ACL Div. 1: Garrycastle 0-13 Mullingar Shamrocks 0-6

 A disappointing night for Mullingar Shamrocks in Garrycastle as the team was comprehensively defeated by their old rivals. One of the old football empires of Westmeath might not have declined to the extent that has been widely reported on the evidence of this performance. Garrycastle opened the scoring and had two points on the board in as many minutes after patient works of creation. Unusually, the only Mullingar Shamrocks player to touch the ball while this work was in progress was goalkeeper Philly Shaw for the kick-outs. Dessie Dolan added a third point from long range before Conor Moore opened Shamrocks account with a pointed free. Ciarán Curley and Patrick Fagan added points to level matters in the twentieth minute before Curley pointed Shamrocks into the lead. Some good early deliveries to the full-forward line were beginning to pay dividends. James Sheerin equalised and Cathal Mannion added three points in succession, the first created by a superb pass from Dessie. Tye Adamson, who excelled in this half, closed the scoring before the interval with Garrycastle leading 0-7 to 0-5.

Dessie Dolan pointed from long range on resumption, but this score was neutralised by   Ciarán Curley in the 36th minute (0-8 to 0-6). This was Mullingar Shamrocks last meaningful contribution for the evening as Garrycastle dominated to the final whistle. Dessie Dolan pointed two long range frees and then kicked a beauty with his left foot before retiring for the evening. Michael Monaghan and Alex Gardiner also pointed before Pat Fox ended the night’s play.

After our league match in 2017 we wrote that ‘he hadn’t gone away you know’ with reference to Dessie Dolan. Well he still isn’t gone and the artist still continues to deliver master classes in Gaelic football. Or maybe he just reserves these displays for Mullingar Shamrocks? It’s almost twenty years now since he was a key member of the Westmeath team that won the All-Ireland under-21 title in 1999, he has won 7 Westmeath senior football titles since then, has represented Westmeath for sixteen years in senior championship and in 2017 was inaugurated in the Leinster GAA Hall of Fame. And he still plays on and on a night when sitting by the fire might have been an attractive proposition, the veteran Dessie was the dominant player on the field and scored 0-5 and controlled the match from the beginning. Truly an inspirational figure for every young and not so young player in Westmeath.

Dillon Matthews became the latest player to make his senior debut for Mullingar Shamrocks.   

 Mullingar Shamrocks:  Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore (Davy Coyne), Kieran Gavin, Aaron Purcell (Alan Cashman); Brendan O’Reilly, Paddy Joyce, Billy Flynn; Daragh Daly and Patrick Fagan [0-1] (Pearse Corroon); Ross Corroon (Davy Coyne), Dean Moore (Conor Twomey), Tye Adamson [0-1] (Dillon Matthews); Jordan Warde (Nathan Smyth) Conor Moore [0-1] (Kenneth O’Reilly), Ciarán Curley (0-3).