Gaeil Colmcille were crowned O’Reilly Solicitors U15 Division 2 winners with a 13 point win over town rivals Navan O’Mahony’s in Dunganny on a wet and windy afternoon.
While the scoreline says a comfortable win for The Gaeils its was far from it, Gaeil Colmcille relied heavily on the defensive duties of the team as well as numerous top class saves from Conor Flanagan plus some fortuitous goals down the other end of the field to ensure the cup come back to Kells.
Just like the Semi-Final, Gaeil Colmcille burst out of the traps and Joe Lennon-Otteno broke free from the throw up, and his effort on goal was turned in by Byron Wearen who couldn’t take any chances of the ball not finding the net.
A Tiernan Anderson point followed on 6 minutes and Kells held a four point lead. O’Mahony’s got two scores to cut the lead in half as the referee called a halt for a water break. The break stood to Gaeil Colmcille well as points from John Gormley and Wearen extended the Gaeils lead.
Things got better in the 20th minute when Captain Oisin Walsh found the back of the net. From the resulting kickout and two passes later O’Mahony’s cancelled Walsh’s goal when they fired beyond Flanagan. O’Mahony’s could have had a second goal soon after but for Flanagan to make a miraculous save as he some how got a hand up to keep out the Navan forward.
This spurred Kells on and points from Joe Lennon-Otteno and Walsh either side of a Wearen second goal and a Gaeil Colmcille third to see them push eight points clear. O’Mahony’s pushed hard to reduce the deficit before Half-time but for Flanagan to make another heroic save, this was followed up with an excellent last ditch tackle by Liam Devine to keep Gaeil Colmcille 3-05 to 1-03 ahead at the break.
Whatever the Navan O’Mahony’s management said at the interval clearly worked as in the opening 12 minutes of the half they outscored Gaeil Colmcille five points to nothing and once again had to call on Flanagan to keep the Navan lads at bay.
Just as Kells needed some sort of respite, Callum Mitchell soccer style passed a ball into Walsh who stylishly flicked the ball up into his hand and turned and fired low for his second goal of the game. This completely killed the O’Mahony’s momentum and referee Kieran Olwell called for the second half water break.
Both sides traded scores with Wearen adding to his tally with a point in the 48th minute. Navan O’Mahony’s never lay down and battle through the conditions and got the Kella lead back to four with two points from play in the 50th and 51st minute. Three points in a row from Mitchell and John Gormley (2) kept a sizeable gap between the sides.
As Navan O’Mahony’s tried hard for goals down one end, it was ironic that two more would nestle in the back of the Navan late on with Half-time substitute Jack Butler scoring and Oisin Walsh getting his third of the game. Wearen who opened the scoring on the day fittingly closed out the scoring on the day as he pointed with literally the last kick of the game to spark the celebrations for a team that had so many near misses at u12 and u13 final stages. Manager Brian Boshell and his selectors Roy Mitchell and Morgan Flanagan spoke to The Gaeils Podcast after the game and the interview will be available earlier this week.
Gaeil Colmcille: Conor Flanagan, Eoghan Flynn, Leo Fitzgerald, Jack Bryne, Rocco Genocky, Tiernan Anderson (0-01), Liam Devine, Callum Mitchell (0-01), John Gormley (0-03), Noah Boshell, Andrew Gormley, Oisin Sheridan, Joe Lennon-Otteno (0-01), Oisin Walsh (3-01), Byron Wearen (2-03)
Subs: Jack Butler (1-00), Keelan Sheridan, Hugh Farrelly, Tadhg Melady, Mickey Dunne-Thornton
Photo © Declan Lynch
