IT’S hard to topple tradition; St Colman’s discovered that when missing a golden opportunity to oust St Jarlath’s from last year’s race for provincial honours, eventually losing to the Tuam boys after extra time.

On Sunday last, again it was a classic case of so near yet so far, as all that divided the Claremorris students and their great rivals from up the road was a first half goal that so easily could have been avoided.

Playing against a strong wind yet level on scores with Galway football’s nursery at 0-3 apiece after 29 minutes, the Mayo men kicked possession from a free straight back into opposition hands and paid the ultimate price. Ronan Steede, having moved outfield from his full-forward berth, shot for a point but knowing the ball was sure to drop some distance short, goalkeeper Patrick Kirrane raced from his line in a bid to win possession.

The St Colman’s man was beaten to the leather by the game’s most influential figure, Danny Cummins who, after being denied on the line at the first attempt by near namesake David Commons, rifled the rebound into the roof of the net. It was the score that divided the teams at the interval as well as full-time.

Seasoned observers argued that Jarlath’s were most deserving of victory due to their dominance in more sectors of the pitch. That may very well have been the case, but the fact remained that that solitary goal, a score that needn’t have been conceded, was all that separated the sides at full-time.

If, in Cummins, St Jarlath’s boasted the game’s most influential player, in Shane Nally, St Colman’s owned the game’s best player.

The former scored a goal and two points from his corner-forward berth and had a hand in most of his side’s other scores, but St Colman’s centre-back Nally could not have done any more to try and fashion a more favourable result for his team.

He was a colossus from first kick until last, even striding forward to narrow the Colman’s deficit to two points with the penultimate score of the game.

Nally was joined by his wing-backs Sean Prendergast and Shane Walsh, and full-back John Broderick, in the list of play-ers who emptied their tanks for the St Colman’s cause. It was in attack that the losers’ shortcomings were most evident. Only one of the six starting forwards scored from play, and that as early as the fourth minute when Michael Connolly superbly cancelled out Ronan Steede’s first minute free for St Jarlath’s.

By full-time only two St Colman’s forwards had scored from play, with Keith Prendergast, named to start in the programme but instead sprung from the bench, kicking a fine score six minutes from the end.

Just like Connolly had done to Steede in the opening exchanges, Mark O’Sullivan, twice from frees, negated further St Jarlath’s points by David Shallow and Danny Cummins, as the sides proved inseparable after 26 minutes. The quality of football was severely hampered by the wind, however, the enthusiasm of both teams was keeping both sets of supporters entertained, the mammoth attendance the biggest in many years to attend a Connacht Colleges decider.

Having worked so hard to limit the damage that St Jarlath’s could inflict while the wind remained in their favour, the concession of the late first half goal was a major blow to Danny McHugh’s team, however, they were thanking their lucky stars that Danny Cummins’ major was not added to in injury time when Shallow sent the ball screaming past the outside of the bottom right corner of Kirrane’s goal.

Had that shot nestled in the net, their half-time arrears would have increased to six points.

It said a lot about St Colman’s limitations going forward that it took them a full 14 minutes of the second half to add to their three points tally, and this with the elements now firmly in their favour.

Keith Prendergast entered the fray in the 40th minute and soon contributed to his side’s growing wide tally, and when Mark O’Sullivan converted his third free of the game to finally open his side’s second half account, Stephen Boyle had already increased the St Jarlath’s lead to four points.

Shane Walsh managed to decrease the margin to two when pointing at the end of his great burst from deep, this leaving the scores 1-4 to 0-5 in favour of the blue and white with 15 minutes to play, but further trickery by Danny Cummins allowed David Shallow shoot over at the other end and the gap was again out to four by the 53rd minute when Cummins left David Commons and John Broderick in his slip-stream to fire over from top of the right.

It left St Colman’s with an uphill struggle for the remainder, a challenge they bravely met head on, but one that ultimately proved fruitless. Keith Prendergast executed a fine point from the right wing, Sean Prendergast was extremely unlucky to watch an effort from distance tail wide at the final moment while Man of the Match Shane Nally did ensure a grandstand finish when roving forward to score and narrow the gap to two as the game entered its second of six minutes injury time.

But the Claremorris school, wasteful in possession, just couldn’t secure enough ball from which to manufacture further scores and the goal they were always likely to need never looked like arriving.

The final say rested with St Jarlath’s and their midfielder Brian Moran who concluded the scoring when polishing off a neat move involving Michael Boyle and Galway’s All-Ireland winner of 2007, Conor Doherty.

Doherty was one of three of that successful squad to feature for St Jarlath’s; Colin Forde and Tomas Fahy were magnificent at fullback and centre-back respectively.

Aghamore dual star Cathal Freeman also gave a fine account of himself at wing-back for the winners while Brian Moran, David Shallow and the diminutive Cummins were others to shine.

SCORERS - St Jarlath’s:

Danny Cummins 1-2, David Shallow 0-2, Ronan Steede (f), Stephen Boyle and Brian Moran 0-1 each.

St Colman’s: Mark O’Sullivan 0-3 (3f), Michael Connolly, Keith Prendergast, Shane Walsh and Shane Nally 0-1 each.

ST JARLATH’S: Dennis Farragher; Enda Mullarkey, Colin Forde, Ciaran Blake; Mark O’Shaughnessy, Tomas Fahy, Cathal Freeman; Luke O’Brien, Brian Moran; Stephen Boyle, David Shallow, Conor Doherty; Michael Kelly, Ronan Steede, Danny Cummins. Sub used: Michael Boyle (for Kelly 50).

ST COLMAN’S: Patrick Kirrane; David Commons, John Broderick, James King; Sean Prendergast, Shane Nally, Shane Walsh; Tommy Mitchell, David Egan; Mark Gallagher, Mark O’Sullivan, Ian Costello; Michael Connolly, Mark Tierney, Brian Walsh. Subs used: Keith Prendergast (for B Walsh 40).

Referee: Declan Hunt (Roscommon).

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