Our Junior A footballers are the toast of the club this week after securing a first ever Junior A county title with a 1-11 to 0-11 win over Monagea last Sunday in Kilmallock.
In wet and blustery conditions, we got off to a great start with a goal from Mike McCormack inside the opening thirty seconds who finished at close range after a Gary O’Connell pass across the square. This was followed soon after by a Richard Murphy free before Monagea registered their first point of the game. A fine score from Conor Burke after a short taken free and another fine score from Gary O’Connell left us 1-3 to 0-1 ahead before Monagea got a point before the water break to leave 4 in it after 15 minutes.
Our challenge suffered its first setback when we lost our centre back Cormac Flanagan to injury. A Conor Burke point from the right hand side of the field gave us a 1-4 to 0-2 lead but Monagea frees and a pointed free by Richard Murphy left the score at half time 1-5 to 0-5.
Tomás Connolly, Shane O’Connell and Richard Murphy were linking up well in the forwards while Dom O’Connor, Donnacha Connolly and Evan Moloney were working hard at the back. The third quarter of the match was dominated by the West Limerick men and after Micheál O’Neill clipped over a point from close range, Monagea hit four unanswered points, two either side of the water break, to go into the lead for the first time by 0-10 to 1-6 with twelve minutes remaining.
However as was the case in the quarter final against Athea and the semi final against Croom, our lads showed outstanding resilience and composure to steady the ship and an equalising free from Richard Murphy was followed by an brilliant effort from Karl Moloney to bring us back into the lead. Another Richard Murphy free left two in it before Monagea were presented with a golden chance of a goal which was outstandingly tipped over the cross bar by goalkeeper Eoghan O’Connor. A Gary O’Connell point from play and a Richard Murphy free finished out the scoring for the afternoon. Despite Monagea’s best efforts to work an equalising goal, our full back line of Tim Moloney, Patrick Dolphin and Cian Leahy held firm and the referee’s whistle blew soon after as it finished 1-11 to 0-11.
Captain Mike McCormack was on hand to accept the cup on behalf of the team as we look forward to being the first Crecora-Manister team to play intermediate in 2020.
Team: Eoghan O’Connor; Tim Moloney, Patrick Dolphin, Evan Moloney; Dom O’Connor, Cormac Flanagan, Donnacha Connolly; Karl Moloney, Micheál O’Neill; Tomás Connolly, Richard Murphy, Conor Burke; Shane O’Connell, Mike McCormack, Gary O’Connell. Cian Leahy, Killian Scanlon, Jack Dalton, Adam Galvin, Conor Kirby, Rob Greer, Tom Shanahan, Shane O’Connor, Peter Boohan, Sam Riordan. Management Team: Peter Healy, Ger Riordan, Tom Connolly, Mossie Fitzgerald. Well done to all involved.
The full match was televised and can be viewed online at the following link: Limerick Junior A Football County Final
