Glen (Derry) 2-10; St Brigid’s (Roscommon) 1-12
The baton of painful memories was passed on last Sunday by Glen following last year’s controversial Kilmacud Crokes defeat to St Brigid’s who will carry the short stick of regrets over the coming months for enacting the classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at a wet and windy Croke Park.
Before entering the layers of late, late drama, stay at home gaels who looked in to both the hurling and football club finals should give thanks to four committed teams for giving us an unbelievable standard of entertainment in the hallowed ground where 18,000 hard-core followers from the clubs gave real meaning to what the GAA is all about at this level.
The heartbreak of losing out by the minimum to a Kilmacud side with 16 players on the pitch for the last 90 seconds looked like being repeated for the Watty Graham’s outfit as they trailed by four points with five minutes to go.
Last year they could do nothing about the extra-man once they decided not to object; this time round the team rolled up the sleeves and with Conor Glass playing like a man possessed, they wrestled back the disadvantage thanks to a brilliant goal by the red-haired midfielder and went ahead for the first time on the day in the 61st minute of proceedings.
Talk about cutting it fine — they then proceeded to dominate and went two points up before Shane Cunnane’s free reduced the margin to the minimum once more. The big midfielder had a chance at the death from the 45 meters line to level proceedings with literally the last kick of the game but agonizingly for him, his fine kick drifted to the left and just wide of the target to signal unbridled celebration from his opponents on the pitch and in the stands.
This was an encounter in which the better team lost on the day and the men of Watty Graham’s would be first to concede this. The Ulster champions never got going and but for two late bursts in either halves which yielded goals and points, they would have been well off he pace.
However, they had composure even in the pressure moments and it was that experience which ultimately pointed the way to victory for them.
Storm Isha had done its best to play spoilsport but the drive to honor the local parish was such that even such adverse elements could not take away from what these sides served up.
St Brigid’s were a credit to themselves and their club in how they performed and if they had to do it again, they probably would have made one or two better decision when given a free out with time rapidly disappearing off the clock for their opponents.
Instead, the Kiltoom outfit took a short free which was intercepted and allowed Glass to run onto the ball and smash home one of the finest goals even seen in this competition to tie up the scores.
Glen now had the upperhand and two quick points which should have been three made it look like a procession to the final whistle. But Brigid’s showed great resolve to cut the deficit to a single score and then agonizingly had to watch as the last effort for parity just faded wide at the last moment. Moments for both sides which will last or haunt them for a lifetime.
Shane Cunnane of St. Brigid’s tackles Conor Glass of Glen. [Inpho/Ryan Byrne]
Brigid’s will rue taking their foot off the pedal in the run up to half-time when they led by 0-8 to 0-4 only to concede a goal and a point in quick succession, the green flag score expertly dispatched by Jody McDermott after full forward Danny Tallon had unlocked the defense. That was the first score of the day from any of the winners’ forward line - a mark on how well Brigid’s defense had held out.
Through constant hard work in the second half and with 56 minutes played, the Rossies had built up a second four-point cushion after Brian Derwin flicked the ball to home after Ben O’Carroll did the spade work. Derwin then showed his class again by pointing with the outside of his right boot to make it four-point lead, and it remained despite scores from Glen which were then cancelled out by the Connacht men through the half.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. When the Derry men needed a talisman, Glass stood up. After corner-back Mark Warnock had bravely pointed to cut the lead to three, it was the towering midfielder who won possession while running at pace and unleashed an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Cormac Sheehy, who was still trying to find his bearing after leaving the posts as a possible receiver for the free kick that was kicked and lost forward.
Big Emmet Bradley then obliged with a close in free to give his side the lead for the first time in the 61st minute. The elusive Conleth McGuckian doubled the advantage almost immediately before Cunnane reduced the deficit to the minimum with a close in free. However, as his supporters held their breath and crossed their fingers, he was unable to deliver a score with the last kick as Glen took the honors to make up for last year’s disappointment.
