Too big a ‘Hill to climb for Kells side

SUMMERHILL GAEIL COLMCILLE 1-15 0-9

IT was third time unlucky for Gaeil Colmcille as they again fell at the penultimate hurdle in the SFC at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday.

Beaten semi-finalists in both 2015 and 2016, the Kells men were attempting to bridge a 26year gap by reaching their first decider since lifting the Keegan Cup in 1991.

They were well in contention for three quarters of this semi-final against the 2013 champions, but their challenge fell away in the final quarter and they were a well beaten side at the final whistle.

Summerhill, who defeated O’Mahony’s 2-12 to 1-10 in the quarter-final the previous Tuesday evening, took a long time to find anything close to their best form. They hit five wides in the opening 10 minutes and by halftime their wide count was seven and their points tally five.

Gaeil Colmcille also squandered chances, with the sides level on four different occasions before a Seamus Mattimoe point, his third of the half, gave the Kells outfit a 0-6 to 0-5 lead at the break.

Barry Dardis, with a fine longrange effort, levelled on the restart and it was still level at 0-8 each after a pointed free from Gaeil Colmcille’s Brian Hanlon.

With Sean Dalton prominent in attack Summerhill opened up a two-point lead in that third quarter, but the difference was back to the minimum following another point from Mattimoe on 46 minutes. However, Lar Wall’s side failed to add to their tally after that as Summerhill assumed complete control. A pointed free from Micheál Byrne left three between the teams for the the first time in 55 minutes and Gaeil Colmcille’s fate was sealed two minutes later when Dardis shot low to the net from a David Dalton pass.

The ‘Hill then added another three points before the end. SUMMERHILL: Tony McDonnell; Iarla Hughes, Willie Ryan, Ronan Ryan; Padraig Geraghty 0-1, Richie Hatton Ross Ryan; Micheál Byrne 0-3f, Brian Ennis 0-1f; David Larkin 0-3, Barry Dardis 1-2, Kevin Lyons; Sean Dalton 0-3, Liam Shaw, David Dalton 0-2. Subs: Conor Lyons for Shaw (h-t), Caolan Young for K Lyons (46), Ciaran Gillespie for Dardis (59), John Lavelle for Ross Ryan (60), Cian Devlin for Geraghty (60+).

GAEIL COLMCILLE: Justin Carry Lynch; Cormac Ferguson, Barry Smith, Jordan Muldoon; Barry Tormay 0-1, Johnny Quigley, James Reilly; Cormac Keegan, Paul Tormay; Seamus Mattimoe 0-4 (3f), Seanie Curran, Fionn Ferguson; Oisin Reilly 0-2, Brian Hanlon 0-2f, Martin Barrett. Subs: Ryan Farnham for O Reilly (40), Stevie McManus for F Ferguson (46), Gary Arkins for Hanlon (53), Evan Sheridan for P Tormay (56), Stephen Reddy for Quigley (60+).

REF: Cormac Reilly (St Mary’s)