Killavullen exit the Football Junior A championship
October 13, 2025
Paths to fulfilment are rarely straight lines but trust in the destination is imperative, and Killavullen came up short in the second period, of the Junior A Football semi-final yesterday in Churchtown, from a winning position at half time.
In the opening minute of the game, Liscarroll-Churchtown Gaels, here after called LC Gaels got the first score of the game, from a free, when the inside forward was alleged to have been held back in his run. Trouble with that call, is you got to be consistent with the those calls from there on out, and sadly, that was not so. LC Gaels duly scored, and got a point from play, from their centre forward in the next minute. We got our opening and levelling score, in the 5th minute, when Eoin Birchill fired over a beauty from distance, to register a two-point score. LC Gaels were awarded another close in free, in the 10th minute, but we answered that back with a fine effort after a period of sustained possession, from Niall Feaheny and took the lead with a lovely dinky score from Mark Nagle, in the 14th minute, a player whose runs were held up all day, and on whom the fabric of the O Neill’s jersey was tested on several occasions. The play was held up for over four minutes when Mike in our goals received lengthy treatment, after an inrushing player collided with him, in attempting to get his hands on a cross-the-box pass, it was a precursor to an incident later in the game, The inrushing player did not get the ball, but he certainly got the man.
LC Gaels equalized with a point, scored by Colin O Brien in the 16th minute and regained the lead with a point in the same minute scored by their half forward Kieran Daly. LC Gaels went further ahead with a point from their corner forward, Gearoid Healy in the 20th minute. Killavullen regained the initiative in and around midfield where Ronan Barry and Eoin Birchill were prominent and Eoin scored a fine effort from distance, but just inside the arc, to register our fifth point. LC Gaels were lucky to remain with their full complement of players when Brian Cotter was fouled, as he went racing through on goals, and Eoin scored the resultant free in the 27th minute of the half. Killavullen were in the ascendancy in this time, and Brian’s brother Eddie was unlucky with another driving run, that yielded no score, but that last pass, the pass off his shoulder did not happen as Eoin Birchill was fouled as he went to race clear of his man, nothing given, but one of the dark arts of Gaelic football, that was missed. Mark Nagle scored a lovely point for us, in the 30th minute of the half, after a telling contribution from Seamus O Mahony, showing well, in front of his man, and we got the next score, a deserved score from Eddie Cotter after a great break up the field from Liam Cronin. A couple of one-two passes drew the opposing backs, and Eddie drilled the ball over the bar to put us up by two points. The half time whistle was blown after two minutes of injury time.
In the second half, Sean Palmer opened the scoring for us, in the 5th minute again after holding the ball up, for a sustained period, and we replaced Seamus Fox, carrying an injury since the hurling game, last week against Dromina, with Padraig Looney, another player rushing back from an injury, sustained against Charleville, in the final pool game. LC Gaels got their opening point of the game from a free in the seventh minute of the game, scored by their full forward Pauric O Shea . The next score had a massive bearing on the game, when their same full forward palmed a centre to the net after a cross-field hand pass, teed him up, and he was determined to get the ball over the line, in the 10th minute of the half. A suspicion of a square ball was dismissed by the referee, but it put our opponents in the lead, a lead that they never relented thereafter.
We introduced Owen Magner and Colm Hayes for Mikey O Connor and Seamus O Mahony but it was LC Gaels that kicked on, with a two-point score, from distance, that now had three points between the teams, and their centre back, beat our press for another two-point score, in the 18th minute of the half. From being three points up, in the 5th minute of the half, to being behind by five, in the 18th minute, was the story of the game. Paudie Looney scored an inspiring score for us, in the 19th minute, a point on the run, and being pursued by two defenders, but despite hobbling from an injury, he outran them and scored. LC Gaels scored again though from their substitute Ethan Evans to push the margin out to five points again, and that became six, with another close in free. We introduced Colm O Mahony for the hard-working Niall Feaheny and we got a life line when Mark Nagle scored a close in goal for us with four minutes to go. We also introduced Seamus Cronin for Sean Palmer, who had given his all, in his numerous runs up and down the field, off the shoulder of the attackers. In one of the last plays of the game, Seamus raced through on goals, but LC Gaels defender amassed near the penalty area meant he could go no further, and our race was cooked. Sometimes when you stray off kilter, something ostensibly trivial can nudge the needle back to where it's meant to be, and that dial simply did not work for us in the middle third of the game, when we left our lead slip, and lost our composure and shape in the middle of the field.
A fine commendable effort overall, but it is LC Gaels that march onto the final, to play against Charleville, a game scheduled to be played in Milford on the weekend of the 25th of October.
For the backroom team of Colman, Dan, Eddie, Conor, and Willie, no one could question their commitment and zeal, in what was ultimately a non-fulfilling year, but such is sport. Brief interludes of exhilaration, with periodic successes but predominantly toil, without reward.
The team and those who scored were;
- Michael Walsh
- Tomas Fennell
- Kevin Fox
- Patrick Angland
- Sean Palmer (0-01)
- Liam Cronin
- Brian Cotter
- Ronan Barry
- Eoin Birchill (0-04, 0-01F)
- Seamus Fox
- Mike O Connor
- Eddie Cotter (0-01)
- Mark Nagle (1-02)
- Niall Feaheny (0-01)
- Seamus O Mahony
Substitutes.
- Padraig Looney (0-01) for Seamus Fox
- Owen Magner for Mikey O Connor
- Colm Hayes for Seamus O Mahony
- Colm O Mahony for Niall Feaheny
- Seamus Cronin for Sean Palmer
