All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final: Errigal Ciarán 2-18 Dr Crokes 1-18 (AET)
As the Errigal Ciarán fans stood on the St Conleth’s Park pitch savouring a famous victory, suddenly a warning blared out from the public address system that a fire had been reported in the building.
It was hardly surprising, Ruairí and Darragh Canavan had been setting the place alight all afternoon.
Peter Canavan’s sons produced one of the most dazzling All-Ireland semi-final performances by any pair of brothers in the history of the game.
Between them, the Canavan siblings scored 1-13 of their side’s total – and it took until the 54th minute for any other Errigal Ciarán player to even get on the scoreboard. On a day when their club really needed them, they both delivered.
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But if they were the heroes of the day, Joe Oguz was the hero of the moment with a pivotal goal in extra-time – helping Errigal Ciarán make history by becoming the first team from Tyrone to progress to an All-Ireland senior club football final.
Peter Óg McCartan proved to be their saviour at the end of normal time, showing incredible bottle to send over an injury-time equaliser, a score that sent the game to extra-time.
This was an epic club semi-final, a credit to both sides in how they approached the contest and the quality they brought to Newbridge on Saturday.
The teams were level at the end of normal time (1-13 to 0-16) and level at half-time of extra-time (1-15 to 0-18) but the goal from Oguz in the opening moments of the second half of extra-time pushed Errigal Ciarán three clear and they were never caught.
Indeed, the Tyrone champions added the next three points after that Oguz goal to take an unassailable six-point advantage and though Charlie Keating drilled home a goal for Dr Crokes in the dying seconds, the Kerry side had taken on too much water by that stage. There was no way back.
At the final whistle men on both sides collapsed to the ground, spent and exhausted. Every kick pass in the closing stages seemed to result in a player immediately grabbing for a cramped hamstring or calf. To a man, Errigal Ciarán and Dr Crokes had emptied themselves.
Still, this game will be remembered for the majesty of the Canavan brothers more than anything.
“[Their performance] was something else, they were looking really sharp in training and you were really hoping that they were going to cut loose because they are especially talented lads,” admitted Errigal Ciarán manager Enda McGinley.
“They are just driven, they just want to work hard for the team.”
Maidchí Lynch, a late addition to the officially listed Dr Crokes team, was handed the man-marking role on Ruairí from the off while Gavin White picked up Darragh.
But inside 20 minutes Dr Crokes were already firefighting in relation to the Canavan brothers and Evan Looney was moved over to try curtail Ruairí. It made little difference, the brothers continued to burn up St Conleth’s Park.
All of Errigal Ciarán’s first-half scores came from the Canavan brothers – 0-5 from Ruairí and 0-3 from Darragh – as they went in at the turnaround leading 0-8 to 0-7.
Dr Crokes had opted against deploying a designated sweeper in front of the Canavan brothers.
“We haven’t played a sweeper all year and that’s part of our culture and how we play,” said Dr Crokes selector Denis Coleman.
“You back your guys to play man on man and there are obviously guys there to help out if help is needed but it’s straight up 15 on 15 and that’s the way we play and that’s why it’s so entertaining to watch it.”
The Killarney side popped over three of the opening four second-half points to edge in front by the 39th minute.
But moments later, as players squabbled after Errigal Ciarán were awarded a free, Ruairí showed super awareness to pick out his brother with a gem of a pass. Darragh raced through on the Dr Crokes goal and fired the ball high to the top left-hand corner, 1-9 to 0-10.
Dr Crokes refused to panic, though. Tony Brosnan and Micheál Burns were instrumental in their comeback over the next quarter of the game. Brosnan brought Dr Crokes level in the final minute of normal time and then in the third of five added minutes Burns was on the end of a great move, that started with a wonderful kickout from Shane Murphy to Gavin White, to put the Kerry outfit in the lead by the minimum.
It appeared Dr Crokes had snatched victory, but McCartan – who scored the winner in the Ulster final – showed that was no one-off with a brilliant levelling score just as the clock entered the 66th minute. Extra-time.
“I was delighted he took it on,” said McGinley.
“I thought we had made poor enough work of two or three attacking opportunities before that, but again you are going to make mistakes and it has to be next ball, next ball, have faith in yourself. Thankfully we got to extra-time and we pushed on from there.”
Naturally, the teams looked leggy and tired in extra-time – with both sides adding two points apiece in the first of the extra periods.
But Oguz energised Errigal Ciarán on the restart, bursting through on goal and skilfully planting the ball to the top right-hand corner of Murphy’s goal – anything Darragh Canavan can do, Joe Oguz can do!
Four minutes later, by which stage it appeared at times he could hardly walk, somehow Ruairí took off on a penetrating run through the Dr Crokes defence, eventually getting dragged down for a free, which he himself subsequently converted.
Two further Errigal Ciarán points followed. Coming down the stretch, Errigal Ciarán had found something extra.
Their reward now is a quick turnaround to face Cuala in next Sunday’s All-Ireland club final at Croke Park. Such a draining semi-final contest that went all the way to extra-time is hardly ideal but the confidence from the manner of this win will surely help with the recovery over the coming days.
“Getting there is a huge achievement that we’ll take huge pride in,” added McGinley.
“It certainly will be tinged with disappointment if we don’t go on to win it, that would certainly be the ambition of the group but we’ll take pride in what we are doing.
“It has been a long run, we have certainly no intention at all of just turning up and thinking, ‘right, we’ve got to Croke Park, that’s our job done for the year.’ We’ll turn up in Croke Park and give it our best shot to try win it.”
ERRIGAL CIARÁN: Darragh McAnenly; Cormac Quinn, Aidan McCrory, Ciarán Quinn; Tiarnán Colhoun, Niall Kelly, Peter Óg McCartan (0-1); Ben McDonnell (0-1), Joe Oguz (1-1); Peter Harte, Ruairí Canavan (0-7, three frees), Ciarán McGinley; Thomas Canavan, Darragh Canavan (1-6), Odhran Robinson. Subs: Mark Kavanagh (0-1) for T Canavan (43 mins); Pádraig McGirr (0-1) for Robinson (53 mins); Ronan McRory for Colhoun (67 mins); Eoin Kelly for McCartan (70 mins); Dermot Morrow for Cormac Quinn (72 mins); Peter Óg McCartan for McGinley (78 mins)
DR CROKES: Shane Murphy; Evan Looney, Fionn Fitzgerald, Maidchí Lynch; Charlie Keating (1-0), Gavin White, Brian Looney (0-2); Mark O’Shea (0-1), Michael Potts; Micheál Burns (0-5, one free), Gavin O’Shea, Tom Doyle; Tony Brosnan (0-8, seven frees), David Shaw (0-1), Cian McMahon (0-1). Subs: Kieran O’Leary for Doyle (38 mins); Daithí Casey for McMahon (46 mins); John Payne for Keating (48 mins); David Naughton for Potts (52 mins); Alex Hennigan for Shaw (61 mins); Cian McMahon for Burns (69 mins); Michael Potts for B Looney (74 mins); David Shaw for G O’Shea (75 mins)
REFEREE: Brendan Cawley (Kildare)
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