Ulster club SFC final: Scotstown (Monaghan) 0-19 Kilcoo (Down) 0-16 (after extra-time)
“It has to happen – but it may never happen,” said Rory Beggan late on Saturday night, as the blue flare smoke swirled around the Athletic Grounds and Scotstown felt the weight of 39 years fall off them. “Like, you look at Mayo and people are always saying, ‘Well it has to happen for Mayo to win the All-Ireland’. It doesn’t have to happen. You have to make it happen. And that’s exactly what this year is about.”
Scotstown are Ulster champions for the first time since 1989 and nobody did more to make it happen than their big goalkeeper. Along with a crucial save early in the second half of normal time, Beggan stroked over 11 points in the game – with four two-point frees in among them. On a night when a howling gale set the terms for both teams, Beggan was the only kicker all night to look in full control.
It all made for another Kilcoo Ulster campaign that ended in frustration. For a club that has won 14 Down titles since 2009, a return of just two provincial crowns feels paltry enough. They had their chances here – they played cannier against the wind in the first half of normal time and kept Scotstown to a 0-6 to 0-1 lead going in at the break. They looked like a team that had got Scotstown’s number and the memory of them giving the Monaghan champions a chasing last year was fresh in everyone’s minds.
“We started here 12 months ago after conceding five goals,” said Kieran Hughes afterwards. “Like, we wouldn’t have concede five goals altogether in four or five years. We were absolutely humiliated, embarrassed, all the words you want to use. But were we going to let that define us as a team? We met up three or four weeks later and decided absolutely not.”
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That defiance stood to them now. They weren’t going to wait for a slow death and came blazing out of the traps after half-time. Kilcoo took 10 minutes to score after the turnaround, by which time Scotstown had pushed their cushion out to eight points.
The Monaghan champions were far more urgent and willing to take risks playing against the wind and when you have Beggan in the team, no free-kick feels impossible. He drilled a 45 into the teeth of the gale at one stage that was still rising as it cleared the bar.
Scotstown have had an infusion of youth this year but it was their veterans who won it for them. Beggan was joined by the two Hughes brothers, with Kieran spearing two outside-of-the-boot scores into the wind. Conor McCarthy came off the bench as time was running dead and though he is clearly still not up to full speed after injury, he still had the quality to whip three points in extra-time.
Kilcoo forced the match to the point through muscle memory as much as anything else. They were three points and a man down in the 62nd minute and still somehow found a way, with goalkeeper Niall Kane coming up and kicking a two-point free and wing back Callum Rogers finding the equaliser in the fifth minute of injury-time.
But Scotstown had been to extra-time in the county final and to penalties in the Ulster semi-final, so another 20 minutes wasn’t going to hold any fears for them. McCarthy did his thing, Beggan did likewise and they were three points up with time running out. Kilcoo had run out of ideas – they kept trying for two-pointers by throwing desperate shots up into the wind and hoping the elements would do the rest. Scotstown’s tails rose higher with every one.
At the end, bedlam reigned. Generations of Scotstown people flowed on to the pitch, from Ballinode and Tydavnet and Knockatallon and all around. In the middle of it was David McCague, nephew of former GAA president Seán, and manager of this team. When asked what it means to a place like Scotstown to carry off a title like this, he had no trouble finding the words.
“Somebody said to me there recently that football is like a religion in Scotstown. Now, you know, I hope Father Joyce and Father Early don’t mind me saying it but it’s not like a religion really. Not any more. Religion’s probably a wee bit behind it at this stage. It really is.
“It’s amazing just the passion we have for it. It’s what we live for and it’s great to have a real purpose in life to devote your life to. And to know there’s hundreds of people like you. And to have success at it makes it even sweeter.”
They go on now to play St Brigid’s of Roscommon in the All-Ireland semi-final. Heady times.
SCOTSTOWN: Rory Beggan (0-4-3, 4tpf, 2 45s, 1f); Ryan O’Toole (0-0-1), Darren Hughes, Darragh Murphy; Donnchadh Connolly, Damien McArdle, Mattie Maguire (0-0-2); Micheál McCarville, Gavin McPhillips; Max Maguire, Shane Carey, Kieran Hughes (0-0-2); Francis Maguire, Jack McCarron, Nicky Sherlock.
Subs: Conor McCarthy (0-1-1) for F Maguire (49 mins); Killian McKenna for Mattie Maguire (63); Mattie Maguire for McKenna (ft); James Hamill for Carey (blood, 62-63); F Maguire for M Maguire (76).
KILCOO: Niall Kane (0-1-0, tpf); Aaron Branagan, Ryan McEvoy, Niall Branagan; Miceal Rooney, Darryl Branagan, Callum Rogers (0-0-1); Aaron Morgan (0-0-1), Anthony Morgan; Ceilum Doherty, Ryan Johnston, Shealan Johnston; Paul Devlin (0-2-4, 2tpf, 3f), Jerome Johnston, Eugene Branagan (0-0-1).
Subs: Barra McEvoy for E Branagan (51 mins); Jack Devlin for Anthony Morgan, Sean Óg McCusker (0-1-1) for J Johnston (both 57); Anthony Morgan for Rooney (70); E Branagan for D Branagan (74).
Referee: Seán Hurson (Tyrone).
