Westmeath Senior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-13 Garrycastle 0-10.
Shamrocks assured themselves of a place in the knock-out stages of the championship with this merited but hard-earned 0-13 to 0-10 victory over Garrycastle played in Rosemount on Sunday evening.
Ciarán Curley and Conor Cosgrove exchanged pointed frees in the opening minutes; eight minutes of scoreless play followed before Dylan McDermott added to Shamrocks tally. Ciarán Curley and Seanie Daly added a point each to put Shamrocks into a 0-4 to 0-1 led after fifteen minutes. A brilliant Philly Shaw save at this stage proved to be one of the key moments of the match and from the resultant 45 Conor Cosgrove pointed. Ciarán O’Neill added another Garrycastle point (again from a free) to reduce the deficit to the minimum on the eighteenth minute (0-4 to 0-3). Curley and O’Neill again traded frees before Donal O’Donoghue and Patrick Fagan kicked a point each from play, Shamrocks two best scores of the half. The final score of the half belonged to Garrycastle: another pointed free, this one from the man who rarely misses such opportunities, Conor Cosgrove. After playing with wind and hill advantage, Shamrocks interval lead of 0-7 to 0-5 looked fragile.
Shamrocks increased the intensity in the second-half. Daragh Daly began the trend, winning possession from the throw-in he soloed through the Garrycastle defence and when his scoring attempt was deflected by a Garrycastle defender Sean Daly pointed the resultant 45. Daragh Daly was next on the score sheet: his scoring task was made easy by a superb pass from Kieran Gavin. A Cosgrove point kept Garrycastle in touch but this effort was balanced when Paddy Joyce marked his introduction by pointing with his first touch-the excellent Ciarán Curley supplied the final pass on this occasion. Curley himself then added what might well have been the Shamrocks score of the night to establish a five point lead for the Springfield men (0-11 to 0-6). It looked like game over but Garrycastle did not see things that way. The club didn’t win several senior football titles in the 2000s by accepting the inevitable and two Conor Cosgrove frees added new energy to their play. The first of these was a super 45 (and a hotly disputed one) from close to the sideline. Garrycastle waited almost an hour to register their only score from play and when they did, it was a bit special: a spectacular effort from Justin Barrett. Seanie Daly (Kieran Gavin fouled after a run from mid-field) and Conor Cosgrove pointed frees before Denis Corroon secured the championship points for Shamrocks with a pointed free on the stroke of full-time.
This was essentially a team victory for Shamrocks with all involved contributing to an important victory. However on the night Kieran Gavin was THE MAN. It is roughly fifteen months since Kieran ruptured his Achilles tendon in Cusack Park and this display was the finest by some distance that Kieran has produced since then. His leadership and all-round performance sent many Shamrocks supporters back to Mullingar with renewed optimism.
The final group game against Killucan will now determine who tops the group and takes the semi-final place.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; David Coyne, Effie Siode, Aaron Purcell; Micheál Curley, Kieran Gavin, Tye Adamson; Killian Daly and Daragh Daly (0-1); Brian Melody (Paddy Joyce 0-1) Seanie Daly (0-3), Patrick Fagan(0-1)[Denis Corroon 0-1]; Donal O’Donoghue (0-1) [Eddie Moore], Dylan McDermott (0-1), Ciarán Curley (0-4)
