North Feile Final Victory

Féile North Final

Dolla – Monday, 13 April 2009

Kilruane MacDonaghs 2-14 v 0-03 Roscrea

After accounting for Borris-Ileigh in the morning’s semi-final, Kilruane were going into the final high on confidence. The weather brightened up and conditions were good, and Kilruane had the advantage of a slight breeze in the first half.

Kilruane opened brightly, and full forward Conor Cleary was on fire from the start opening the scoring with a neatly taken point from play and followed that up within a minute when he found the net to raise a green flag. Roscrea were awarded a free out on the left which they duly converted to leave the score at 1-01 to 0-01.

Then Darragh Peters operating at right wing forward slotted over a point from play. At this stage Stephen Cleary and Sean Cleary were dominating at centrefield. Then Aidan Boyle at centre forward took over for the final ten minutes of the first half scoring five unanswered points. The first coming from a sweetly struck ’65, the next from play after a lovely incisive run struck off of his right hand side and the next three came from placed balls after Trojan work from the forward’s resulted in frees awarded to Kilruane.

Anthony Spillane had a fine game and dealt with everything that came his way and just before half time Roscrea exerted some pressure with a high dropping ball into the square which Anthony fielded and cleared with great skill. Kieran Lillis came on as substitute for Conor Nevin just before half time and got involved immediately with a well taken point to leave the half time scores at 1-08 to 0-01 in favour of Kilruane.

On the resumption of the second half Roscrea were unfortunate not to have scored a goal but great work by the inside back line of Conor Austin, Tomas Hogan, Kieran Brereton and goalkeeper Anthony Spillane kept Roscrea at bay. Conor Cleary started the second half in similar fashion with a well taken point from play. Kilruane had to rejig their formation after Abhain Coleman took a knock and was moved to full forward, and Seán Cleary went in at centre back to replace Abhain and was as commanding there as he was at centrefield.

Roscrea replied with a point, and then Aidan Boyle scored what you would think to be the score of the day, as he collected possession on the run out on the right hand side rounded two Roscrea backs and then cut in past the centre back and split the posts off of his left hand side. Roscrea again replied with another point, and then Kilruane were awarded a free in the middle of the field out on the right hand side near the sideline and most would agree this to be one of the highlights of the day as Aidan Boyle again showing maturity beyond his years slotted over from such a distance at this grade.

Aidan Boyle scored again from a ’65, as Stephen Cleary got in on the scoring to cap a fantastic performance in the middle of the field, after an Aidan Boyle sideline fell to Conor Cleary who in turn handpassed to Stephen to score. Another sideline taken quickly by Aidan Boyle to Stephen Cleary and returned back to Aidan resulted in another fine point from play.

Substitutes were introduced as Peter Blessing came on for Jack Farrell at right wing back, Jack giving his usual 100% display of guts and commitment. James Cleary replaced Bob Dooley at corner forward and Bob gave a great display showing the forwards the way with his never say die attitude by harassing the opposition at all times. With time counting down Keelan Troy was introduced for Abhain Coleman on the edge of the square, and Willie Ryan brought on for Cian Darcy. Both Abhain and Cian had outstanding performances and got the rewards for their hard work.

The last move of the game was left to a long clearance by Stephen Cleary up to Keelan Troy who gained possession and turned to bear down on the Roscrea goal his shot was stopped, but Willie Ryan was on hand to smash the ball home for Kilruane’s second goal.

Hard luck to Roscrea who never got going on the day, and congratulations to Kilruane who worked hard at every aspect from start to finish and got their rewards at the final whistle. Best of luck to the panel and the selectors Pat, Ger, Liam and DJ in the County semi final against the South champions in a couple of weeks time.

Final Score: Kilruane MacDonaghs 2-14 v 0-03 Roscrea

Team

Anthony Spillane, Conor Austin, Tomas Hogan, Kieran Brereton, Jack Farrell, Abhain Coleman, Caoiloin Conroy, Stephen Cleary, Seán Cleary, Darragh Peters, Aidan Boyle, Conor Nevin, Cian Darcy, Conor Cleary and Bob Dooley.

Subs: Kieran Lillis for Conor Nevin, Peter Blessing for Jack Farrell, James Cleary for Bob Dooley, Keelan Troy for Aoibhan Coleman and Willie Ryan for Cian Darcy.

Scorers: Aidan Boyle 0-09, (3 from play, 2 from ’65 and 4 from frees)

Conor Cleary 1-02

Willie Ryan 1-00

Stephen Cleary 0-01

Kieran Lillis 0-01

Darragh Peters 0-01