Colm Looney powers his way to impressive haul of 3-04. and a win
July 21, 2022
Killavullen, overcame being behind by as much as 5 points at one stage of the opening half, for the 2nd game in a row to win again in the Junior A football championship, earlier tonight in Doneraile, against Ballyclough.
Killavullen opened smartly and could have had a goal in the 4th minute, only for Paul O Sullivan to drag his shot well wide, and he through on the goals, but we did open the scoring in the 6th minute after Mikey O Connor scored a nice point. Colm Looney then scored in the 7th minute only for Ballyclough to gain their opening score in the 8th minute. The game was relatively open, but though we scored two frees in quick succession in the 9th and 10th minutes, we had not racked up the scores at this stage that our dominant period of possession should have yielded. Ballyclough were dangerous when they attacked at pace, none more so, than what Aaron Finnegan in the corner forward berth did for them. They pulled a point back, and then they scored another in the 12th minute. Darragh O Grady kicked a monster point from long range, that spent an entirety in the air, before just dropping over the bar in the 12th minute, but then, Ballyclough got two points back to draw level in the 18th minute from dead ball situations. Ballyclough, as they had done in their previous games against Buttevant and Ballyhooley belied their underdog status and scored a well-worked goal, past Niall in the 19th minute and scored another point in the 20th minute when Damien Buckley caught an inside mark, and slotted over the resultant free shot. We had gone out of the game, and Ballyclough were winning most of the breaks in the congested middle third of the field. Aaron Finnegan scored another free in the 25th minute to push their lead pout to 5 points, 1-07 to 0-05. Crucially though, for the outcome of the game, we clawed our way back into contention, with the last three points of the half, from a Jamie Magner free, and then two from play, from Eddie Cotter and Paul O Sullivan to leave the score at the break 0-08 as against 1-07.
A quick start to the second period was required, and we got the opening salvo, from Seamus O Mahony, who made a very telling contribution when introduced into the game. We also brought on Mark Nagle for Joe Cagney and rejigged our back line to be tighter to counteract Ballyclough. Jamie scored a free to bring parity to the game in the 5th minute. Colm Looney then scored a decisive goal for us, in the 6th minute after a quick exchange of passes involving Ronan Barry and Jamie Magner found Colm in space, and he made no mistake from close in, on the famed goalkeeper of Ballyclough, the mercurial Colm O Neill. Nothing Colm could do about that, but it was a finish, the same player would have been proud of, when he was in his prime. Ronan Barry then added to the scoring himself with a lovely point in the 7th minute followed by Kian Lane in the 12th and it looked that the lethargic first period was well behind us now.
Darragh O Grady added to his score that he got in the 13th minute after another lung bursting run from his half back berth, when he fisted the ball over the bar. When Eddie Cotter bore down on goals in the 15th minute, we decried that he carried the ball into a congested area, but under pressure, he spilled the ball, and he fell to Colm Looney who finished to the net again, through a crowd of players. Ballyclough, to their credit rallied and scored a good point back in the 17th minute and then a converted free in the 18th from a free taker, in Aaron Finnegan , that scarily missed one, all night. Colm was in unstoppable form now though, and he scored another point in the 19th minute and again in the 21st when he used his very considerable strength to make space for himself. Interspersed between those scores, Ballyclough got another point to bring their tally to 1-10. We made more changes, in introducing Billy Norris and Charlie Lillis for Paul O Sullivan and Eddie Cotter who had put in a fine shift each. Ballyclough added another free in the 25th minute and then, their 12th point on the night in the 26th before Colm, said enough with that, and scored another point in the 28th minute. Mark Nagle added to our tally in the 29th minute, to be followed up by a Brian Cotter point, that was very much deserved, after he doing an immense amount of running, off the shoulder, supporting other players all night long. Ballyclough brought down their Junior A Football season when a fine point, from their young team in the 30th minute. The final score was fitting, that he came and fell to Colm, who again found the net from close range to bring his impressive tally on the night to 3-04.
Final Score. Ballyclough 1-13; Killavullen 3-18
- Niall Murray
- Patrick Angland
- Fionn Magner
- Joe Cagney
- Cian O Connor
- Liam Cronin
- Darragh O Grady (0-02)
- Ronan Barry (0-01)
- Brian Cotter (0-01)
- Kian Lane (0-01)
- Paul O Sullivan (0-01)
- Eddie Cotter (0-01)
- Com Looney (3-04)
- Jamie Magner (0-04, 0-04F)
- Mikey O Connor (0-01)
Subs
- Seamus O Mahony (0-01) for Cian O Connor
- Mark Nagle(0-01) for Joe Cagney
- Charlie Lillis for Paul O Sullivan
- Billy Norris for Eddie Cotter