2
GAA
Dungarvan Observer | Friday, 3 July, 2015
J. J. Kavanagh and Sons Football Championships
Mixed fortunes for Brickeys in Kill THE Kill venue staged a very entertaining football double header last Sunday afternoon and while Gaultier and Brickeys won one match each, the Eastern club were the happier heading home as their Senior side are in a healthy position both avoiding relegation and qualifying for the quarter-finals. Brickeys badly needed the win here and it looked possible in the 53rd minute when they led by 1-9 to 0-10 but it was Gaultier who finished the stronger, outscoring their rivals by 0-4 to 0-1 to claim the spoils. Brickeys looked to be heading for a double defeat in the 60th minute of the Junior match, trailing by 0-13 to 0-11 in a game that was level eight times but Ian Walsh finished a last ditch effort into the dressing room end goal to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in a good standard match at this level. SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Late Gaultier point denies Brickeys Gaultier ………………0-14; Brickeys ……………..1-10. WITH 60 minutes on the clock, a Conor McGrath point levelled this game at 1-10 to 0-13 and it seemed as if each team would share the championship points but in a real see saw battle, it was Gaultier who held the momentum in the final minutes and full forward Ian Power kicked the winning point in the 62nd minute, following good approach work by Aaron Jones and J. J. Hutchinson. This was a hard game for Brickeys to lose as they were so close to coming out on top during the second half and especially when their best player on the day, Shane McGrath finished the ball to the net in the 47th minute, 1-7 to 0-9 and Emmett
Gaffney followed up immediately with a valuable point. Playing with the strong breeze in the first half, Gaultier were quick out of the blocks with three unanswered points by Man of the Match J. J. Hutchinson inside ten minutes and a fourth by full forward Barry Mullane one minute later. The Brickey challenge suffered a blow at the end of the first quarter when Kieran O’Neill had to retire injured with a leg injury and it was all of eighteen minutes before they opened their account with a fine Cormac O’Grady left legged point. The Western side were back in the game inside two minutes when Mark Cummins kicked a brace of excellent points supported by Conor and Shane McGrath respectively. There was only two points kicked in the final ten minutes of the half via J. J. Hutchinson (f), for a pick up off the ground, and Cormac O’Grady’s second score from a Mark Cummins pass to
leave the Brickeys well in contention at the short whistle on a scoreline of Gaultier 0-5; Brickeys 0-4. Gaultier scored 0-9 against the wind compared to 0-4 by the Brickeys and this is the main stat that swung this contest in their favour. Midfielder Conor O’Riordan opened a temporary little more daylight between these evenly matched teams in the 32nd minute but the see saw nature of the game commenced when Brickeys took over on the scoreboard following scores by Conor McGrath (2) and Carthach Shalloe to lead for the first time with 39 minutes on the clock. Gaultier returned with 0-3 of their own from Conor O’Riordan and two fine scores by wing back Billy O’Keeffe to re-establish their 0-2 advantage at 0-9 t0 0-7 at the beginning of the final quarter. The swing lifted Brickeys up again when Shane McGrath’s goal and Emmett Gaffney’s white flag
Team captains Gary Molloy (Gaultier) and Conor McGrath (Brickeys) pictured with match officials, (left to right), Michael O’Brien (Portlaw), John Condon (An Rinn) and John Kiely (Kill). edged them in front by 1-7 to 0-9 with midfielder Martin Houlihan doing trojan work during this period. However, that was as good as it got for the Brickeys as Gaultier got back on top following an exchange of scores between Sean White (‘65’) and Carthach Shalloe, 1-9 to 0-10 after 53 minutes. The teams were level in the 56th minute after points by the unstoppable J. J. Hutchinson and substitute Aaron Jones and Hutchinson’s sixth point restored the Barony’s lead after being in arrears for a twelve minute period. Conor
McGrath’s point levelled the tie for the fourth occasion on the call of normal time and, in truth, nobody could have argued with a share of the spoils but Ian Power’s 62nd minute score denied this happening. Remaining Games: Friday. July 17th: Brickeys v An Rinn, Kilrossanty v Gaultier. Tuesday, July 28th: St. Saviours v Brickeys, An Rinn v Gaultier. Gaultier’s Top Three: J. J. Hutchinson, Rory Walsh, Billy O’Keeffe. Brickeys Top Three: Shane McGrath, Mark Cummins, David Ryan.
