Mixed fortunes for southern teams as Dominic's maintain momentum

By Kevin Egan

There were mixed fortunes for the various South Roscommon teams across the men’s intermediate and junior ‘A’ championships last weekend, with wins for St. Dominic’s, St. Aidan’s and Clann na nGael 'B' ensuring strong momentum for those teams in advance of the knockout stages, where all three topped their respective groups.

St. Dominic’s had pole position in their McNulty’s Furniture Intermediate Football Championship group secured before they travelled to Strokestown to play St. Barry’s on Friday evening and that may have played a part in the slow start that was made by Anthony Kelly’s side.

With top scorer Daire Keenan absent from St. Dominic’s, all the best attacking play in the first half came from St. Barry’s, with Eoghan Diffley and Doms hurler Pádraic Halpin in superb form for the Tarmonbarry club.

Having fallen seven points behind at one stage in no small part due to a Tadhg Rogers goal on the back of a misplaced St. Dominic’s kickout, Eoin McCormack and Keith Doyle began to grow more influential for the winners, each kicking two-pointers.

St. Dominic’s reduced the gap to two points by the interval, pushing on further after half-time. It fell to Darren Donnelly to score their all-important goal as they eventually ran out 1-16 to 1-12 winners over a St. Barry’s team who are now mired in the relegation playoffs, alongside a desperately out of form Pádraig Pearses side.

It’s been a hugely difficult campaign for the Woodmount club’s intermediates and their prospects of pulling off an upset against Creggs were effectively dashed when Shane Dowd and Enda O’Roarke struck early goals for the winners.

The second half was underway before Darragh Colleran got Pearses first point and the wing forward also struck their second shortly afterwards, though it was deep into stoppage time when Anthony Butler came forward from the back division to kick their third score in a 2-16 to 0-3 defeat. It will take a considerable reversal of fortunes for them to avoid relegation in a three-way battle with St. Croan’s and St. Barry’s.

St. Brigid’s were much more competitive on the scoreboard against a good Tulsk team in Ballyforan on Friday night, though the final score of 2-16 to 2-13 was somewhat deceptive as Brigid’s kicked the last 1-6 of the game, all after Tulsk’s Cillian Hussey was red carded.

Eamon Cunnane and Conor Gleeson were impressive for St. Brigid’s while Evan Gallagher’s kickouts gave them a solid platform in terms of possession, but the level of quality Tulsk brought to the table, in particular through Thomas O’Rourke up front (who scored 1-12) and Dylan Gaughan in the half-back line, meant that they had far more cutting edge when this game finally came to life in the second half.

Adam Lennon - playing what turned out to be his last game of the campaign for the intermediates as he was used by Damien Mulligan for the seniors on Sunday - found the net to give St. Brigid’s the lead early in the second half. But Tulsk took over from there, outscoring St. Brigid’s by 2-9 to 0-2 in the next 20 minutes. Kian Mulligan’s goal helped Brigid’s get back to within three points at the end, but the chance they needed to score a third goal and level the game never came.

In the King & Moffatt Junior championship, the highlight of the round was the game at Ballyforan between St. Aidan’s and Ballinameen, a repeat of last year’s championship semi-final which the North Roscommon side edged by two points.

Aided by a slight breeze, St. Aidan’s got off to a fine start and were 0-9 to 0-3 to the good on the back of two-pointers from Gavin Meares and Eoin Fallon, with Meares also denied a goal by a fine David Dwyer save.

Ballinameen completely took over in the second and third quarter however, gradually building up a 2-12 to 0-14 lead by the midway point in the second half.

David Wynne drove forward relentlessly and accurately, Ronan Garvin kicked three fine points for Ballinameen while Roscommon U-20 forward Dean Casey was superb, kicking 0-7 and doing the spade work to set up a goal for his brother Gordon, quickly followed by another from Adam Dwyer.

St. Aidan’s mustered up a final surge however, and goals from Conor Morris and Rory Coyle (a penalty) pushed them over the line to claim top spot in the group and seeded status for the quarter-final draw.

Clann also headed their group as they made it three wins from three with a 2-11 to 1-8 win over Roscommon Gaels in Lisnamult. The Gaels, much maligned across the county after they conceded a walkover to St. Brigid’s last time out, came out swinging and were 0-5 to 0-2 ahead early, only to see Callum O'Brien hit a two-pointer to give Clann the bare minimum lead at half-time.

Cathal Shine goaled to push Clann six clear and while Roscommon Gaels hit back with a goal, two excellent Ronan O’Reilly saves kept Clann’s noses in front. They pushed on at the end through an Ian Harney point and their second goal, scored by Mark Naughton.

Roscommon Gaels will now play St. Dominic’s in the relegation playoff after the second team from the Knockcroghery club lost out by 1-18 to 2-10 to Boyle at Abbey Park. But St. Brigid’s will play knockout football with their third strong group in this grade on the back of that walkover in round two, even though they succumbed to a very heavy 6-17 to 0-7 defeat to Kilbride at home on Saturday.