Bayyboden St Enda’s 3-13 St Jude’s 0-9
All-Ireland champions Kilmacud Crokes will face their 2016 predecessors Ballyboden St Enda’s in this year’s Dublin football final. Kilmacud were fortunate to see off the challenge of Raheny in Saturday’s semi-final, winning 5-4 on penalties after a late goal from Luke Ward tied the match and took it to extra-time.
Sunday’s semi-final in Parnell Park was very different. Ballyboden established an early initiative and never surrendered it. Although the margin shrivelled to four in the 52nd minute, the winners finished in style hitting 2-3 without reply.
In a way it was a contest of competing patterns. St Jude’s once again slipped into their habit of starting slowly and by the time Darragh Rooney opened their account with a 13th-minute free, Ballyboden had 1-4 on the scoreboard.
They did as usual rally but their ability to exploit scoring chances wasn’t commensurate with their possession count and in the end, their challenge fizzled out.
Ballyboden’s athletic, hard driving at Jude’s – former Footballer of the Year Michael Darragh Macauley to the fore with his bumper car runs and deft basketball offloads – yielded plenty of scoring chances, including a couple of goal opportunities, one from Ross McGarry blocked from close up and the other blazed wide by Colm Basquel after a good set-up by Macauley.
The one that did beat Brendan Flynn in the Jude’s goal came from a great run by the impressive Alex Gavin, who supplied Ryan O’Dwyer for a decisive finish.
Ahead at the break, 1-9 to 0-5, Ballyboden entered their own familiar blackout phase. It took 19 minutes for them to score again and had it not been for that litany of missed opportunity, Jude’s would have been a lot closer than the seven-point margin that Warren Egan’s 49th-minute point opened up.
Alex Hassett raced up from corner back three minutes after the restart but having opened a clear sight of goal, shot over for a point that was the only score in the match for nearly the first 20 minutes of the second half.
Jude’s did however create two great goal chances, one from Liam Connerton was blocked on the line by corner back Cathal Flaherty, whereas the other, created by the energetic Pat Spillane, was saved by Darragh Gogan.
Three points in succession, including two from Kevin McManamon, suggested that at last Ballyboden might be about to pay for their intermittent efforts but having trimmed the deficit to 0-9 to 1-10, Jude’s didn’t trouble the scoreboard operator again.
Two injury-time goals from Egan and a penalty from Ryan Basquel after Gavin had been taken down by Cormac McCartan, put a surreal gloss on the result. But at the same time Ballyboden had never been seriously threatened and they will be hungrily eyeing up Kilmacud whose own semi-final travails on Saturday left Raheny agonisingly short of a first Dublin final in 53 years.
A last-gasp point by Darren Lunney levelled the match at the end of extra-time to force penalties. In a high-quality shoot-out the one miss from 10 proved decisive, as Shane Cunningham won the match for the champions.
Elsewhere, Summerhill overcame a decade of disappointment to win their first Meath title since 2013. In the interim, they had lost four finals, including two to outgoing champions Ratoath, most recently last year.
The final was well contested until the end of the hour when Daithí McGowan equalised for Ratoath to take it to extra-time. It was as if the effort had emptied the champions and Summerhill overran them to win by six, 0-22 to 1-13.
Top scorers were this year’s Meath rookie Eoghan Frayne, who shot 0-6, including three frees, and Barry Dardis with 0-5, and one free.
They will take on Offaly champions Tullamore in the Leinster championship in a fortnight.
There were similar outcomes for two rare visitors to county final contention. Abbeyleix hadn’t been in a Laois hurling final since 1949, the last year that the county reached an All-Ireland final.
They were up against old hands Camross, who extended their record haul to 27 titles. Three goals from Tomás Keyes in the opening quarter set Camross on the right road and they ran out 4-18 to 0-14 winners.
In the Antrim football final, Dunloy – better known as multiple All-Ireland hurling finalists – were after a first title since 1936 but ran out five-point runners-up, 0-11 to 2-10, against champions Cargin in Corrigan Park.
Finally, Westmeath hurling champions Raharney left it late to see off outsiders Lough Lene Gaels. It was an injury-time goal by prolific county hurler Killian Doyle that nudged them ahead, 1-19 to 1-17 at TEG Cusack Park.
BALLYBODEN ST ENDA’S: D Gogan; S Clayton, B Bobbett, C Flaherty; K Kennedy, J Holland (0-1), A Gavin (0-2); C D’Arcy, MD Macauley; L O’Donoghue (0-1), C Basquel (0-3, one free), W Egan (1-1); R McGarry, R O’Dwyer (1-2), R Basquel (1-2, 1-0 pen, one free).
Subs: P Dunleavy for Bobbett, D Sweeney for McGarry (both 46 mins); M McDonald (0-1) for Macauley (50); D O’Reilly for O’Dwyer (52), L McHugh for Kennedy (61).
ST JUDE’S: B Flynn; A Hassett (0-1), C Fitzpatrick, P O’Loughlin; C McCartan, O Manning, K Lahiff; C Murphy, T Lahiff; D Kavanagh, D Rooney (0-3, three frees), David Sheehy; P Spillane (0-2), K McManamon (0-3), L Connerton.
Subs: Danny Sutcliffe for Sheehy, John Carty for Kavanagh (both h-t); A Connolly for Connerton (40), S King for Murphy (50), Guckian for Fitzpatrick (57).
Referee: Dave Feeney (Parnells).
