Football Championship Results
Sunday 24th July, 2005

JFC = Junior Football Challenge
IFC = Intermediate Footbal Championship
SFC = Senior Football Championship

Short-Staffed Celts Not at the Races
Junior Football Championship
Sons of Boru 2-10 Celts 2-3

A major problem for the Celts this year has been a lack of consistency in getting the same team out every week. This match was one in which some important players were missing, and it showed as the Boru took ninety percent of the possession in the first half. Niall O'Flynn won a free for the Celts that could have become their first point, but instead it became the first of many shots that hit the post. In fact, the strength of the new goalposts was put to the test in this match that the Celts would have easily won had points been awarded for hitting the posts. It was a credit to the engineers who built them.

The underage team eventually started to pull it together with some slick tackling to disrupt Boru's flow, but the Boru kept them under a lot of pressure and forced them to shoot from bad angles or with little room to maneuver, resulting in a lot of wides and rebounds off the posts.

The middle of this half saw little Celt activity with Boru having the run of the mid field and keeping the Celts contained in their own half of the field with point after point being fired over the bar for Boru by James Reynolds.

A Boru goal by Marty Canaghan from point blank range was as much a symptom of weak defending as it was a product of Boru’s better shooting. Boru were very fast and able to keep up with their younger opponents, an unusual achievement in itself. Not all play by the Celts was bad though - there were times when they were able to work the ball up the field and on one occasion an epic goalmouth struggle led to their second score and first goal by Jimmy Flynn.

In the second half the Celts carried on hitting the posts and displaying little of their trademark flowing game. After scoring one point from play in the first ten minutes they settled down with some good good play from the O’Flynns getting the ball up the field, but the finishing touch was letting them down badly. The ball spent much of the time in the Celts’ half of the field and at one point it buzzed around the goalmouth among a ruck of players before getting kicked into the net by Boru’s Eddie Farrell.

Celts did not give up, but found a lot of their passes either being intercepted or falling into the hands of their opponents. Losing by seven points was not a result that will help their chances of getting into a good position in this junior championship.

Referee - Malachy Higgins

Clans Simply Outclassed
Ladies' Junior Football Championship
Fog City Harps 4-16 Clan na Gael 0-4

Catherine Burke in action for Fog City Harps

In the beginning Clan na Gael did not play too badly, but just gave Fog City a generous amount of room to work. Fog were noticeably faster and were shooting a fair number of wides under pressure, but were just about able to burst through often enough to outscore the Clans who were panicking slightly, making little mistakes, and eventually allowing Fog City to get a pair of handy goals by Rosie Carew past the unsuspecting keeper.

With Fog leading by 2-7 to 0-4 at half time, the second half was to be a dismally lop sided affair with Clan na Gael powerless to get a score. Fog City’s third goal by Siobhan Dolan put the seal on it, and it was one way traffic from there on in as they started shooting at will against the helpless Clan na Gael backs. There was a high number of wides that would have made the scoreline even more imbalanced had Fog City’s accuracy been any better.

Referee: Anne Morrissey, Saoirse

Sean Treacy’s Keep St Brendan’s at Bay
Junior Football Championship
Sean Treacy’s 1-9 St. Brendan’s 1-6

Aidan O'Sullivan prepares to go up for it for St. Brendan's

There was a lot of end-to-end football in the first ten minutes of this entertaining junior football game. Play was fluid but low-scoring until the end of the first half when Thomas O’Mahoney retrieved a ball deflected off the St’ Brendan’s goalposts and blasted it into their net to put Sean Treacy’s six points ahead at half time.

In the early second half there was a less than impressive performance by St. Brendan’s until a goal by Brian Conn injected some life into their game and gave them the confidence to go on the attack. Tom Carroll soon fired another that skimmed the bar and went over to get the Oakland team within three points of Treacy’s. A lot of tit-for-tat scoring followed that kept Treacy’s stubbornly ahead by three points. With St. Brendan’s on a roll, they were able to win more breaks and keep their opponents on the back foot in their own half of the field.

Tom Carroll wrestles his way out of a tight spot

Sean Treacy’s showed great composure under pressure as time ticked towards the end and St. Brendan’s probed deep into the far end of the field in attempts to get a game-saving goal. Because of good defending and clearing, a goal did not materialise and St. Brendan’s were once again forced to take solace from a worthy showing that did not quite get the result they wanted.

Referee: James Kinnealy - Na Fianna Hurling Club

Sarsfield’s Defeated, But Still in Second Place
Intermediate Football Championship
Sean Treacy’s 1-15 Sarsfield’s 0-12

The hot Californian sun beats down on these two great football teams

This was a very tightly contested game that was very even at first. A blistering ball sent like a rocket into the back of the Sarsfield’s net by Bosco Hughes looked like putting Sean Treacy’s firmly in the driving seat, but it was never as simple as that. Sarsfield’s fought back with some fast play in the mid field with resident speedster Seamus McCorry grabbing the ball and doing the usual solo sprints to within shooting range as quick as the Roadrunner with the Wile E Coyote hot on his tail. He was able to either take these shots himself or offload the ball neatly on to Niall McGillicuddy who was finishing them off well.

Treacy’s forwards were doing a little bit of bunching and not necessarily giving their own half forwards a clear run at the Sarsfield’s net, and a few of their shots went wide as a result, but this did not happen very often.

With Sean Treacy’s leading by four points at the start of the second half, Sarsfield's returned to the field very much firing on all cylinders. However, Sean Treacy’s were able to take advantage of the slight tailwind to put more accurate shots between the posts, and it took Sarsfield’s a long time to get anything resembling a scoring opportunity. Eventually the peninsula side managed to start breaking through and work their way up the field, often by winning a succession of frees.

The gap was not narrowing by much though, and as the clock ticked into injury time Sarsfield’s probed deep into their opponents’ half of the field in search of some desperately needed goals, but it was not to be. Sean Treacy’s were just too determined to stay in this competition, and that they most certainly did.

Referee: James Kinnealy - Na Fianna Hurling Club

Other results:
Intermediate Football Championship
Michael Cusack’s 2-8 Ulster 1-10

It was a Hollywood ending for Cusack’s who just pipped Ulster at the post with a last second goal to win the game by a point.

Referee: Frankie Keenan - Sean Treacy's / Naomh Padraig