IFC v Multyfarnham
Our Shay Murtagh Intermediate Football Championship campaign came to an end last Saturday afternoon at a sun-splashed TEG Cusack Park following a 1-9 to 2-16 defeat to Multyfarnham.
In what was a winner-takes-all clash to see who would join St Mary’s, Rochfortbridge from Section B in the quarter-finals, the result was never in much doubt with Multy exerting control from the moment county star Ronan Wallace won the throw-in and set up Anthony McGivney for the opening score. Wallace doubled their advantage from a free before Nigel Scally fired a goal chance wide at the other end after catching Brendan McMahon’s long ball.
Wallace kicked a 40-metre free from his hands after Martin Ward was black-carded in the 12th minute. Conor Delaney eventually opened our account from a free in the 16th minute, but the momentum remained with Multy as McGivney added a mark and then full back Feichin Brennan raised the first green flag via a wicked deflection after finding himself in acres of space in the 18th minute.
Nigel Scally slotted over a 13-metre free, only for Wallace to reply with two on the trot. Scally kicked our first score from play in the 29th minute to leave us trailing by 0-3 to 1-6 at the break.
The north Westmeath men scored again straight from the throw-in through Louis Greene before Scally responded with a brace of frees. Multy upped the ante again after that, outscoring us by 1-6 to 0-2 in a dominant spell which stretched out their lead to 2-12 to 0-7 and ended the game as a contest with 10 minutes remaining.
Mark Reynolds started the scoring sequence with a fisted point and added another after Wallace nailed his third free. After Delaney and McGivney traded points, Joey O’Neill made an excellent save to deny Gareth Mullaniff.
Following a further exchange of points between Wallace and Padraig Carton, Ian McGovern crashed home a second Multy goal. To Kilbeggan’s credit, they didn’t throw in the towel and responded with two excellent long-range scores from substitute Cathal Finn and Micheál Coffey before another replacement, Mel Kiernan, pulled back a goal in the 54th minute to make it 1-9 to 2-13. However, the winners underlined their superiority with late points from McGovern and McGivney (two).
While it was a disappointing end to our season, we fared better than most junior champions by comfortably retaining our intermediate status thanks to two wins and a draw in our first three games. This was achieved without half of last year’s team, while were further hit last weekend by the absence of Conor Carroll, Darragh Coffey and goalkeeper Niall Rabbitte, who we wish well on his travels to Australia.
Indeed, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players and the management team of Niall O’Brien, Willie Daniels, Dermot Smith, Kevin Smith and James Mullins for their efforts throughout the season.
The focus now turns to our second team who are still in the hunt for JFC ‘B’ honours.
Team: Joey O’Neill; Martin Ward, James Hanlon, Josh Malone; Colin Draper, James Fox, Mark Wrafter; Brendan McMahon, Padraig Carton (0-1); Shaun Pidgeon, Nigel Scally (0-4, 3fs), Micheál Coffey (0-1); Danny Scully, Conor Delaney (0-2, 1f), James Finnegan. Subs: Colm Heffernan for Finnegan (half-time), Mel Kiernan (1-0) for Draper (46 min), Cathal Finn (0-1) for Scully (48 min), Eoin Dixon for McMahon (58 min).
Lotto
Last week’s lucky numbers were 8. 10, 13 and 17. There was no jackpot winner; the Match 3 winner was Pat Clarke.
This week’s jackpot is €10,450. Don’t forget our new lotto box in Centra Kilbeggan which allows you to enter our weekly draw by filling in a lotto ticket and dropping it into the box. Draw takes place every Tuesday afternoon.
