Bloomsday woes in Kildorrery as we conspire to lose League Final
June 17, 2023
Last night in Kildorrery, we conspired to lose the Cavanagh’s of Fermoy Division 1 League Final against Ballyhooly by kicking poor wides in the second half, and passing over gilt-edged goal chances in the first. The final score in the game was Ballyhooly 0-12 as against 0-10 for Killavullen.
We started very brightly, and had the opening score of the game, from Jamie Magner, after been placed in the clear by Charlie Lillis. We spurned our opening goal chance, of which ultimately we failed to collect anything from four of these situations, when Padraig Looney, who was fouled in the act of breaking through, but the referee, gave us an advantage, sent a ball narrowly wide, as the goalkeeper advanced. Padraig made amends shortly thereafter with a nice point and then Charlie Lillis scored a beauty of a point, when he shaped one way, and turned sharply and sent a ball over the bar from 30 metres out. We created another goal scoring , one on one situation with a neat exchange of hand passes in the forward division, released Brian Cotter running at speed at the Ballyhooly rear guard but, credit Cian Murphy in the Ballyhooly goals, he advanced from his line, and smothered Brian’s shot.
Ballyhooley got their opening score from Brian Lombard in the 10th minute of the game but Charlie Lillis scored again, almost immediately to keep our lead at 3 points. Denis Kiely was becoming increasing prominent in midfield for Ballyhooly and he was pivotal to their comeback in this period, fetching a lot of clean possession in midfield, when he had a considerable height advantage. Diarmuid Linehan scored for Ballyhooley in the 15th minute and then the lead was down to a solitary point when Brian Lombard scored again. We spurned another goal chance in a one on one situation and got nothing for our effort and our wastefulness seemed to sap our believe at this juncture , we were creating the chances, but simply not converted them, with an over reliance on trying to get the killer pass away, but invariably they were mis-directed. Ballyhooley scored a close in free in the 22nd minute to draw level, from Kevin Kiely and then took the lead in the 30th minute from Fintan Linehan. Padraig Looney replied for us, in the next minute, a fine score, and then, we wrestled the lead back with a free from the acutest of angles from Charlie Lillis. He was on the 20 metre line, and nearer to O Sullivan’s garage than the goals, but he somehow managed to get it over the bar. Right before the break, we created another goal chance, and this time, Padraig beat the onrushing goal keeper, but his shot cannoned off the cross bar, down onto the goal line, and away to safety. The score at the interval was 0-06 to 0-05 in favour of Killavullen.
Very quickly in the second period, of the game, Ballyhooly were level, when Seamus Roche, foraging forward from his half-back line, scored a nice point. That man Brian Lombard scored in the next minute to grapple back the lead, a lead that they maintained to the final whistle. The game entered into a pattern at this stage, Killavullen pressing, but without threatening against a massed defence, and Ballyhooly breaking at speed from a turn over situation. The lead was pushed out to 2 points when Brian Lombard scored again, only to be followed up by another Kevin Kiely score, in the sixth minute of the half. That lead was further added to in the 11th minute of this half, when Fionn Hess, operating at centre forward, but in reality all over the field, added a point from distance. We were on the ropes, and though having a lot of the ball, we carried it, into crowded situations, and invariably were turned over. We pressed and probed, for close on 10 minutes, but did not yield a score while, we somewhat panicked, and kicked some absurd wides in this period, when the shot selection process was poor, and the execution worse. Charlie Lillis was replaced after going over on his ankle, on the rock hard ground, and Ballyhooly pushed on again, with a converted free in the 49th minute. We got our opening score of a very bad second half period in the 52nd minute of the game, from Jamie Magner but that scoring return was meagre reward for our efforts. Eoghan Buckley got a point back for us, in the 58th minute but Ballyhooley pushed the lead out to four points again, with a converted close in free. Rory Regan brought the deficit back to a 3-point game in the 61st minute, but Ballyhooley were wily and clever in defending their goal with an amassed defence and we failed to get an isolation moment to create even an opportunity, or snip of one. The referee chose to play an extra-ordinary amount of injury time, and in the last foray, a high centre from a 45 metre shot was fisted goal wards from Padraig Looney, but it skimmed narrowly over the bar, and not under, as we needed.
Two players, one from each side, received red cards at this juncture, in what was otherwise a very clean sporting game, between two clubs who get on very well together, since their amalgamation some years ago, as Blackwater Rovers, in underage games. That coming together is no longer necessary, as both clubs have sufficient numbers but the friendships remain.
At the final whistle, amid joyous scenes in the Ballyhooley camp, Arthur O Keeffe, Chairman of the Avondhu board, presented the Fitzgerald cup, to Barry Johnson and Denis Kiely, as joint captains of Ballyhooley.
So, well done to Ballyhooly on winning this Avondhu Division 1 League title, in Football, for the first time ever -
Some soul searching and pondering for Killavullen, who had a fine league campaign but came away with no garlands.
The team was
- James Angland
- Sean Bartley
- Fionn Magner
- Patrick Angland
- Paul O Sullivan
- Eoin Birchill
- Cian O Connor
- Brian Cotter
- Liam Fox
- Eoghan Buckley (0-01)
- Charlie Lillis (0-03, 0-01F)
- Liam Cronin
- Rory Regan (0-01)
- Jamie Magner (0-02, 0-01F)
- Padraig Looney (0-03,)
Substitutes
- Billy Norris for Charlie Lillis
A nice compact , colourful league Final programme was produced by Kildorrery Club, which was well received by both teams - Bualadh bos to them.