Dillon drives Tinahely to Junior ‘C’ crown
Brave effort but Kilcoole fall short against favourites
TINAHELY 2-13 KILCOOLE 2-4
TINAHELY lived up to their ‘red hot’ favourites tag going into this Arklow Bay Hotel Junior ‘C’ Football Championship final by producing a workmanlike performance to get the better of a gallant Kilcoole in Ballinakill last Thursday night.
Finals are rarely won with ease and this battle was certainly not in that category with Kilcoole pushing Paul Tyrrell’s side hard for three quarters of this game until David Dillon’s profited from a handling error in the Kilcoole small rectangle to pounce for his second goal of the evening and inflict the second major puncture wound in the Goosebank bubble.
The superb Jordan Murray had goaled a sensational lob only moments before Dillon punched home his second major and had pulled his side back to within four points at 1-11 to 2-4 thanks to an excellent third quarter for a Kilcoole side who were reduced to 14 following the dismissal of Gary Cody on a second yellow late in the first half.
The most blatantly obvious difference between the sides in the opening half was the ease at which Tinahely moved the ball into a scoring position and with the first period nearing its conclusion they were leading a battling Kilcoole by 0-7 to 0-1, but despite that lonely single for Kilcoole you couldn’t say that they weren’t trying their damnedest, nor could you say that they were gonners. What you could have said was that they were showing potential and that if they could keep out the goals they were always going to have a chance providing they could come up with a major or two of their own.
Alas, it’s on small moments that big games turn. Jordan Murray collected a ball deep in his own half and proceeded to set off on one of his many mazy runs of the evening. The fleet-footed Kilcoole attacker even performed a lovely pirouette to evade a challenge but referee Eamonn Doyle adjudged Murray to have overcarried. It seemed like a fussy call from a distance but the Kiltegan official had made it his business to penalise overcarrying from the opening minutes of the game so there was consistency there to a degree.
The very impressive Anthony Phelan swept in the free which came off the post and out for a 45. Phelan fired the placed ball back in and it was won by Brian Hickey who had been redeployed to the edge of the square after he aggravated a calf injury early in the opening half.
Hickey gathered, fed the lurking David Dillon and the Tinahely maestro buried the ball in the back of the net past Luke Doyle for a serious body blow to Kilcoole right at the death of the opening half for the first of those puncture wounds.
Kiltegan had dominated that opening 30. They led by 0-3 to 0-0 after 10 minutes, Austin Brennan with the opener, a pointed free from Anthony Phelan and a white flag from the excellent Damien Cullen opening up a bit of a gap between the sides. Throw in three wides to Tinahely in those opening 10 minutes to Kilcoole’s single wayward effort and you get a hint as to the flow of the game.
Jason Walsh stopped the rot with a fine effort after 12 minutes but that would be Kilcoole’s only score in the first half as Tinahely added scores from Brian Hickey (two, one off the right and the other off the left) and another from Damien Cullen to leave the half-time score at 1-7 to 0-1.
Kilcoole turned that trend on its head in the opening 15 minutes of the second half with Jordan Murray taking this game by the scruff of the neck.
He opened the scoring after 30 seconds of the restart, but this was answered by a Damien Cullen point at the other end. A point a from Philip O’Brien and a somewhat fortuitous goal from Conor Scullion gave Kilcoole a foothold in the game but Tinahely rallied with points from the tightly marked David Blake and the roaming Willie Quaile left it at 1-11 to 1-3 for Tinahely.
Jordan Murray made it 1-11 to 1-4 and then he proceeded to fire home one of the finest goals ever scored in Ballinakill when he lobbed William Lillis with a stunning shot off his left that deposited the ball in the top right corner of the goal on the dressing room end of pitch 2. Four points between the sides. Game on.
Tinahely attacked. A ball dropped in that should have been taken care of was spilled and David Dillon got a hand in and it trickled over the line. A catastroph- ic moment.
Onwards marched Tinahely. David Blake made it 2-12 to 2-4 with seven to go and then Eamonn Doyle issued a black card to Kilcoole midfielder Philip O’Brien.
Kilcoole rang some changes but the energy that had brought them back to within four points was long gone and a final score from Damien Cullen brought the curtain down on an entertaining decider that suffered from the early dismissal of Gary Coady. Had he remained on the pitch and had that second Tinahely goal not been conceded who knows what might have happened.
But what did happen was that county chairman Martin Fitzgerald presented Tinahely captain Ray McGlynn with the Johnny Price Cup. Paul Tyrrell’s side have enjoyed a stunning championship campaign during which they proved far too strong for the majority of teams.
Scorers – Tinahely: David Dillon 2-0, Damien Cullen 0-5 (2f), Brian Hickey 0-2, Willie Quaile 0-2, David Blake 0-2, Austin Brennan 0-1, Anthony Phelan 0-1.
Kilcoole: Jordan Murray 1-2, Conor Scullion 0-1, Jason Walsh 0-1, Philip O’Brien 0-1.
Tinahely: William Lillis; Danny Quinn, Gavin Kenny, Tony Lacey; Ray McGlynn, Kevin Doyle, Fionn Furlong; Brian Hickey, Niall O’Gorman; Damien Cullen, David Dillon, Anthony Phean; Willie Quaile, David Blake, Austin Brennan. Subs: Padraig Murphy for B Hickey (42, inj).
Kilcoole: Luke Doyle; Darren Burke, Stephen Kelly, Chris Carroll; Philip O’Brien, Patrick Woods; Jordan Murray, Gary Coady, Conor Scullion; Jamie Murray, Jason Walsh, Jim Keddy. Subs: Conor Murphy O’Toole for P O’Brien (BC, 53), Glenn Dunne for J Keddy, Barry Doyle for J Walsh.
Referee: Eamonn Doyle (Kiltegan)