were in the opening half. Ben Jackman will start the next day you’d feel and if their key men don’t go missing again for long periods they’ll be a serious headache for Pat’s and Baltinglass in the remaining group games.

Scorers – Rathnew: Eddie Doyle 0-05 (4f), Leighton Glynn 0-03, Graham Merrigan 1-00, Nicky Mernagh 0-02, Jody Merrigan 0-02, Mark Doyle 0-01 (f).

Cookenno: Conor Walker 0-05 (3f), Conor Doyle 0-01, Ben Jackman 0-01.

Rathnew: Peter Dignam; Paul Merrigan, Damien Power, David Jameson; John Manley, Nicky Mernagh, Chris Healy; Theo Smith, James Stafford; Warren Kavanagh, Jody Merrigan, Eddie Doyle; Leighton Glynn, Mark Doyle, Graham Merrigan. Subs: Enan Glynn for P Merrigan (BC); Stephen Byrne for T Smith (inj)

Coolkenno: John Corcoran; Shane Walker, Paul Keogh, Robert Keogh; Eamon Rossiter, Philip Timmons, James Gregan; Don Jackman, Jim Cushe; Cathal Rossiter, Conor Walker, Eoghan Dolan; Paul Murphy, Brian Rossiter, Paddy Dalton. Subs: Conor Doyle for J Gregan; 19 for P Keogh; Ben Jackman for D Jackman. Ref: Robert Whelan