By: Kevin Corrigan
Brosna Press Division 4 Football League final
Shamrocks 2-15
Doon 2-12
(After extra time)
A late arrival at the venue, Dunne came on at half time with Shamrocks lucky to be only behind by 1-6 to 0-4 and as you would expect, his class shone through and he turned the tide in their favour. Without Dunne’s contribution, Shamrocks would almost certainly have lost and he ended up with 0-5, four points from play.
Not everything he did turned to gold and in a way, he was partly to blame for Shamrocks not closing out the deal in normal time as he got bottled up in possession with the four minutes of injury time almost up. Another player stopped the quick free being taken, it was rightly brought forward and Doon almost won it at the death when former Raheen footballer, David Crombie got his fist to Conor Rohan’s shot but Alan O’Connell did really well to deflect it over the bar.
That was Doon’s best chance of winning it and as we suspected, their legs went in extra time and a fitter Shamrocks team were able to get well on top for the win.
Shamrocks won the junior “B” championship last year and are confident of competing very well in the “A” grade while Doon are working very hard to turn the corner after a difficult few years. People of an older vintage have great memories of Doon holding their own at senior football level in the 1990s into the 2000s with a flying Vinny Claffey terrorising defences, Kieran Rigney a man mountain in defence and younger players such as Donie Ryan, Damien Hunt and Trevor Phelan providing a great blend to their experience.
Great eras come in swings and round abouts for small rural clubs, and Doon have went all the way back to junior in the past decade plus. The presence of Doon players on Offaly underage squads in recent years has provided evidence of recovery and they will take encouragement from reaching this final.
And they should be very pleased with the way they acquitted themselves here. Shamrocks won their group game by a whopping 3-13 to 0-6 a few weeks ago and it was a serious turn around to bring it to extra time and be so close to a sensational win in normal time. Doon got important players back and they made an obvious difference while Shamrocks may have been guilty of complacency – some of their supporters just couldn’t see them losing, this may have seeped through to their team but whatever factors were at play, Shamrocks were particularly mediocre in the first half and didn’t finish the job off when they gained the upper hand in the second half.
It was typical junior football at times but it was a decent standard and Doon could have been much further ahead at half time. They were the better team by a distance in the first quarter with a sixth minute goal from the outstanding Sean Og Foley getting them going. They were 1-2 to no score up by the time Conor Egan got Shamrocks’ first point in the 14th minute and missed chances as they had four wides in the same spell.
Luke Kelly was wide with a chance of a second goal for Doon and Darragh Ean’s shot for a point dipped onto the cross bar while Mark Langtry saved well from Ronan Murray at the other end.
The game changed immediately with Nigel Dunne’s half time introduction and the first repercussion was that Doon earmarked Sean Og Foley to shadow him. Foley had been running the game at midfield in the first half and it immediately reduced his influence in an attacking sense as he worked hard to keep Dunne out of it. Dunne played deep in the second half, maybe too much so, but his influence increased as it wore on as he did the simple thing well, broke tackles and was so difficult to get the ball off.
He made a couple of errors and had a couple of wides, from play and frees, but Shamrocks were such a different team with him on the field. Two Mark Bryant points, one free, quickly got Shamrocks back in touch and it was 1-7 to 0-8 when Conor Egan put them ahead with a great 46th minute goal after Bryant did very well to send him in. That came just after Senan Hanniffy was wide with a great Doon goal chance and all the money was on Shamrocks to win from there.
Langtry saved well from Eoghan Neville before impressive sub Peter Feeley and Nigel Dunne put Shamrocks three clear. It was impossible to envisage Doon salvaging it without a goal but they showed terrific character to do so. A pointed free from Luke Kelly and a Darragh Egan point brought it down to the minimum as it went into injury time and David Crombie gave Doon an extra twenty minutes.
Unfortunately for them, their bolt was shot and they had too many players in the red to win it there. Nigel Dunne went into full forward for extra time and pulled the trigger spectacularly. He got the first three points, one from a “45” and two from play, Michael Lambe added one and a punched goal from Eoghan Neville opened daylight, 2-14 to 1-10 in the first period.
Doon hadn’t managed an attack until the dying moments of that first period and that was down to Shamrocks’ indiscipline and a new rules infraction. A seven point lead was always going to be a winning one as Shamrocks adapted a “what we have, we hold” attitude in the second period.
A Senan Hanniffy goal made it a four point game in the 76th minute but Shamrocks had enough done and Conor Mannion’s deflected point from an injury time free had no bearing on the outcome.
THE SCORERS
Shamrocks: Nigel Dunne 0-5 (1 ’45’), Conor Egan and Eoghan Neville 1-1 each, Mark Bryant 0-3 (1f), Michael Lambe, Ronan Murray, Johnny McEvoy, Gary Merriman, Peter Feely 0-1 each.
Doon: Senan Hanniffy 1-2, Sean Og Foley 1-0, Luke Kelly 0-3 (1f), Darragh Egan 0-2, Conor Mannion (f), Conor Rohan (f), Callum Kelly, Blaine Rigney, David Crombie 0-1 each.
THE TEAMS
SHAMROCKS: Alan O’Connell; Sean Mooney, Donal Dooley, Adrian Minnock; Eoin Rosney, Stephen Malone, Eoghan Neville; Sean Cantwell, Michael Lambe; Gary Merriman, Conor Egan, Ger Keating; Mark Bryant, Ronan Murray, Johnny McEvoy. Subs – Wayne Mooney for Dooley, inj. (29m), Nigel Dunne for Merriman (HT), Peter Feeley for McEvoy (42m), Sean Kenny for Keating (42m), Brooke Healion for Murray (59m), Alex Kavanagh for Bryant (79m), Matthew Molloy for Egan (79m).
DOON: Mark Langtry; Callum Corcoran, Conor Keneghan, Mark Gaffey; Conor Mannion, Eoghan Hennessy, Luke Fitzgerald; Sean Og Foley, Senan Hanniffy; Darragh Egan, Conor Rohan, Kevin Martin; Callum Kelly, Luke Kelly, Blaine Rigney. Subs – Ciaran Brazil for Hennessy (HT), David Crombie for Rigney (45m), Nema Bozic for Darragh Egan (70m), Mark Coughlan for Rohan (76m),
Referee – Stephen Connolly, Kilcormac-Killoughey.
STATISTICS
Wides: Doon – 9 (6 in 1st half, 1 in 2nd half, 1 in 1st period extra time, 1 in 2nd period); Shamrocks – 15 (6 in 1st half, 6 in 2nd half, 3 in 1st period extra time, 0 in 2nd period).
Yellow cards: Doon – 3 (Sean Og Foley, Callum Kelly, Conor Mannion); Shamrocks – 1 (Mark Bryant).
Black cards: 0
Red cards: 0
By Offaly Secretary Tue 30th Jun
