Coolkenno march on

COOLKENNO DUNLAVIN 0-11 0-10

took the place Paul Murtagh in the middle of the field from the off. Eoghan Dolan was given the role of an offensive sweeper in this game and he enjoyed plenty of possession and looks very comfortable in that role.

It was 0-7 to 0-5 at the break in favour of Dunlavin with Coolkenno losing Paul Murphy to a black card and Pauric Murray replacing him. Gary Allen was forced from the field after 11 minutes due to a blood injury after a heavy collision, but he returned swiftly wearing the number 26 jersey.

There was an incident in that first half that saw Coolkenno corner-back Shane Walker lying stretched out on the ground but no officials (or this reporter) spotted what caused the situation but Dunlavin’s Shane Carty was the focus of some shoving from Walker’s colleagues and both players held a heated discussion once Walker was able to resume his position. Despite briefing his linesman and umpires, Garreth Whelan took no action and the game resumed.

Dunlavin enjoyed the best of the chances in that opening half. Harry Coleburn grabbed the score of the game so far after 12 minutes to make it 0-4 to 0-2 and Cian O’Sullivan sent Aaron Phelan through on John Corcoran’s goal but the half-forward blazed over when a goal might have been on the table.

A handful of wides and several chances dropped short would come back to bite the Dunlavin men late in this game.

Gary Alen would push Dunlavin three ahead five minutes into the second half but either side of that free that was moved in for lip they would drop balls short to John Corcoran in the Coolkenno goal.

All the while, Coolkenno started to grow in confidence. Don Jackman was pushed up to the edge of the square. Padraic Murray lobbed over and Conor Walker pointed a free with 12 on the clock to leave just one between the sides.

The game started to heat up. A foul by Jim Cushe on the hugely influential Eoin Murtagh earned Gary Allen a chance to put some daylight between the sides but before he could take the free, Bob Keogh was shown a black card by Garreth Whelan for his protestations and was replaced by Paddy Dalton after Allen had uncharacteristically fired wide from the placed ball.

The aforementioned Eoin Murtagh took a heavy bang when he collided with his colleague Harry Coleburn after 48 minutes but when he resumed his position Shane O‘Rourke pushed Dunlavin out to a two-point lead that was halved again by a Conor Walker free moments later.

And then Dunlavin withdrew Eoin Murtagh. The corner-back was infuriated at the decision and protested to his physio and manager that he was perfectly capable of playing on. So passionate were his pleas that he was returned to the fray four minutes later with the score reading 0-10 to 0-9 after points from Gary Allen (free) and Eamonn Rossiter from play.

Coolkenno were the dominant force now but they were squandering attack after attack. Dunlavin’s attack was being spearheaded by Shane Carty who was being closely minded by Shane Walker.

Once Conor Walker levelled matters after 62 minutes it looked inevitable that Coolkenno would grab the lead and they did that two minutes later as the injury time from the Dunlavin clash of heads was played out when Conor Walker dropped over the bomb of bombs off the outside of the right – a suitably sweet score to secure a tasty victory.

– Coolkenno: Conor Walker 0-5 (5f), James Gregan 0-2, Eamonn Rossiter 0-2, Pauric Murray 0-1, John Kavanagh 0-1.

Dunlavin: Gary Allen 0-6 (2f), Harry Coleburn 0-1, Aaron Phelan 0-1, Shane Carty 0-1, Shane O’Rourke 0-1.

Scorers

John Corcoran; Willie Doyle, Paul Kehoe, Shane Walker; John Kavanagh, Bob Keogh, Philip Timmons; James Gregan, David Cole; Eoghan Dolan, Eamonn Rossiter, Don Jackman; Paul Murphy, Jim Cushe, Conor Walker. Subs: Pauric Murray for P Murphy (BC, 23), Paddy Dalton for Bob Keogh (BC, 17), Cathal Rossiter for D Jackman (63).

Tom McGuirk; Eoin Murtagh, Sean Phelan, Harry Coleborn; Mark Reid, Daniel Dawson, Padraig Carmody; Gary Allen, Paul Murtagh; Shane O’Rourke, James Walsh, Aaron Phelan; Cian O’Sullivan, Thomas Davis, Shane Carty. Subs: Fionn Deegan for C O’Sullivan (14), Alan O‘Sullivan for E Murtagh (22, inj), Eoin Murtagh for H Coleburn (26), Mark O’Sullivan for J Walsh (28).

Coolkenno: Dunlavin: Referee:

Garreth Whelan (Kiltegan)