First leg of fabulous double
Rathgarogue-Cushinstown seconds lead by example
EVERY SCORE was precious and hard-earned under the St. Patrick’s Park floodlights on Friday as a large crowd witnessed Rathgarogue-Cushinstown kick-start one of the best weekends in the club’s history with a one-point replay win over Craanford in the Enniscorthy Farm Systems Junior ‘B’ football championship final.
The New Ross District outfit were bridging a gap of 28 years since their sole previous success in the grade in the process, and their determination to get over the line certainly rubbed off on their Junior counterparts when they followed their good example 24 hours later.
And it’s certainly not over yet for Rathgarogue-Cushinstown, as all attention will now turn to the hurling final in the same grade against Oylegate-Glenbrien when they will attempt to become only the second club to bring off a Junior ‘B’ double, a feat achieved twice by HWH-Bunclody, in 1978 and 2010 respectively.
Like the drawn game six days earlier (1-6 each), finding space to manoeuvre up front was a difficult task as both sets of defenders continued their dominance, with Pádraig McGrath particularly impressive for the winners in the centre-back slot.
Craanford were without player-manager Shane Kavanagh owing to suspension, so they gave a start to former Kilanerin stalwart Peter Kavanagh who had made a big impression after his early introduction in their first encounter despite the after-effects of a knee injury.
Brendan Fitzpatrick opened the scoring for Rathgarogue-Cushinstown in the first minute from a free after Chris Kent was fouled, but it most definitely wasn’t a sign of things to come as it was one of just five points registered in a tight opening half.
He was off target from his next dead-ball opportunity, while Craanford shot two wides and dropped another effort short before Ollie Doran kicked their leveller in the tenth minute.
Doran – at midfield for long periods – was initially deployed inside in a two-man full-forward line along with Shane Greene, as Luke Byrne roved outfield and was prominent on the ball, but Rathgarogue-Cushinstown coped quite well with the extra space they had to deal with at the back.
And they regained their lead in the 18th minute from the source of 50% of their total, with Jimmy Whelan kicking the first of his three points from that accurate left boot of his after a Brendan Fitzpatrick pass (0-2 to 0-1).
Peter Kavanagh was unfortunate to strike the crossbar from a long-range free on the left before Rathgarogue-Cushinstown doubled their lead in the 22nd minute, with Fitzpatrick on song once more from a free after a Craanford defender touched the ball on the ground.
However, when Kavanagh – now at full-forward – was fouled close to half-time, Martin Wadding stepped up to pull a point back for the north county side who only trailed by 0-3 to 0-2 at the break.
The teams had managed just one point apiece from play in that opening period, and most of the action after the interval was centred on the middle third of the field as promising moves from both sides broke down time after time.
Peter Kavanagh equalised from a free kick into the night sky early on the re-start, and the game’s key incident followed in the 35th minute.
A long ball from the right by Craanford’s Michael Shortall found Kavanagh who was fouled for a penalty, but Martin Wadding was unable to repeat his feat from the drawn game.
After beating Fionn Slattery with a spot kick on that occasion, this time he was frustrated to drive the ball off the crossbar.
Despite that disappointment, Wadding composed himself to put his side in front from a free less than 90 seconds later but, given the general difficulty both sides had in securing scores, a goal at that stage may well have been the game-breaker.
Rathgarogue-Cushinstown pushed joint captain Jimmy Whelan into full-forward after veteran James Bolger was replaced, and he went on to exert a telling influence in the closing 20 minutes.
He provided the assist in the left corner for Paddy Barron to kick their equaliser, and then struck the lead point from a free after a foul on Pádraig McGrath in the 45th minute (0-5 to 0-4).
And after a long ball by Mark Carroll found substitute Colm Whelan, joint captain Jimmy was then on hand to accept the latter’s pass and make it a two-point game as Rathgarogue-Cushinstown edged closer to the title.
They still had eleven minutes plus almost three of added time to surmount all the same, and Craanford certainly didn’t make it easy for them in that period.
Indeed, after a Martin Wadding pass set up wing-forward John Lancaster to make it 0-6 to 0-5 in the 51st minute, extra-time looked a distinct possibility.
Rathgarogue-Cushinstown continued to defend manfully thereafter, with Craanford restricted to their seventh and final wide from James Byrne before Jimmy Whelan struck his side’s fifth in added time.
In between, Michael Shortall, who had been booked in the opening half, was dismissed after a high challenge on Shane Whelan.
A tense three minutes followed for the Rathgarogue-Cushinstown contingent before the last long blast of referee John O’Loughlin’s whistle saw them secure this crown for only the second time, and first since 1990, after this novel final saga between two teams availing of the newly-introduced back door after District final defeats.
Rathgarogue-Cushinstown: Fionn Slattery; Colm Murphy, Francis O’Brien, John O’Keeffe; Chris Kent, Pádraig McGrath, Neil Merrigan; Ian Kennedy, Liam O’Shea; Eoin Burke, Mark Carroll, Jimmy Whelan (joint capt., 0-3, 1 free); Brendan Fitzpatrick (0-2 frees), James Bolger, Paddy Barron (0-1). Subs. - Eoghan Whelan for Bolger (40), Colm Whelan (joint capt.) for Fitzpatrick (42), Liam Roche for O’Shea (52), Shane Whelan for Kent (58), also Seamus Bourke, Jack Murphy, David Thorpe, Barry Murphy, Paul Murphy, Seán Kehoe, Shane O’Connor, Peter Aspel, John Bolger, Adam Bookle, Ken Slattery, Jack McGrath.
Craanford: Derek Finn; Jim Redmond (capt.), Gary Keating, Patrick Lancaster; Stuart Byrne, James Byrne, Eoin Doyle; Michael Shortall, Peter Kavanagh (0-1 free); Cian O’Toole, Martin Wadding (0-2 frees), John Lancaster (0-1); Shane Greene, Ollie Doran (01), Luke Byrne. Subs. - Calvin O’Toole for S. Byrne (47), also Paddy Doyle, Andrew Tighe, Tony Kavanagh, Jack Keogh, Seán Byrne, Martin Kenny, Shane Kavanagh.
Referee: John O’Loughlin (Monageer-Boolavogue).