Observer’s Man of the Match: J. J. Hutchinson. Number of Scorers: Gaultier 6. Brickeys 6. Scores from Play: Gaultier 0-11. Brickeys 1-10. Frees For: Gaultier 10. Brickeys 14. Wides: Gaultier 6. Brickeys 4. Score of the Match: Gaultier’s winning point in the 62nd minute, engineered by Aaron Jones and J. J. Hutchinson and executed by Ian Power. Scorers – Gaultier: J. J. Hutchinson 0-6 (2f), Conor O’Riordan and Billy O’Keeffe 0-2 each, Barry Mullane, Sean White (‘45’), Aaron Jones and Ian Power 0-1 each. Brickeys: Conor McGrath 0-3, Shane McGrath 1-0, Cormac O’Grady, Mark Cummins and Carthach Shalloe
0-2 each, Emmett Gaffney 0-1. Gaultier: David Whitty; Donal Power, Gary Molloy, John Cunningham; Sean Whitty, Ronan McDonagh, Billy O’Keeffe; Ian Power, Conor O’Riordan; Sean White, Brad Carroll, Rory Walsh; JJ Hutchinson, Barry Mullane, David Cullinane. Subs: Dean Kearns, Luke Nolan, Aaron Jones, Gary Cullinane, Sean Hogan. Brickeys: Joe Grant; Mark Cummins, Philly Walsh, Diarmuid Tobin; Tommy Lynch, David Ryan, Shane McGrath; Kieran O’Neill, Martin Houlihan; Carthach Barry, Conor McGrath, Ryan O’Neill. Subs: Darragh O’Grady, Darragh Duggan, Olan Casey. Referee: John Condon (An Rinn).
Ian Walsh’s 62nd minute goal the winner JUNIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Brickeys ………………1-11; Gaultier ……………… 0-13. WHEN Derek Jordan and substitute Damien Tiernan kicked over two points near the end of normal time to give Gaultier a 0-13 to 0-11 advantage over the Brickeys in the second game at the Kill venue last Sunday afternoon, it looked as if the Bushy Park club was going to endure a second heartbreaking defeat by the Barony club in the space of an hour. However, they say timing is everything, and full back Jimmy Sheehan and Man of the Match Christy Power combined to send the size 5 across in front of the dressing room end goal where wing back Ian Walsh was on hand to finish the ball to the net and give the Brickeys something positive out of the club’s Sunday trip to Kill. Walsh’s goal came in the 62nd minute, the same time as Gaultier’s winning score in the Senior equivalent and both scores just goes to show that the game is never over until the final whistle blows. This Junior game was of a good standard and some of the team play and the passing movements equalled and even surpassed parts of the Senor match. At times Gaultier looked unstoppable and the same was the case when Brickeys won posses-
sion. This most enjoyable encounter was level on no less than eight occasions and there was never more than 02 between the teams at any stage and similar to the Senior game in many respects, Gaultier held a 0-1 lead at the short whistle. Overall, Gaultier led the game three different times and Brickeys had their nose in front on five occasions and most importantly when Referee Tom Dee sounded the final whistle in the 65th minute. Both games at the well developed Kill venue gave patrons value for money and it’s always entertaining to see the result go down to the threads on the wire. Eoin Carney, Donal McCarthy, David Jones and James Murtagh excelled for Gaultier why there was no body better than Christy Power and Johnny Cooney on both teams. Carney opened the scoring from a free after just 35 seconds for Gaultier, with the breeze at their backs, and Cooney and Power (f) replied for Brickeys inside three minutes. Paul Whelan replaced the injured Gavin Flynn after just seven minutes while they could have opened a sizeable lead by the end of the first quarter but for not accepting two goal scoring chances. The teams were level for
