By: Mary Dunne
Tullamore Court Hotel Intermediate Football Final
St Brigid’s: 5-8
Edenderry: 0-10
St Brigid’s well and truly put the ghost of 2025 Final defeat behind them when they saw off the challenge of a disappointing Edenderry following a cracking performance by the men from Croghan.
The master stroke to move Ben Kennedy inside yielded a magnificent return for St Brigid’s as they railroaded Edenderry in the second half, outscoring them by a staggering 3-4 to 0-2, with Kennedy hitting home 3-2 of that as St Brigid’s took home the Title for the first time since 2012.
It was a game that was people had varying opinions on heading into it. Many would have thought that Edenderry would have too much firepower for St Brigid’s, while others who would have followed the championship closely throughout certainly would have given St Brigid’s a massive shout especially their defence and their eagerness to win.
Sunday’s game was played in Glenisk O’Connor Park, as a curtain raiser to the Senior decider and tt was the meeting of the men from St Brigid’s the side who were on the hunt for the Bill Kelly Cup at the second time of asking having lost to Tullamore at the same stage this time last year, coming up against a rejuvenated Edenderry side who certainly have come from a poor start to progress very well in the latter stages.
Once again it was a meeting of the big club versus the rural one and this clash was always going to be an interesting affair and in the end it was the little rural club who came out in top with a very impressive dominant performance.
For Edenderry it was an extremely disappointing afternoon. They never really got going and the more the game went into the second half, the harder they found it to contend with St Brigid’s.
Alan Harte was by far their biggest threat and along with Cillian Foran they tired really hard to
St Brigid’ under the stewardship of Laz Molloy are known for their defensive style rather than attacking football, while Edenderry certainly were the polar opposites with some very good attacking players in the ranks.
It was always going to be one to watch to see would Cian Farrell after his summer stateside set the game alight and along with Sean Moriarty, Ciaran Farrell and Alan Harte they had exceptionally good scoring forwards.
In the opening half, it was Edenderry who played with the wind and at times they really struggled to get into the groove of the game, but by the half time whistle that had turned on its head.
St Brigid’s had a magnificent start to the game and they certainly asked a lot of questions of the Edenderry defence in the opening ten off minutes.
With a blistering start and one that they certainly would have hoped for, they got the best possible return for the attack. Cian Donohue was the orchestrator as he tore through the defence and with a fine lay off to Aaron McDermott, he made no mistake in crashing it to the net. St Brigid’s 1-0 to no score to the good two minutes in.
Sean Briody added to the lead minutes later and then with a follow up score from Aaron McDermott, they led 1-2 to no score with eight on the clock.
Edenderry were struggling to contend with St Brigid’s but finally after twelve minutes they got off the mark with a nice score from Alan Harte.
Alan Scally hit St Brigid’s five clear 1-3 to 0-1 with his first of the game, but Edenderry slowly were starting to get back into the game and with two frees in quick succession from Ciaran Farrell and Cian Farrell, the scores read 1-3 to 0-3 with sixteen played.
Ethan Hannon brought it back to a four point game 1-4 to 0-3 with a fine score on the 18th minute, but that is when Edenderry finally kicked it up a notch to finish out the half extremely well.
A game’s opening two pointer came on the 27th minute with Bobby Reynolds slotting over before follow up scores from Sean Moriarty and another two pointer thanks to Ciaran Farrell, to leave Edenderry one clear 0-8 to 1-4 at the half time break.
Edenderry certainly had swung the pendulum in their favour, but with the wind on their backs in the second half St Brigid’s were nothing short of brilliant.
While the scoring took nine minutes to come with a free from Alan Scally, it wasn’t long until they had more to set to come with further points from the impressive Cian Donohue and a brace from Ben Kennedy, they were suddenly three clear 1-8 to 0-8 with forty six on the clock.
Relentless to say the least now, St Brigid’s truly went for the jugular and with forty seven played Cian Donohue found Ben Kennedy and making no mistake he rattled the net, leaving six between the sides 2-8 to 0-8.
Edenderry were at sixes and sevens particularly in the full back line and they really couldn’t contend with St Brigid’s but finally with fifty minutes on the clock Cian Farrell did score for them.
Winning everything now in the middle of the field St Brigid’s were really vying for blood and with fifty four on the clock Ben Kennedy struck again, rattling the net for the second time and really it was now a case of playing down the clock.
Johnny Foran hit over for Edenderry, but with Ben Kennedy on fire, he hit home his hat-trick on the 57th minute.
The game still had one more piece of action, and with another brilliantly worked move Dan Molloy and Ronan Doyle linked up and with the overlapping Cian Donohue coming in totally unmarked, it was goal number five of the afternoon for St Brigid’s, who ran home convincing winners one final score line of 5-8 to 0-10.
The Scorers
St Brigid’s: Ben Kennedy 3-2, Aaron McDermott 1-1, Cian Donohue 1-1, Alan Scally 0-2 (Frees), Sean Briody 0-1, Ethan Hannon 0-1.
Edenderry: Cian Farrell 0-2 (Frees), Bobby Reynolds 0-2 (TP), Ciaran Farrell 0-2 (TP), Johnny Foran 0-1, Alan Harte 0-1, Ciaran Farrell 0-1 (Free).
The Teams
St Brigid’s: Liam Fox; Ronan Swords, Cameron Egan, Odhran Briody; Ben Kennedy, Ronan Doyle, Ethan Hannon; Sean Briody, Dan Molloy; Evan Rigney, Liam Cocoman (Capt.); Aaron McDermott, Cian Donohue, James Lynch.
Subs: Thomas Mooney for Evan Rigney (36 mins), Dillon Donoghue for Ethan Hannon (59 mins), Bobby Troy for Aaron McDermott (61 mins), Aaron Kennedy for James Lynch (61 mins).
Edenderry: Eric Corcoran; Mark McCarthy, Lorcan O’Dwyer, Conor Hynes; Johnny Foran, Peter Butler, Leslie Nolan; Bobby Reynolds, Cillian Foran; Alan Harte, Ciaran Farrell, Jamie O’Leary; Ciaran Breen, Cian Farrell, Sean Moriarty.
Sub: Sean Doyle for Jamie O’Leary (Half Time), Keith McGuinness for Sean Moriarty (49 mins), Jamie Dolan for Ciaran Breen (56 mins), Cathal Nolan for Leslie Nolan (56 mins).
Referee: Kevin Williamson (Tullamore).
By Offaly Secretary Sun 11th Oct
