Connolly Meats Minor Football League Division 2 Cup Final

Doohamlet 1-14 St Mary’s Na Mullaí 1-9

Doohamlet’s minor footballers secured the Division 2 Minor Football League title with a gritty and composed display against St Mary’s Na Mullaí in Tyholland on Tuesday evening. On a wet and dark evening, the O’Neills men were more economical with their scoring chances, unlike their opponents, who had chances themselves but were guilty of incredibly wasteful shooting in front of goal.

Oisin O’Neill opened the scoring for Doohamlet with a close-in free after 3 minutes, followed by magnificent 45 five minutes later.
Scores in the first half were hard to come by, but by the 16th minute, Doohamlet had doubled their tally thanks to points by Darragh Ruddin and Jack Treanor. Oisin O’Neill scored a second free to make it 0-5 to 0-0 in favour of Doohamlet, before St Mary’s finally got on the scoresheet on 19 minutes through a fisted Kyle Brannigan point. Sean Markey and Ryan Lynch traded scores to keep the gap at four points, before an improving St Mary’s pulled the gap back to three points before half time, courtesy of Kian McAree. The margin was 0-7 to 0-4 to Doohamlet at the break.

After the resumption, Jason Irwin split the posts to put Doohamlet four in front again, before Stephen McCluskey responded for St Mary’s once more. Paudie O’Brien further narrowed the gap for St Mary’s, before a James McQuaid goal put the Rockcorry/Eire Og men in front for the first time, 0-8 to 1-6 after 43 minutes. Only a minute later however, and Doohamlet were back in front again when Oisin O’Neill returned the compliment and rattled the onion bag to put his team two points up again. Leon McCabe found the range with a point to keep St Mary’s in touch, but Doohamlet captain Sean Markey put his team 2 in front again with an inspirational long range cannon-blaster.
Kian McAree reduced the gap to the minimum once more for St Mary’s, but again Doohamlet were able to keep their opponents at arm’s length, a Ciaran Markey point placing them two in front with 11 minutes remaining. Leon McCabe was to the fore again with another point, but a one point deficit was as good as it would get for St Mary’s, as Doohamlet would grind them down in the last 10 minutes of the match.
Five unanswered points, including three Oisin O’Neill frees, propelled his side to victory, and despite some brave resistance from St Mary’s, there’s no doubt the better team won on the night.
DOOHAMLET: Dermot Kelly, Oisin Fee, Hugh Brennan, Jack McElroy, Cillian Walshe 0-1, Dean Rooney, Joseph Ryan, Conor McKernan 0-1, Sean Markey 0-2, Dylan McKenna, Darragh Ruddin 0-1, Daniel Connolly, Oisin O’Neill 1-5 (4f, 1[45]), Jason Irwin 0-2, Jack Treanor 0-1.
Subs: Emil Zeps for Dylan McKenna, Richard Farkas for Darragh Ruddin, Liam Ingram for Joseph Ryan, Dylan Duffy for Jack Treanor (BC), Ciaran Markey 0-1 for Conor McKernan.
ST MARY’S NA MULLAÍ: Kyle McAree, Brendan Reilly, Nathan McCabe, Shane Greenan, Ryan Lynch 0-1, Aaron Smith, Caine Toal, Robert Haynes, Gary Larmer, James McQuaid 1-0, Kian McAree 0-2, Conor Smith, Kyle Brannigan 0-1, Tiernan Kierans, Stephen McCluskey 0-1.
Subs: Donal Leonard 0-1 for Aaron Smith, Paudie O’Brien 0-1 for Gary Larmer, Leon McCabe 0-3 for Tiernan Kierans, Tiernan Kierans for Conor Smith.