Mission accomplished, Athlone defeated and Mullingar Shamrocks qualified for the ACL Div. 1 final for the first time since 2015. It was the sixth successive ACL Div. 1 victory and we have no idea when this happened last. These achievements won’t really matter when the real test begins in a few weeks time, with a must win championship opener against Caulry – for both clubs. However it was an ACL Div.1 where the positives far outweighed the negatives. 

In the end, the result against Athlone was comfortable which didn’t seem likely at the interval as wind assisted Shamrocks led by 1-5 to 0-0, (all scores coming from the debutant Alex Sheerin and the long-serving, Dean Moore). Despite the strong wind blowing directly to the car-park end, the 1-5 was accumulated without the assistance of a 2-pointer. Dean Moore pointed a free in the first minute and a great turnover by Brendan O’Reilly ended with Alex Sheerin planting the ball in the back of the Athlone net. A good Adam Buckley save from Stephen O’Connor began a move that ended with Dean Moore hand-passing over the crossbar. Dean also added the next point when he completed a move that began with a short restart from Adam Buckley to Dylan Franzoni. Ben Killian was off-target with a few long distance frees before Alex Sheerin added two points to the Shamrocks total before the interval (1-5 to 0-0). The last point was created by superb runs from Efe and Brian Guerin in particular. 

Criostóir Ormsby, introduced at half-time, marked his first Senior start by winning the throw-in and broke forward but the attack was repulsed before Brian Guerin and Efe again combined to create an opportunity for Alex Sheerin who pointed. After 35 minutes, Kian Mitchell  opened the scoring for Athlone but  a Dean Moore pointed free neutralised this effort (1-7 to 0-1). A few words of advice from Ritchie Daly to referee Ken Gunning resulted in a yellow card and free to Athlone that was converted for two points by Kian Mitchell – a Springfield first for this particular infraction. The Shamrocks response was immediate; the restart was collected by Criostóir Ormsby who combined with Alex Sheerin who parted to Davy Gavin who blasted past Darren Costello for Shamrocks second goal (2-7 to 0-3). Ben Killain finally landed a 2-pointer from a free but Adam Glynn responded with a point. The corner-back who loves to attack began and ended the move. Dean Moore collected from the restart and pointed to establish a 10-point lead (2-9 to 0-5) after 45 minutes. Alex Sheerin added another point to his total; Alex started a Senior match for the first time and finished with 1-4 – not a bad start at Senior level.  Athlone responded with points from Kieran Colclough, Stephen Flaherty and Kian Mitchell. Dean Moore pointed a difficult free and from the restart won by Brian Guerin,Gavin Pierce pointed. A brilliant Adam Buckley save ended any hopes of an Athlone victory despite Kian Mitchells’ two-pointer. In the final minutes, Brian Guerin pointed and created the final score of the evening finished by Dean Moore. 

A deserved victory that concluded a very satisfactory league campaign made significant by the number of young players that featured and that made their debut in adult football. Prior to the final whistle, Conor Heffernan made his Senior debut. The long-serving players weren’t bad either. 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Buckley; Dylan Franzoni, Efe Siode, Adam Glynn (0-1); Donal Lane (Ciaran Kiernan), Brendan O’ Reilly, Brian Guerin (0-1); Donnacha Maguire, Nathan Gavin (Criostóir Ormsby); Alan Cashman (Matthew Shaw), Davy Gavin (1-0), Denis Corroon; Alex Sheerin (1-4) [Conor Heffernan], Dean Moore (0-7), Trevor Keena (Gavin Pierce, 0-1).