TITLE NUMBER 4 IS WON FOR MODELIGO IN 2015 AS COUNTY JUNIOR FOOTBALL TITLE IS CAPTURED

It will be interesting in a few weeks time to find out which one of the four clubs named for Club of the Year when it comes to the G.A.A. in Waterford is picked as the overall winner.

The gong has often gone to the side which wins one of the senior championships in the county as they often get much publicity in the written, spoken and social media.

Ballygunner and Stradbally as the winners of the senior hurling and football championships this year are both in with an excellent chance of winning this years award, but so too have Modeligo.

The small West Waterford club have had a great last few year’s the highlight for many would be winning the Munster Junior Hurling title just under 12 months ago against Castlemartyr at Mallow.

There achievements this year have been just as impressive. They reached the Western Junior Football League Final, won the Western Hurling League, won the Western Intermediate Hurling Championship, were narrowly beaten in the County Intermediate Hurling Final, won the Western Junior Football Championship and on Saturday night last the left Fraher Field with the fourth piece of silverware this year in the bag after they won the County Junior Football Final against Roanmore.

Sometimes winning is more important that the way the win was achieved and while any neutral or Roanmore supporter leaving the ground on Saturday evening will have done so disappointed with what they saw over the course of the hour, the Modeligo support on the night were far from disappointed.

In truth, the final was far from good. Conditions on the night possibly played a part on the night.

A very strong win blew up field towards the road goal which Modeligo had first use of. The surface also left a lot to desire as it clearly showed signs of the high volume of games played at the venue over the past year. Is the field over used? It possibly is. It would be great to see games spread around as what happens in other counties, but here in Waterford for too long now we have a tendency to use our two county grounds far too often. Had the ground been in its usual pristine condition would we have seen a better game? Maybe we might, but there is no way anyone could have factored in the weather conditions on the night regardless of how good the playing surface was on the night.

With the wind at their backs in the first half, Modeligo got off to a great start in this game as two of the younger three Troy brothers on the field, Michael from a free and Jamie from play landed points for the recently crowned Western Champions.

Going on these opening minutes, it was envisaged by some with the win that was blowing that Modeligo would need a double digit score lead at the break if they were to stand a chance of playing Clare side Clonmeen in Cooraclare in a Munster Semi Final this weekend, but as the game wore on it quickly became apparent that a smaller lead at the break might be sufficient to see them past the post.

Modeligo hit just four more scores in the opening half and were not tested at the other end of the field as the city side went to the dressing rooms without raising a flag of any colour by the umpires.

Former inter county hurler Pat Fitzgerald who put in a Man of the Match performance for Modeligo hit his sides third score of the game on seven minutes and that lead went to four before the end of the first quarter when Michael Troy put over another free.

Modeligo failed to score again until the twenty-seventh minute of the half when Michael Troy put over his third of the game and in added time at the end of the half Pat Fitzgerald landed his second of the game to give his side a six point advantage at the sound of referee Timmy Organ’s half time whistle.

Some in the crowd would have been wondering would Roanmore with the wind at their backs in the second half make a game out of it. The answer was – not really.

Modeligo with the better footballers on show played much better when facing the wind than what Roanmore did.

The eventual winners opened the second half scoring with another Michael Troy free eight minutes after the restart.

Roanmore hit their first score of the game on forty-two minutes when Brian Nolan put over a free but the score failed to ignite the Sky Blues in any way.

Modeligo cancelled out Brian Nolan’s effort was cancelled out on forty-six minutes which all but secured the win for his side.

Scores in the condition proved to be hard won, but six minutes from the hour mark Roanmore did have a chance of registering the first major score of the game, but a strike for goal in a crowded Modeligo goalmouth was somehow managed to kept out by Thomas Walsh in the Modeligo goal as he put the ball out for a 45 which came to nothing for the Sky Blues.

Within a minute however the umpire was reaching for a green flag but it was at the other end of the field as Michael Troy who impressed throughout beat Colm Burke for a good goal.

In the time that remained there was a lot of stopping and restarting of the game as both sides began to use up as many of their subs as was possible and as a result it was not real surprise that there was only one further score as a result, that coming two minutes into stoppage time when the older of the three Troy brothers to start for Modeligo, Shane popped the ball over the head of Colm Burke to seal a 1-9 to 0-2 win for his side.

The new county champions will have celebrated the win over the weekend, but things will quickly settle down again as the side prepare for a Munster Semi Final this weekend, where they will be hoping to earn the right to return to the ground one day short of twelve months where they won a Munster Final and have a crack at winning another.

Modeligo: Thomas Walsh; Nicky O’Donovan, Brian McCarthy, John McGrath; Sean Hennessy, Kieran McCarthy, Sean O’Donovan; Patrick O’Donovan, Shane Troy; Rian Reddy, Pat Fitzgerald, Robbie Buckley; Michael Troy, Patrick Walsh, Jamie Troy. Subs: Cian O’Byrne for Robbie Buckley (56), Paudie McCarthy for John McGrath (59), Mike Bumster for Rian Reddy (60), Michael Power for Patrick Walsh (63).

Scorers: Michael Troy 1-5 (0-4f), Pat Fitzgerald 0-2, Jamie Troy, Shane Troy 0-1 each.

Roanmore: Colm Burke; Johnny Walsh, Tommy Aldridge, Tim O’Byrne; Frank McGrath, Emmet O’Toole, Charlie Chester; Darragh Swaby, Brian Nolan; Dale Sheridan, David Barrett, Dean Reidy; Paul O’Toole, Paul O’Sullivan, Shane Nolan. Subs: Keith Kennedy for Darragh Swaby (38), Cein Chester for Dean Reidy (41), Dale Hayes for Dale Sheridan (46), Conor O’Byrne for Johnny Walsh (58), Robbie Kelly for Paul O’Sullivan (60).

Scorers: Brian Nolan (F), Paul O’Sullivan 0-1 each.

Referee: Timmy Organ (Ballinacourty).