Football Championship Results
Sunday June 26th, 2005

St Joseph's Return
Mens' Junior Football Championship
Sean Treacy's 3-12 St Joseph's 0-7

St Joseph's haven't been seen on the field either with a stick or a football in their hands for a few years now, so it was good to see the return of the San Jose club to the Bay Area championship in their opening game of the year against Sean Treacy's. They opened well, getting a few points from play thanks to Fergal Finnan and Matt Hynes.

After a long scoreless period when the sides were level, Sean Treacy's took the lead with a goal from Michael Glennon, but there was seldom more than two points in it for the rest of the first half. Sean Treacy's were losing it slightly in their backs with almost any ball going near Matt Hynes ending up over the bar. San Jose were one point behind at half time, well within range of winning this game.

The second half saw some fiesty defending by St Joseph's against a barrage from Sean Treacy's. Typical of this was a penalty saved by goalie Eamonn Kerley, deflected over the end line for a 50, that in turn was cleared back out over the sideline, and the incoming shot from that was blown up as a square ball. However Treacy's began to use their fitness to get into the right place at the right time to win the majority of breaking balls in the mid field and open up a stream of scores culminating in goal number two from Kieran Kineally and number three from Fred O'Connor.

This was enough to seal St Josephs' fate for this particular game, but it wasn't a bad performance for a team that hasn't played in three years.

Boru Leave St Brendan's Feeling Frustrated
Mens' Junior Football Championship
Sons of Boru 1-7 St Brendan's 0-7

Boru spent most of the first half running down the wings almost unopposed in this junior game. There was plenty of tough but fair play on both sides with some great passing and catching. St Brendan's were more dominant in the first half with Boru over-elaborating in the middle, taking an eternity to inch the ball up the field in convoluted movements. Add to that some hit-and-hope high balls dropping into the box from on high, and St Brendan's did not look like rank outsiders by any means and led by a point at half time.

In the second half St Brendan's were shooting from impossibly tight angles, while Boru were fishing for goals and giving the ball away when points were there for the taking. The standard of passing also began to slip with posession changing hands unexpectedly often, poor shooting from Boru leading to a litany of wides, and a lot of play remaining on the ground.

However, Boru managed to stay in the lead to win their first game of the year's Junior Championship.

Saoirse on the receiving End
Ladies' Junior A Football Championship
Fog City Harps 5-13 Saoirse 2-4

Saoirse let Fog roll in towards their goals for much of the first half, but the occasional bit of slack ball handling by the girls in black and white gave Saoirse a few opportunities to sneak back up the field and get the occasional score. Nevertheless, the vast majority of breaking balls were going to Fog City. Following a medical emergency that saw one of their number carried off the field, Saoirse appeared to be very much on the defensive, spending most of the time frantically trying to hamper the efforts of the Fog City forwards who were returning balls again and again towards the Saoirse goals with the persistence of a woodpecker, and who managed to get three goals up by half time, way ahead of Saoirse's tally of three points.

In the second half a glimmer of hope appeared for Saoirse when Fog started shooting a string of wides, a lot of them due to Saoirse's backs keeping in close and preventing anyone from taking an easy shot. That said, this kind of tight defending was going on at both ends of the field with every ball being kicked through a web of hands, until Fog City started running with the ball to get out of trouble before taking their shots.

Fog were in a position to keep up the pressure and spent most of the rest of the game making themselves very much at home in Saoirse's half of the field and could afford to shoot as many wides as they did, whereas Saoirse had to fight tooth and nail for every shot.

With a final scoreline leaving Saoirse trailing by eighteen points, the upcoming holiday weekend could well be a good time for this team to re-think the game plan.

Streaming video report...

Sarsfield's Grind Treacy's Down
Mens' Intermediate Football Championship
Sarsfield's 0-13 Sean Treacy's 0-7

Sarsfield's hit the ground running in this intermediate championship game by shooting five points into the lead without reply from Sean Treacy's who took ten minutes to open their account. Sarsfield's ran riot in the first half by slicing through mid-field at high speed. The clean catch, quick look, and quick pass was combined with good physical fitness to superb effect. By half time Sarsfield's were six points ahead with Sean Treacy's only getting one point from play.

The second half was very intense. Tough physical play predominated as there was heavy bodily contact aplenty. Technical errors came from Treacy's who were careless in their passing and gave posession away too much. Things got a little bit hot tempered for a few seconds with a brief moment of pushing and shoving being followed by a tripping incident that left Sarsfield's down to twelve men. However this was the exception to the rule in what was an otherwise clean game. Sarsfield's managed to hold on to their lead and extend it well beyond the reach of Treacy's.

Bad Weekend for Ulster
Mens' Senior Football Championship
Shannon Rangers 1-14 Ulster 1-6

Failing to respond to a powerful opening by the Rangers, it took ten minutes for Ulster to open their account with a goal by Paul Bayley, but the retaliation came immediately with a point and then a goal by Rangers's Donal Kelleher. Ulster were not getting their hands on the ball as much as one would have expected them to, shooting a lot of wides, and whenever they did get posession they were moving the ball up the field in a painfully slow and over-elaborated fashion. The Rangers were much sharper shooters when it came to the finishing touch.

In the second half, the passing was much better on the Rangers side, and Ulster's shooting from frees and line balls was not up to the Rangers' high standard. There was a period towards the end of the match where Ulster managed to start breaking through and getting through mid field in droves, but the finish still let them down for the most part.