Tinahely in control
Costello’s men deliver big performance in opener
TINAHELY KILMACANOGUE 4-11 3-6
ONE of the strong favourites for this year’s Darcy Sands Intermediate Football Championship, Tinahely, laid down a marker with a comfortable victory over Kilmac on Friday evening last.
A youthful and fit Tinahely side hit the ground running and had amassed 1-7 without reply before Kilmac knew where they were.
Alan Costello’s finely tuned outfit got off to a flier, with Alan Dillon registering the first score with a sweet point.
Tony Darcy doubled the lead from a placed ball in the next attack before Willie Dillon won the resultant kick-out and drove through the Kilmac defence and laid off to Stephen Dillon who shook the net for the first major of the evening with five minutes played.
Tinahely were dominating midfield in the early stages with Brian Walsh to the fore.
The playing surface was very greasy, with players sliding into each other going into tackles on umpteen occasions.
Mark King’s men, short a number of regular starters, could not live with the strong pace Tinahely brought into the opening quarter.
Tinahely landed three more unanswered points, with the pick of them a mighty point from Stephen Dillon 50 meters out on the wing.
Kilmac finally got off the mark when Michael Whelan made a great dart up the field and knocked over a point in the 17th minute. Aaron Creavin pointed a free moments later for the east coast side.
Kilmac found a bit of momentum going into the second quarter and Robert Conan fired to the net after great work by Niall Meldon and Josh O’Callaghan.
However, Tinahely responded immediately, with their second major from Rory Stokes. Brian Walsh raised another green flag for Tinahely in the next attack, a massive blow for Kilmac at this crucial stage of the battle.
However, Kilmac closed out the half with a brace of points from Andrew Molloy and Michael Whelan. The half-time whistle sounded with the score reading 3-8 to 1-4 in favour of the men in red.
Tinahely started off strong in the third quarter, landing another 1-1 without reply to all but close the door, the goal coming from the boot of Stephen Dillon after an advantage call by referee Pat Dunne, as Alan Dillon was dragged down in the initial attack 30 meters from goal.
Michael Whelan did land a smashing goal for Kilmac in the 40th minute to give them a glimmer of hope. Full-back Michael Byrne was breaking down and clearing plenty of Kilmac attacking play at this stage.
Josh O’Callaghan landed Kilmac’s third major of the evening going into the final ten minutes of the game with the daylight rapidly diminishing as the tackles were flying in at this stage.
A tough but fair battle, where no cards were needed in a sporting game.
However, Tinahely closed up shop and move on now to the next round in an intriguing battle against rivals Dunlavin, who also have eyes on this title after falling just short last season in the final against Hollywood.
Kilmac must regroup now for another tough test against another championship contender, Coolkenno. This will be another huge, hotly contested, monster of a championship saga. Possibly, the best championship in Wicklow.
- Tinahely: Stephen Dillon 2-02, Brian Walsh 1-02, Rory Stokes 1-01, Alan Dillon 0-04, Tony Darcy 0-02.
Kilmac : Michael Whelan 1-02, Josh O’Callaghan 1-01, Rob Conan 1-00, Aaron Creavin 0-01, Andrew Molloy 0-01, Niall Meldon 0-01.
Scorers
Tinahely: Alan Nolan; Laurence Keating, Michael Byrne, James Gilbert; James Hedderman, Conor Hatton, Curtis Keating; William Dillion, Brian Walsh; Paddy O’Rourke, Jason Cush, Stephen Dillon; Tony Darcy, Rory Stokes, Alan Dillon. Subs: James Tyrell, John Blake, Jamie Cullen, Kevin Mulhall, Noel Mulhall.
Niall King; Donal Touhy, Cian Rafferty, Michael Masterson; Gavan Burke, Luke O’Callaghan, Marcus Rafferty; Robert Conan, Niall Meldon; Josh O’Callaghan, Michael Whelan, Paddy O’Donnell; Aaron Creavin, Andrew Molloy, Sam O’Callaghan. Subs: Stephen Flynn, Ray Nally.
Pat Dunne (Hollywood)
Kilmacanogue: Referee: