Anne’s hold aces
Under-15 title won after tough battle
ST. ANNE’S came out on top of a tough battle with Clúain O’Rahilly’s to take the Gorey Guardian Under-15 football Roinn 1 championship crown in St. Patrick’s Park on Monday of last week.
The Rathangan club have had quite the season at under-age level with the big ball, with this team another shining example of what hard work and nurtured talent can do.
In fact, this was a high-quality game all around, as both sides are well coached and neither had any shortage of quality to add to their unrelenting effort.
The critical score came seven minutes into the second-half. The champions had just moved into a three-point lead when Finn Ryan picked up possession on the run, accelerated around the outside of the Clúain O’Rahilly’s defence, and struck a cracking shot low to the net.
It was a hammer blow for the Gusserane/Clongeen combo. They battled away gamely throughout the contest and might have considered themselves a little unlucky to go in at the interval on the wrong side of a one-point deficit (1-5 to 2-1).
The game was played at a ferocious pace with man-on-man battles fascinatingly balanced across the field.
St. Anne’s went 0-3 to nil up on the back of points from Jack O’Brien, Paudi Doyle and Finn Ryan.
Clúain O’Rahilly’s were making inroads down the right wing and Rory O’Brien had to be alert to produce two solid stops.
However, there was no stopping Shane Culleton’s rocket in the 17th minute which tied the game.
When Eoghan Stafford was fouled, Brian Foley stepped up and rattled home the penalty to give his side a two-point lead.
Yet, St. Anne’s didn’t panic and O’Brien pounced to net after Finn Ryan’s strong run to give them an interval lead.
Ryan came out for the second-half on fire and added two points before his goal made it 2-7 to 2-1.
St. Anne’s went 23 minutes without a score after the goal but points from Michael Dundon and Culleton were only enough to cut the gap to four.
When there is two scores between the sides, the next is always going to be critical, and Rory Byrne kicked it right on 60 minutes to end the brave Clúain O’Rahilly’s resistance and give St. Anne’s the trophy.
St. Anne’s: Rory O’Brien; J.J. Harpur, Michael Cullen, Andrew Moran; Dylan Moran, Conan Phillips (joint capt.), Matthew Dayton; Liam Shokman (joint capt.), Liam Berry; Cathal Murphy, Rory Byrne (0-1), Paudi Doyle (0-1); Darren Moore, Jack O’Brien (1-3, 0-3 frees), Finn Ryan (1-3). Subs. - Liam Whelan for Moore (31), Paudi Power for Dayton, inj. (52), Daire Heaney for J. O’Brien (56), Eoin McMahon for Murphy (60+5), also Eoin Staples, Grisha Dievorst, Rúairí Flannery, Dara Browne, Darragh Sinnott, Conor Kennedy, Senan Murray, Shane Ryan, Bobby Reville.
Clúain O’Rahilly’s: Dean Sinnott (capt.); Eoin Power, Patrick Finn, Cathal Murphy; Seán Ó Faoláin, Michael Dundon (0-1), Michael Mulligan; Brian Foley (1-0 pen.), Adam Whelan; Cormac Kiely, Shane Culleton (1-2, 0-2 frees), Eoghan Stafford; Shane Ryan, Fionn Mullally, Seán Whelan. Subs. (unused) - Jack Boyd, John Whelan, Eoghan Twomey, Jack Roche, Jack Rossiter, Luke Murphy.
Referee: James Owens (Kilrush).