Men’s Football Final

Michael Cusacks 0-11  Cormac McAnallens 0-16

The form book was turned on its head as McAnallens, after just making it into the play-offs beat the table topping Michael Cusacks to claim the League title.  In most of the round robin games McAnallens struggled to score more than 6pts but in the final they raised the white flag an impressive sixteen times to record a well deserved 5 pt victory.

The game started in a hectic pace and there were 7pts on the board after 5 minutes with Cusacks leading by the minimum.  The pace slowed over the next 10 minutes as the midfield area became cluttered and scoring chances were at a minimum.  Two Johnny Brophy frees in as many minutes gave McAnallens a 0-05 to 0-04 lead half way through the first half.  McAnallens continued to starve the Cusacks midfield of any clean ball with Cathal McKenna doing a fine job securing breaking ball.  However clear cut chances were at a premium for either side and McAnallens only added a further point to their lead through McKenna.  In the last 5mins of the half Cusacks managed to regain some of the attacking fluency they showed in previous games.  With Mark Murphy asserting himself more in midfield, Cusacks drew level at 0-06 a piece thanks to points from Mark Reily and Padraig Berry.  However another Brophy point in the last minute of the half gave McAnallens a 0-07 to 0-06 lead at the break.

Despite a bright Cusacks start to the second half which saw the team level on two occasions, the opening 20 minutes of the 2nd term were very much dominated by McAnallens.  The pattern was familiar with their midfielders ensuring no easy fielding opportunities and their half forwards winning most of the breaking ball.  By the 15th minute McAnallens had opened up a 3pt lead which their eleventh score coming from the reversal of a Cusacks free due to ill-discipline.  A further point was added and on the 20th minute a Ciaran Brady point extended the lead to 5pts however it could so easily have been a green flag being raised rather than the white one.

The Cusacks midfield of Murphy and McGovern took over for the next 5 mins and with the introduction of Alan O’Connor into the forward line setup a period of dominance that saw Cusacks launching raid after raid on the McAnallens’ goal.  Mark Reily was unlucky to see a powerful shot crash off the bar although the rebound was put over for a point.  O’Connor added a point to close the gap to 3pts.  Perhaps the key moment of the game came on the 25th minute.  A fine take at midfield by Murphy was feed to Berry who in turn picked out Reilly, finding himself one on one with James Carlin in the McAnallens goal.  Unfortunately for Cusacks the attempt on goal was weak and didn’t test Carlin.  McAnallens regained the ball after this scare and worked it to the other end of the pitch where Brady pointed again to extend their lead to 4pts.  This seemed to knock the confidence out of Cusacks and two further wides seemed to confirm this.  With time running out McAnallens held on to the ball as much as possible and exploited the space being left by Cusacks.  Cusacks seemed to have claimed a final consolation point in the last minute however McAnallens were able to successfully forge one last scoring move before the final whistle to record a well deserved 5pt victory which few would have predicted given the form both sides took into this final.

McAnallens’ Ciaran Brady was awarded Man of the Match as he was a constant threat at full forward and contributed 0-06 while Johnny Brophy added 0-05.  The Cusacks full forward line of Reily, Brady and Kehoe contributed 9pts to their total.
 
Teams
Michael Cusacks: Timmy Walsh, Declan Curry, Brian O’Rourke, David Fitzmorris, Niall Moran, Steve Fox, Jimmy Larkin, Mark Murphy, Ryan McGovern, Gearoid Clancy, Anthony Breen, Donnacha McCarthy, Mark Reily, Padraig Berry, Damien Kehoe, Michael Malone, Cathair Kerr, Paul Kavanagh, Padraig Harrington, Richie Hoare, Shane McMahon, Fergus O’Leary, Alan O’Connor , Barry Carey, Kieran Smith, John O’Callaghan, Mattie Fitzsimmons, Pat MacCorley.

Cormac McAnallens: James Carlin, Damian McKenna, Patrick McCarron, Conor Donelly, Liam Cleary, Mark Quinn, Ciaran Cahill, Cathal McKenna, Sean Sweeney, Dan Fox, Billy O’Rahilly, Barry Cussack, Johnny Brophy, Ciaran Brady, Paul McKenna, Stephen McKenna, John O’Shea, Chris McGeehan, Malte Engels, Ciaran McCartan, Jonathon Gormley, Ray McGoldrick, John Quinn.