Colligan come from behind to defeat Shamrocks in Junior Football Western Final

Colligan Emmetts started and finished strong at Fraher Field on Saturday evening to claim this year’s Western Junior Football Championship against Shamrocks.

No man of the match is presented after Western finals, but if such one was available Colligan’s Gavin Whelan would be in with a shout as he scored two points and helped set up their second goal and also tracked back from his wing forward position at times to help out in the middle of the field.

However there was one performance that outweighed that of the Colligan man.

It has become common practice to give out about the match officials after games, but in this game it was hard to fault the performance of referee Tom Mansfield who had an excellent hours work with the whistle in his hand.

The Affane/Cappoquin man left the game flow as much as possible, and was very much up with the play. When calls had to be made from a distance he in the eyes of this reporter anyway got them right and there was few if any shouts of disapproval from the line or the stand to calls he did make.

It was Colligan that were first out of the traps in this game when Johnny Wall put over a brace of early points to give his side a 0-2 to no score lead after nine minutes.

These however were to prove to be his sides only scores in the first half.

Both sides found scores hard to come by in the first half and the Knockanore outfit did not score till the 23 minute, when Padraig Ahearne finished to the net.

Prior to the break the side in white and green would add three further scores, two frees from Bernard Kelleher and one from play from the boot of Colm Roche to give their side a 1-3 to 0-2 lead at the interval.

After ten minutes of the second half things were looking good for the Shamrocks as they held a 1-6 to 0-3 lead, cancelling out Gavin Whelan’s first score of the second half with a brace from Bernard Kelleher and Adam Crawford.

But things turned for Colligan on 43 minutes when Johnny Wall blasted a penalty to the roof of Kieran O’Keeffe net to leave just three between the sides, and nine minutes later they hit a second goal when a Gavin Whelan effort from distance was fumbled by Kieran O’Keeffe and Stephen McGrath who was only on the field three minutes was in the right place to push the ball to the net to level matters.

Gavin Whelan with a delightful effort gave his side the lead on 54 and Johnny Wall extended it three minutes later, but they were left sweating when Bernard Kelleher who impressed for the Knockanore club kicked his fifth of the evening to leave just one between the side, but fortunately for Colligan the side in white and green were not able to add any further scores in the two minutes added time.

Colligan: Dean McKenna; Mike McGrath, John Nicholas Fennell, Alan Kinsella; Ray Bannon, PJ Coffey, Jason Dunford; John Morrissey, Darren Dunford; Gavin Whelan, Mark Flynn, Johnny Wall; Charlie Whelan, Richie Kiely, Colin Dunford. Subs: Sean Browne for Darren Dunford (6), Alan Walsh for Richie Kiely (HT), John Flynn for Mike McGrath (38), Stephen McGrath for Colin Dunford (49).

Scorers: Johnny Wall 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-2F), Stephen McGrath 1-0, Gavin Whelan 0-2.

Shamrocks: Kieran O’Keeffe; Sean Murphy, Tom O’Donovan, Tomás O’Neill; Brian Harnedy, John Paul Lucey, Cathal Herlihy; Stephen Lucey, Shane Roche; Bernard Kelleher, John O’Donovan, Adam Crawford; Eoin Murphy, Colm Roche, Pádraig Ahearne. Sub: Edward Lonergan for Brian Harnedy (46).

Scorers: Bernard Kelleher 0-5 (3f), Pádraig Ahearne 1-0, Colm Roche, Adam Crawford 0-1 each.

Referee: Tom Mansfield.