Shay Murtagh Precast Senior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-14 Caulry 1-14.

Another great performance in what the final match of the season for our senior footballers but when we think that it will be eleven months before we play another senior championship game it seems that the split season calendar might require some adjustment going forward.

Shamrocks started well and had three points on the board after 8 minutes courtesy of points by Alan Cashman, Jordan Warde and Paddy Fagan. The concession of the Senan Baker goal was a blow and was crucial in the end but the momentum continued and Denis Corroon pointed twice and Dillon Matthews’ trade mark solo run and shot drew a great save from Jack Connaughton as he finger-tipped the ball over. After fifteen minutes the sides were level at 1-3 to 0-6.

A huge kick from Ross Corroon from close to the sideline edged Shamrocks ahead before Senan Baker equalised. A Denis Corroon pointed free and a punched effort from Killian Daly restored the Shamrocks lead (0-9 to 1-4). Caulry responded with points from Conor McCormack and Stephen Connolly before Denis Corroon scored his fourth point of the afternoon to secure an interval lead for Shamrocks (0-10 to 1-6) when referee Alan Coyne blew for the interval.

It must be some kind of a record that four of the last six senior championship games for Mullingar Shamrocks have been refereed by the Castletown Finea Coole-Whitehall official?

And wasn’t it good to see John Joe Brady, an official who first refereed in the mid-1960s officiating as linesman on Sunday, 50-years after he first refereed a county senior final.

Back to the match and for the opening fifteen minutes Shamrocks played some of their best football since the 2018 championship. Ross Corroon scored his second fine point to finish a move that began with Philly, was continued by Brian Farrell who released to Dillon who surged through the Caulry defence before parting to Ross who put the finishing touches on what was a fine score. There was better to come as Jordan Warde crashed to the net for Shamrocks’ opening goal of the 2022 championship campaign. It was worth the wait and the critical phase of the movement was the deceptively simple knock-down of Philly’s restart by Denis Corroon to Brian Farrell who wisely had removed himself from the challenge for the ball. Denis’s vision and execution of the tap down was perfect (he suffered for the cause) and Brian Farrell continued the move before parting to Paddy Fagan who sent Jordan clear and the corner forward made no mistake and crashed to the net to send Shamrocks 5 points clear (1-11 to 1-6).

Caulry facing championship exit responded and Alan Malynn kicked the first of what proved to be four vital frees to begin his team’s comeback. Malynn kicked his second free and Senan Baker pointed a third free and Conor McCormack pointed from play to cut the deficit to the minimum. Efe Siode went on one of his mazy runs that ended with a foul and Denis Corroon pointed the resultant free. Paddy Fagan pointed after Denis and Alan Cashman combined to create the opportunity courtesy of a quickly taken free. Denis Corroon pointed again to extend the lead to four points and for the second time Caulry faced the championship trap door. Alan Malynn pointed another difficult free after a brilliant Micheal Curley block-down, Caulry added a point from play, Seanan Baker added a tap over free and as time expired Alan Malynn’s kicking technique was tested under pressure once again and survived the test and pointed the difficult free to level the scoring and send Caulry into the knockout-stages of the championship.

For Shamrocks a disappointing result but great satisfaction can be taken from what was a great performance in this year of transition. We will return to the positives from this 2022 championship campaign later.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Ryan Blundell, Efe Siode, Marc Eivers; John O’Reilly (Davy Coyne), Conn O’Hanlon (Aaron Purcell) Dillon Matthews (0-1); Denis Corroon (0-6), Brian Farrell; Killian Daly (0-1), Ross Corroon (0-2) [Paddy Joyce]. Alan Cashman (0-1) {Eddie Moore]; Oliver MacNamara, Paddy Fagan (0-2), and Jordan Warde (1-1)[Micheal Curley].