Clarke’s Bar Junior Football II Championship: Caulry 0-17 Mullingar Shamrocks 0-15 

A bad start to championship weekend 1 with a loss to Caulry in Springfield on Friday evening. It was an unbeaten week for Shamrocks at all levels up to this loss which could have been reversed although on the night Caulry deserved to collect the championship points. 

Scores were plentiful in the early stages and after 8 minutes, Shamrocks held an 0-4 to 0-2 lead despite playing into the breeze. Andrew Shaw, Ronan Byrne (0-2) attacking from wing-back and Brian Farrell (after a brilliant interception and run by the excellent Nathan Cornally) recorded the Shamrocks scores. Thomas Dunning and Liam Malynn pointed for Caulry, the latter collecting the rebound from a brilliant Liam English save.  Dunning and Niall Hannigan exchanged points before the Caulry man levelled matters when he converted a two-pointer free (0-5 each). Points from Seán Doyle and Adan Donoghue (0-2) edged Caulry into a three-point lead before Andrew Shaw contributed another two points to the Shamrocks total. Liam Malynn neutralised these scores with a superb two-pointer from a distance, Kenneth O’Reilly pointed for Shamrocks before Alan Daly kicked Caulry’s third two-pointer of the evening and Thomas Dunning scored his fifth point of the half to bring the half-time score to 0-13 to 0-8. 

Shamrocks began the second half with a new sense of purpose; Brian Farrell pointed twice, Niall Hannigan pointed as did Kenneth O’Reilly, gradually coming to terms with the game after a long absence. Niall Hannigan’s point came after Shamrocks swept the ball downfield after Matthew Siode collected a rebound from the goalpost.  Caulry broke the sequence with a point which was balanced by a Ciaran Kiernan effort before a David Gaynor point restored the two-point gap in Caulry’s favour (0-15 to 0-13). Points from Kenneth O’Reilly and Matthew Shaw brought the sides level after 53 minutes and with wind advantage the odds favoured Shamrocks (0-15 each). 

However when the need was greatest, Caulry men stepped forward and  raised their game and points from Paddy Sleator and Thomas Dunning sealed the championship win. An attempt to run down the clock could have proved costly as Kenneth O’Reilly interrupted the attempt and his brilliant dipping shot smashed off the crossbar and three times saves by the Caulry goalkeeper Cillian Nagle defied the best efforts of a sequence of Shamrocks players to snatch victory. 

Two noteworthy aspects of this game were that we scored 0-15 from play (frees were at a minimum) and failed to record a two-pointer. Caulry kicked three-two pointers one of which was their only score from a free. They made the difference. 

Overall, not a bad advertisement for Junior II football. 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Liam English; Eamonn Breslin, Jack Kelly (Peter Finch), Tadhg Sheridan; Ronan Byrne (0-2), Dylan Carey, Nathan Cornally; Ciaran Kiernan (0-1), Ameen Hacini (Matthew Siode); Brian Farrell (0-3), Kenneth O’Reilly (0-3), Neil Hannigan (0-2); Tommy Daly (Luke McCabe), Andrew Shaw (0-3) [Matthew Shaw 0-1], Padraig Casey (Conor Heffernan).