Dignified Dromid bow out
BEATEN by the better team? Certainly, but that doesn’t lessen the bitter taste in Dromid mouths. The unsavoury aspects of this game are what will linger long in the memory. Not the brilliant football played by both sides.
We should be talking about Niall O’shea’s brilliant second half point, when he turned on a dime and slotted an outrageous effort straight between the sticks.
We should be talking about the surging runs of Derrytresk’s brilliant centre-forward Joseph Mckee and his well struck goal, but instead the talk this week has been of brawls and stewards and, most surreally of all, of All Star footballers getting handbagged by opposition supporters.
It’s simply not good enough and while we say Derrytresk were the better team over the hour, it is, nevertheless, worth questioning whether they would have triumphed had Thomas Curran stayed on the pitch. Curran was unable to take part in the second half due to a concussion picked up during the first half brawl.
Up to then Curran was Dromid’s best player. Their top scorer from play in the first half and a leading bulwark against Derrytresk’s Ronan O’neill. With Curran out of the way O’neill was able to dictate matters in the second half and with ball in hand Derrytresk’s forwards proved an irresistible force.
From the off Dromid seemed uncomfortable in themselves. Their passing wasn’t at the level we’ve come to expect. Their handling was poor. They looked nervous, far from the assured outfit we’ve seen in previous rounds.
Derrytresk, on the otherhand, tore into the game from the off. They ran hard at Dromid. They hunted in packs and snatched possession away from Dromid. They seemed the hungrier, faster and more committed side as Dromid struggled to come to terms with the Tyrone men.
Being warned about the intensity one can expect when facing a side in the Mickey Harte mould is one thing, experiencing it is quite another as Dromid found out. Derrytresk would have been disappointed at their return from those opening ten minutes of dominance.
A two point lead – one from play through Cathal O’neill, who snapped up a wayway Dromid clearance gleefully, and a Niall Gavin free – was hardly commensurate with the glut of possession they had and the territory in which they had it.
This Dromid side have proven to be slow starters, so they weren’t rattled by Derrytresk’s early dominance. Instead they knuckled down and gradually found their way back into the game. For inspiration they looked to Declan O’sullivan.
O’sullivan didn’t have the type of influence he can have on games, but with that first Dromid point he kick started their revival. It was a peach of a point too. Derrytresk were defending deeply, nominal full-forward Kevin Quinn had dropped deep, so O’sullivan was forced to go long.
From about forty yards out and under considerable pressure he fired that first Dromid point over the bar. It set a template for what Dromid would do for the rest of the half. Thomas Curran was brilliant in the first half. He didn’t win a huge amount of clean ball, but with ball in hand proved Dromid’s most dangerous player.
Twice in quick succession he followed the O’sullivan template and hit two brilliant long range efforts over the bar – collecting the ball on the run from Declan O’sullivan for the first of those efforts. It wasn’t long before his midfield colleague Colm O’connor got in on the act and hit a similarly impressive point.
Four on-the-trot and despite the fact Derrytresk had the wind for the second half, things were beginning to look up for the Kerry kingpins. That is until the brawl.
Twenty five minutes had gone. Denis ‘Shine’ O’sullivan picked up a yellow card as a result of the brawl – as did Derrytresk’s Joseph Mckee. That would later prove significant, but in the immediate aftermath Dromid seemed rattled and the Tyrone men reinvigorated as was proved when Kevin Quinn hit a fisted point before the break to make it a one point game and to put Derrytresk back in the driving seat.
The loss of Curran, as we’ve already said, was huge and from the beginning of the second Derrytresk excelled. Two early points saw them into the lead, but the 41st minute sending off of Denis ‘Shine’ O’sullivan with a second yellow card turned the game decisively away from the Iveragh outfit.
It was harsh, but the fact Dromid picked up so many yellow cards put them under pressure. The later sending off of Colm O’connor was irrelevant as the game over by then.
Having scored 0-2 without reply before O’sullivan’s red card, Derrytresk scored a further 1-1 without reply straight after it, essentially sealing the victory. Joseph Mckee’s strong running caused a whole pile of bother for Dromid’s backs and frees coughed up were duly converted.
The goal came courtesy of Mckee, who collected a beautiful pass by centreback Cathal O’neill to finish past Alan Hogan in the Dromid net. In fairness to Dromid they never gave up. Niall O’shea, Declan O’sullivan and Micahel Sheehan staged a mini revival, but after Sheehan’s effort it was all Derrytresk.
They had the extra man and weren’t about to let Dromid in for a goal. Dromid did, however, have one slight chance of a goal when Niall O’shea got possession, but the ball slipped from his grasp and Dromid’s chances of All Ireland glory with it.
A sad, but dignifed, end to a glorious campaign.
DROMID PEARSES: Alan Hogan, Pádraig O’sullivan, Dominic O’sullivan, Dónal O’sullivan, Denis ‘Shine’ O’sullivan, Kevin O’shea, Michael Sheehan (0-1), Colm O’connor (01), Thomas Curran (0-2), Aidan ‘Shine’ O’sullivan, Declan O’sullivan (0-2, 1f), Eoin O’leary, Niall O’shea (0-1), Gearóid O’sullivan Subs: Micheal O’shea for T Curran, Cian Hallissey for G O’sullivan, Christopher Farrelly for E O’leary, Michael O’connor for A O’connor
DERRYTRESK: Aidan Quinn, Sean Slater, Kevin Campbell, Carolan Carr, Eoin Rae, Cathal O’neill (0-1), Jay Dillon, Conor Gavin, Ronan O’neill, Michael Robinson, Josepth Mckee (1-1), Conor O’neill, Niall Galvin (06, 4f), Kevin Quinn (0-1), Michael Rae (0-1f) Subs: Peter Kilpatrick for C Gavin, Gareth Devlin for J Dillon
REFEREE: Francis Flynn (Leitrim)