Truagh Gaels (Monaghan) 2-21
Kiltane (Mayo) 2-13
MONAGHAN’S Truagh Gaels cruised to victory in the All-Ireland AIB Club Intermediate Football Championship final at Croke Park today.
It took them a while to shake off the dogged challenge of Mayo’s Kiltane, but in the end they proved too good. They closed out this high-scoring and exciting game with the last five points to give themselves a comfortable eight-point cushion at the final whistle.
The Mayo main trailed by just one with seven minutes to go, 2-13 to 2-14, but they ran out of steam. The undoubted star of the first half was Truagh corner-forward Daniel McKenna, who picked off an impressive 1-6 from play to help give his side a 2-10 to 2-5 lead at the break.
The Monaghan men got the first two points of the game, but then Kiltane hit back with two quick-fire goals through a Darragh Carey penalty and a Mikey Sweeney screamer. Truagh didn’t panic and they kept hitting accurate diagonal balls into their razor-sharp full-forward line, bypassing Kiltane’s sweeper.
Nearly everything McKenna touched turned into a score. He got his side’s first goal after 13 minutes and Mark Counihan added the second not long after.
Truagh Gaels scorers: Daniel McKenna 1-7, Mark Counihan 1-1, Paudie McKenna 0-4 (0-1f), Adam Treanor 0-4, Chrissy McKenna 0-2 (0-1f), Sean McKenna 0-2, Daniel Finnegan 0-1.
Kiltane scorers: Mikey Sweeney 1-1, Darragh Carey 1-0 (1-0 pen), Jason Healy 0-3 (0-1’45’), Edmund Barrett 0-3 (0-1f), Shane Lindsay, Ultan Corrigan 0-2 each, Tony Gaughan, John Reilly 0-1 each.
TRUAGH GAELS: Ian Treanor; John McCarron, Niall Feely, Niall McQuillan; Barry Cuddy, Rory Treanor, Paudie McKenna; Pauric Treanor, Niall McRory; Adam Treanor, Chrissy McKenna, Eoghan Kelly; Daniel Finnegan, Mark Counihan, Daniel McKenna.
Subs: Niall Coyle for Kelly (49); Keith Sheerin for McRory (49); John Traenor for Rory Treanor (54); Sean McKenna for Finnegan (58), Damien McRory for Adam Treanor (58); Aidan Coyle for Counihan 62 mins.
KILTANE: Michael John Reilly; Darragh Carey, Rory Corrigan, Stephen Sweeney; Patrick Joe Gaughan, Tony Gaughan, Sean Gaughan; John Reilly, Jason Healy; Ultan Corrigan, Sean Carey, Edmund Barrett; Mikey Sweeney, Shane Lindsay, Tommy Conroy.
Subs: Michael Gallagher for D Carey (18).
REFEREE: A Nolan (Wicklow)
These two games against top English sides are great opportunities for Tom Ahern to propel himself into the Irish squad
@Kevin Ryan: izzy, baird, conan, pendergast and timoney all ahead at this stage.
@chris mcdonnell: stopped reading at conan….
@chris mcdonnell: I don’t want to knock anyone. They’re all good players of course; but I think we know by now that Prendergast and Timoney are pretty unlikely to ever establish themselves in the Ireland side. Ahern has the potential to do so.
@Niall English: The 42 is an interesting selection to have your mid life crises on
@Niall English: conan ahead of the lot of them. Not sure about the rest though.
@chris mcdonnell: I think Baird has moved down the Irish pecking order. Not sure the reason why but it seems he has. I think Ahern will be more used in 2nd row by IRL going forward but also cover 6 ahead of Baird. I think Izzy will eventually take a starting hold on that 6 jersey. Conan is an 8 who can do a job at 6. lineout skilks wouldn’t be his strength though and that works against starting him. My feeling is POM will start v England at 6 or at least be on the bench. No doubt he’s behind many others in general play but our LO is critical to starting the 6n’s well and he’s still our best LO jumper.
@Michael Corkery: He’s only started 9 times at 6. Munster have won a grand total of 1 of those games. Putting that to one side, it’s still manifestly obvious that he should be concentrating on second row, given both his height and the number of options at blindside.
If Munster were talking about the good things they did against Leinster, it was a short talk. We need the injury list to clear up, it would be great to pick a 23 match day squad that isn’t influenced by injured players.
Don’t know why Munster are always going on about O’Mahony these days. The guy is busted flush, worn out and too old. Not his fault now. Munster have to pick Ahern ahead of him and bench him. We lost to England last year because he wasn’t at the races with the young English back row so we lost another grand slam because he wasn’t up to it.
@Jimmy Bean: i do recall doris getting grossly outplayed by ben earl in that game also, not the first time hes gone AWOL when the chips are down.
@Niall English: Mr Bean only sees what he wants to see.
@Niall English: He left VanDFl and Doris on their own to play by themselves against the English. He was benched for the South Africa tour so it’s just not me who thinks he’s past it.
@Leonard Barry: Lotta beans on here
@Jimmy Bean: you know the French saying « No scrum, no win ». I got a similar one for the upcoming England game, « No lineout, no win ». Certainly PO’M is not as good as others around the field, but if our lineout calling and throwing is going to continue to be as bad as it has recently, the 2nd best defensive LO in the world is going to have an absolute field day. We’ll need PO’M on the bench at the very least. He can win it at the front if all else fails.