Moycullen's All-Ireland quest came to an end on Sunday afternoon when losing to Watty Grahams The Glen 1-11 to 0-12 in Croke Park.
The semi-final loss marks the end of a season in which they have taken massive strides as a club and for this group of players.
Having their first Connacht title and their second Galway senior title, the club and players have much of which to be proud, and have set a platform for underage teams within the club to thrive.
The result could have been different had certain chances been taken, and manager Don Connellan and co will feel they are not far away from Andy Merrigan success, given the quality they came up against in The Glen, who they pushed all the way.
An extremely slow start did not help Moycullen’s cause as they fell behind by 04-00 and failed to score in the opening 18 minutes.
The Glen dominated the Moycullen kick-out as Andrew Power’s formula of targeting Ger Davoren at left wing forward for each kick-out was not reaping its desired reward where Emmett Bradley and Conor Glass made hay in the middle of the park.
The Glen’s opening scores came from a brace of points from full forward Danny Tallon, a beautiful point from Young footballer of the Year nominee Ethan Doherty, and a nice chip over point from outside the defence by midfielder Emmett Bradley.
Moycullen found it difficult to breach The Glen defence, and it showed as Dessie Conneely had a shot blocked down, Peter Cooke had a wayward effort from a 45 and Eoghan Kelly was turned over inside the 21. Eventually Owen Gallagher bundled his way through The Glen defence before being fouled, allowing Dessie Conneely to open his side’s scoring tally with a simple tap over free.
Another Conneely free and a brilliantly engineered score by Peter Cooke, who stepped his man to give himself a yard of space to shoot, had Moycullen right back in the game. The Glen responded well, keeping their noses well in front when Ethan Doherty grabbed his second point and Bradley kicked a wonderful curling point with his left foot from right under the Hogan Stand. Dessie converted another free for Moycullen before the break to leave a two-point deficit at the interval.
The second half could not have begun any worse for Moycullen. Having held onto possession for a prolonged spell after winning the throw-in, a cheap turnover allowed The Glen to counter quickly which resulted in wing back Tiernan Flanagan putting a rebounded shot into the back of the net, creating a five-point gap.
From this point, the game opened up a lot more. The sides traded two points each as Niall Walsh and Conneely, from a placed ball, were on target for Don Connellan’s charges. Moycullen slowly started to play the game on their terms despite trailing by five points with twenty minutes to go.
Owen Gallagher’s direct running was their primary threat to The Glen’s rearguard. They were also much more organised in their press on The Glen’s kickout. Dessie Conneely’s frees edged Moycullen closer to their opposition as they claimed four of the next five points. Three Conneely frees and an excellent Peter Cooke point from play closed the gap to two with 10 minutes remaining.
Unfortunately, Moycullen could not bridge the gap before the game ended, despite another Conneely free and an Owen Gallagher score as points for The Glen from Michael Warnock and Cathal Mulholland kept the margin to at least two points until the game's end.
Moycullen were much the better team in the second half, but will rue a couple of missed opportunities, as well as the concession of the goal. They died with their boots on and when they reflect on the season, they have much of which to be proud.
