Win for Killavullen over Mallow - Div 1 FL
April 12, 2026
Killavullen overcame a sluggish start to win impressively in Killavullen on Saturday night last, in a game played in squally and sometimes wet conditions, on a pitch, that held up well, despite the amount of rain, that had fallen in the previous 48 hours.
Killavullen opened the scoring, with a Colm O Mahony point after working the ball several times across the field to open up the space, but a youthful Mallow team responded with a point, almost immediately. Mallow were playing with the wind, down towards the Monanimy Castle end, away from the village and took the lead with a booming 2 point score, scored by their mid-fielder and opened up a considerable advantage when they raced down through a yawning gap, in the centre of our defence, and after a quick exchange of hand passes, isolated their inside forward with Cian in our goals, and he was powerless to prevent the raising of the green flag.
Killavullen regrouped, and to their credit, they figured it out, on the field themselves where the overloads were happening, and set about preventing those situations. Eoin Birchhill, our sole representative on the Avondhu Senior team, that played during the week, scored a close in free, after Owen Magner was fouled. Mallow tacked over another point, but Mikey O Connor scored two identical-type points in responses, after some intricate hand passes, and cutting in from the wing, and curling the ball, delightfully over the bar. Seamus Fox was next to score, and it was evident, that our full back line, was leading from the front, and our half back wing players in Brian and Sean Palmer, were relentlessly pushing forward. It dragged the Mallow players up the field, left yawning gaps at the back, but Ronan Barry was influential in manning that area. Mallow got another point, to extend their lead out to a goal again, before Padraig Looney, intervened and scored a nice point, and that was followed by another from Owen. Mallow were grateful to their corner back to block a certain goal, just before the whistle to signal the break, when he cleared the ball off the line, after the goalkeeper was rounded and beaten. The score at the interval was Mallow 1-05 as against 0-07 for Killavullen.
A rainbow appeared and some splattering’s of rain, but thankfully, though threatened, it did not materialise, and the second period, was played in sunshine, and a much-reduced wind advantage. Niall Feaheny, so often the willing runner in the exchanges of passes, scored a lovely point to equalise for us, and we took the lead with a brilliant two point score from distance from Eoin Birchill. Seamus O Mahony was introduced for Seamus Fox, after 12 minutes, much more an indication of the work that Seamus Fox had put into the opening 40 minutes, rather indicating a poor display. Padraig Looney, playing against some of his cousins, from Mallow was tormenting his immediate marker, with lung bursting runs, and he scored another point, for us, in the 15th minute. We took command of the game, when Niall Feaheny scored another two point score, and the game was settled with the next score, when Padraig, one on one with the goal keeper from Mallow, Josh Murphy, and he is quite some keeper, dinked a sublime little chip over his head, that would not look out of place, if it was played in the Masters, in Augusta , this week end. 1-13 to 1-05 was some turn around, from the deficit after 10 minutes, of 1-03 to 0-01 in favour of Malow then.
Eoin Birchill scored another fine score before Killavullen, sensing that the job was done make a raft of changes, and gave game time to the large body of substitutes, on the line. Owen Magner scored another goal for us, after Seamus O Mahony found David Walsh in splendid isolation, with a beautiful pass, from the wings into the centre of the field, and David in close to goals. David off loaded quickly to Owen, who finished cooly to the net. Mallow got the final score of the game, a close in free, before the referee, Wayne King who contributed enormously to the smooth running of the game, blew the final whistle.
A very pleasing performance from a much-changed Killavullen team, who like all clubs have a plethora of injuries and absentees for other reasons, like the marathon in Paris, and Aintree races, but squad depth is important, in any league campaign.
Final score – Killavullen 2-14 to 1-06 for Mallow.
The team and scorers were.
- Cian Murphy
- Joe Cagney
- Conor Griffin
- Tomas Fennell
- Brian Cotter
- Ronan Barry
- Sean Palmer
- Mikey O Connor (0-02)
- Colm O Mahony (0-01)
- Padraig Looney (1-02)
- Eoin Birchill 0-04, 0-01F, 1 x 2Pts)
- Jamie Magner
- Owen Magner (1-01)
- Niall Feaheny (0-03, 1 x 2 pts)
- Seamus Fox (0-01)
Substitutes
- Seamus O Mahony for Seamus Fox
- Colm Looney for Niall Feaheny
- Niall Carroll for Sean Palmer
- David Walsh for Eoin Birchill
- Ian O Mahony for Padraig Looney