St Gerald’s 0-11
St Colman’s 0-06
St Gerald’s Castlebar shook off going five points down to the defending Aonghus Murphy cup after 16 minutes in Flanagan Park in Ballinrobe on Sunday to make their way to the provincial decider in a couple of weeks. St Colman’s raced out of the traps early on to lay down a marker, showing that they were not going to give up their crown without a fight. But the Castlebar men, once they settled their nerves, took control of the game, with towering midfielder Danny Kirby getting to grips with the game in the middle third and Niall McCarney putting in a man of the match performance at full back. With the game level and 17 minutes left on the stop watch Darren Coen played in John Hutton who had the goal at his mercy, he pulled the trigger but McCarney somehow got his hands in the way to pull off a masterful block for St Gerald’s and with it turned the game irreversibly in the Castlebar school’s favour.
However things did not look so bright early on in the game for a Gerald’s side who were looking for their first provincial A title since 1996 as Colman’s raced into an early lead.
Darren Coen opened the scoring from a free after five minutes to take advantage of a strong wind advantage, this was quickly followed up by a score from David Macken who was played into space following a quick free by Josh Roynane. The Claremorris full forward made it three and easy for his side after 12 minutes from a free, as Gerald’s struggled to get their attack moving and star forward Cillian O’Connor was being kept quiet by Ger Commins in the Claremorris defence. Ryan Quirk clipped over the south Mayo school’s fourth score after the ball was worked in from the left flank to the middle of the field, where Quirk looked to have carried the ball into trouble before he found enough room to shoot. A minute later Colman’s scored their penultimate score of the game, Adam Gallagher intercepted a hand pass from Gerald’s in front of the stand and made a powerful break upfield before he laid the ball off to Darren Coen who finished with ease from close in.
It was all Colman’s at this stage and the Gerald’s management team of Joe McCabe and John Maughan must have been scratching their heads at what had gone wrong, but their side did not panic and were slowly getting to grips with the game. Cillian O’Connor hit his side’s first score from a close in free on 21 minutes, then David Stenson got on the end of a quick move involving Danny Geraghty and O’Connor one minute later.
With four minutes left on the clock before the break, Gerald’s missed a gilt edged goal chance. Fergal Durcan did well out on the right wing to win possession before he fed the ball to O’Connor, whose quick hands sent Thomas Walsh clear on goal. The wing forward did not panic as the goal opened up in front of him and went for precision rather than power, but he placed the ball just to the right of the post rather than inside it. On such incidents many games can turn, but Gerald’s were building up a head of steam and not going to let this one slip away. O’Connor showed his class to land his side’s third score shortly after, and then hit the final score of the half a minute into injury time to leave his side trailing by 0-5 to 0-4 at the break.
Less than a minute had elapsed in the second half when O’Connor had the sides level, however a Roynane free pushed the defending champions back into the lead on 35 minutes with what turned out to be Colman’s last score. From then on Gerald’s were in control if never out of sight, thanks to a couple of poor wides, and without McCarney’s timely introduction they could have found themselves behind again in the second half, but it was the Castlebar school’s day and scores from O’Connor twice, another brace from Stenson, and individual efforts from Thomas Walsh and from Conor O’Shea way out on the right at the end sealed the win and booked their place in the final.
St Gerald’s will now go on to play Summerhill College in the final after the Sligo school saw off the challenge of St Muredach’s College Ballina in the other semi-final on Sunday by 3-7 to 0-11 after extra time.
St Gerald’s: F Walsh; D Cotter, N McCarney, J Redmond; M Regan, D Geraghty, J McHale; D Kirby, K Mulgrew; F Durcan, C O’Connor, T Walsh; D Stenson, C Costello, C O’Shea. Subs: Patrick Collins, Paul Regan
St Colman’s: D Grant; C Kellegher, M Waldron, J Kelly; N Philbin, G Commins, A Gallagher; C Crowe, R Quirke; C Kelly, D Coen, D Macken; B Healy, J Roynane, J Hutton. K Walsh, A Healy, C Coleman
Ref: Martin Murphy (Ballinrobe ).