Glen: C Bradley; C Carville, R Dougan, M Warnock (0-1); J McDermott (1-0), C McFaul (0-1), C Mulholland; C Glass (1-2, 0-1 45), E Bradley (0-4, 0-3f); E Mulholland, C McGuckian (0-1), E Doherty (0-1); T Flanagan, D Tallon, A Doherty Subs: C Convery for Mulholland (25 mins), S O'Hara for Carville (44 mins), C McCabe for A Doherty (55 mins).
St Brigid’s: C Sheehy; R Dolan, B Stack (0-1), P Frost; R Fallon (0-2), A Daly, R Stack; E Nolan (0-2), S Cunnane (0-1f); B Nugent (0-1), P McGrath, C Hand; B O’Carroll (0-3, 0-2f,, 0-1m), B Derwin (1-1), C Sugrue (0-1) Subs: J Cunningham for Derwin (45 mins), C Gleeson for Nugent (56 mins).
Ref: B Cawley (Kildare).
Unlucky Gaels fall to
battling St. Thomas’
St Thomas’ (Galway) 0-18; O’Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) 0-17
Drama and delight followed the end of this nail-biting All-Ireland club SHC final as Galway side St Thomas’ bridged an 11-year gap by getting home by the slenderest of margins at Croke Park on Sunday.
The other side of the coin saw the Gaels suffer a second defeat at this stage, this time when a clear first-half goal should have been awarded to them - but inexplicably wasn’t by the umpiring officials and the referee when Fintan Burke clearly carried the ball behind his own goal line.
It was another Burke though, corner-forward Eanna who was the hero of the day as his intuitive flick away from a ruck of defenders magically danced through the lashing rain and wind to split the posts at the Hill 16 end for the winning score of the hour - 65 minutes into the game.
Similar to Glen in the football, St Thomas’ had totally underwhelmed in the first half when they should have been more than two points in arrears at the break. Indeed it wasn’t until forward James Regan was red-carded early in the second half that they found their mojo and it was that battling attitude which ultimately saw them cross the line thanks to Burke’s wonder score.
Gaels, like St Brigid’s, were awarded a free at the death which would have forced extra time, but Mark Bergin’s effort from his own half and against a capricious wind fell just wide of the target.
The club refused to talk to the national media after the game, no doubt in two minds over what to say about Owen Wall’s goal that never was.
Reruns have clearly shown that his shot in the eighth minute of the game had crossed the line in the presence of St Thomas' full-back Fintan Burke, but remarkably the score wasn’t given. And to add injury to insult, St Thomas’ went up the other end to register a white flag, thereby making the swing a four-pointer in the process.
On a day when the winners cast off the soubriquet of being feint hearted on the big days, it was Galway star David Burke, only just back from a cruciate injury, who was their star turn and was deservedly given the man of the match accolade.
The six-in-a-row Galway champions had men standing up all over the park when it mattered most, and the likes of Conor Cooney, Victor Manso and goalkeeper Gerald Kelly were to the fore in this regard.
O'Loughlin Gaels led by 0-10 to 0-8 at the break and even without the controversial goal deserved to be five or six ahead at that stage.
Conor Cooney resisting to the full-forward berth in direct opposition to Huw Lawlor, was a master stroke by the Westerners. He had just about topped his duel with Paddy Deegan on the forty but this switch allowed the Saints to power on more potently for scores down the stretch to the finishing line.
St Thomas': G Kelly (0-1f); D Sherry, F Burke, C Mahony; S Cooney, Cl Burke (0-1), J Headd; D Finnerty, D Burke (0-3); V Manso (0-2), C Cooney (0-6, 0-4f), D Burke; J Regan (0-2), O Flannery, E Burke (0-3) Subs: E Duggan for Sherry (20 mins), B Burke for Manso (50 mins), D McGlynn for Flannery (15 mins).
O'Loughlin Gaels: S Murphy (0-1f); M Butler (0-1), H Lawlor, T Forristal; D Fogarty (0-2), P Deegan (0-3), J Molloy (0-1); J Nolan, C Loy; C Heary (0-1), E O'Shea, M Bergin (0-4, 0-2f); O Wall, L Hogan (0-1), S Bolger (0-2) Subs: C Kelly (0-1) for O'Shea (47 mins), J Ryan for Nolan (50 mins), P Butler for Loy (58 mins).
Ref: S Stack (Dublin).
