Coming into this final few would have anticipated this score-line given that Midleton were victorious when the sides met in the round-robin only a couple of months ago. It was obvious from the get-go however that St. Colmcille’s were out for revenge. Despite playing against a strong wind the high tempo running, complemented by excellent off the shoulder running, was causing the Magpies all sorts of problems early on. However the end result wasn’t always what they would have liked early on. With the strong running drawing fouls Sean Whelan did convert a coulple of frees to help the home-side settle. Twelve minutes in Alex Flynn responded fastest to a blocked ball in the Midleton square and raised the first green flag. Eight minutes lates Cian Ryan raised a second with a fine strike buried low to the left of the keeper. With Whelan kicking sweetly from frees St. Colmcille’s led 2-5 to 0-4 at the short whistle – a fine point from the industrious Evan Flynn being our only point from play in the opening period.
Into the second half, and now aided by the wind, our dominace continued. Midleton did press early but were repelled by the tight Colmcille’s rearguard where Aidan Docherty and David O’Mahony were outstanding.
The younger of the Flynn brothers, Alex, got in for his second goal and snuffed out any realistic chances of a Midleton fight-back. Whelan added five more points to his first half tally – Sean Delaney at 14 continued to draw frees for Whelan to convert, while Whelan also scored two fine points from play. Ronan Healy kicked the best point of the game from distance on 48 minutes. With Midleton now down to 14 players our lads were rampant. The hard-working Shane Buckley showed great astuteness to put the deftest of touches on a high ball into the square – another green flag raised. James Buckley put the gloss on this five star performance with goal number five after some good approach play involving captain Adam Bowen, Michael Harte and Adam O Halloran.
Midleton did look like they might breach keeper’s Billy Ryan’s net late on but a last gasp block from Evan Quain ensured there was to be no blot at all on this performance.
This group of lads have been training collectively since the very start of the year, and so eleven months on it’s great to see such a quality performance in the final – getting their just rewards. Míle buíochas to their management team comprised of Aidan Bowen, Pat Casey, Pat O Brien and George Healy.
Team Billy Ryan, Aidan Docherty, David O Mahony, Mark O Keeffe, Joe Dunphy, John Barry, Bobby O Riordan, Adam Bowen, Sean Whelan (0-09, 7 frees), Ronan Healy (0-01), Cian Ryan (1-00), Evan Flynn (0-01), Alex Flynn (2-00), Sean Delaney, Adam O’Halloran
Subs Shane Buckley (1-00), James Buckley (1-00), Evan Quain, Michael Harte.