the third time by the 20th minute at 0-4 each with Donal McCarthy, Eoin Carney and Derek Jordan on target for Gaultier and Conor Fitzgerald and Christy Power (f) supplementing Brickey’s earlier scores. The Barony enjoyed the greater and more fruitful possession for the remainder of the first half and their passing movements opened up the Brickeys around the field, resulting in a brace of points by full forward James Murtagh and a second white flag by Donal McCarthy. However, for all their possession, there was just the minimum between the teams at the break as again Johnny Cooney and Christy Power pointed for the winners to leave the scoreboard reading 0-7 to 0-6 at half way. Brickeys started the second half the brighter and they shot into the lead on two different occasions by the 39th minute and four in total by the 50th minute, thanks to 0-4 (1f) by Christy Power and 0-1 from the boot of Mark Scanlon. Eoin Carney, 0-2, and David Jones kept Gaultier in touch at this stage just 0-1 in arrears at 0-11 to 0-10 and it was their turn to take over proceedings for the remainder of the game with scores by Richard Finnegan (52), Derek Jordan (58) and Damien Tiernan (60) with what looked like a match win-
ning 0-13 to 0-11 lead. However, that most dramatic of game conclusions unfurled in the 62nd minute with Ian Walsh netting the winner with help from Jimmy Sheehan and Christy Power to end a very enjoyable evening from a neutral point of view at the Kill venue. Brickeys Top Three: Christy Power, Johnny Cooney, Nigel Whelan. Gaultier’s Top Three: Eoin Corcoran, Derek Jordan, Evan
Corcoran. Observer’s Man of the Match: Christy Power. Number of Scorers: Brickeys 5. Gaultier 7. Scores from Play: Brickeys 1-7. Gaultier 0-12. Frees For: Brickeys 13. Gaultier 18. Wides: Brickeys 6. Gaultier 7. Score of the Match: Brickeys winning goal in the 62nd minute, engineered by Jimmy Sheehan and Christy Power and executed by Ian Walsh. Scorers – Brickeys: Christy
Power 0-7 (4f), Ian Walsh 1-0, Johnny Cooney 0-2, Conor Fitzgerald and Mark Scanlon 0-1 each. Gaultier: Eoin Carney 0-3 (1f), Donal McCarthy, Derek Jordan, James Murtagh and David Jones. Richard Finnegan and Damien Tiernan 0-1 each. Brickeys: James Corcoran; Nigel Whelan, Jimmy Sheehan, Anthony Murphy; Ray Landers, Kevin Walsh, Ian Walsh; Johnny Cooney, Shane Nugent; Mark Scanlon, James Cooney, Richard Halpin; Gavin Flynn, Conor
Fitzgerald, Christy Power. Subs: Paul Whelan, Kevin McCarthy, Matt Kiely, Micheal Gee. Gaultier: Cian McDonagh; Conor Dunne, Robin Croke, Killian Jones; Evan Corcoran, Conor Langton, Sean Kelly; Richard Finnegan, Peter Traynor; David Jones, Donal McCarthy, Eoin Carney, Derek Jordan, James Murtagh, Rory Phelan. Subs: Damien Tiernan, Eddie Kirwan. Referee: Tom Dee (John Mitchels).
Brickey Rangers Junior Team who defeated Gaultier. Back Row (Left to Right): Mark Scanlon, Richard Halpin, Jimmy Sheehan, Matt Kiely, Shane Nugent, Ray Landers, Johnny Cooney. Front Row: Left to right): Nigel Whelan, Ian Walsh, Anthony Murphy, Gavin Flynn, Christy Power, Kevin Walsh.