Beirne turns up the heat as Colman’s overcome champions
St. Coleman's Nathan Gill gets tackled by St Gerald's Oisin Costello. Pictures: Conor McKeown
St Colman’s are the last surviving Mayo team in this year’s Connacht Post Primary senior ‘A’ football championship, after they beat St Gerald’s to a place in the last four by virtue of a three points win over their county rivals, in Bekan, last Tuesday.
A game that had twice been postponed on account of wintry conditions took some time to heat up, with the dismissal of a St Colman’s player and untaken goal chances by St Gerald’s contributing to a frantic final five minutes.
St Gerald’s, the defending Connacht champions but four points in arrears as the clock ticked past the hour mark, created a gilt-edged goal opportunity in the first minute of second-half stoppage time, but substitute Riley Cowan opted for a point with just St Colman’s goalkeeper Evan Campbell to beat. There was still time for the Castlebar side to equalise however, but Jude Lavin’s rasper just a minute later was superbly blocked by a flying body, as the 14 men of St Colman’s hung on to secure a win that sets up a Connacht semi-final against Leitrim schools this Friday.
A huge cog in the St Colman’s victory was full-forward Darragh Beirne. His performance oozed class and allied with six points, which included four from play, it was his pair of quick frees that directly resulted in a 1-1 contribution by corner-forward Sean O’Connell during the third quarter.
It should be noted however, that Patrick Garvey, also operating at full-forward but in the blue of St Gerald’s, was almost as influential, scoring four excellent points from play, drawing a first-half save from Campbell and earning the converted penalty that helped St Gerald’s into a two points lead early in the second-half.
While St Colman’s were deserving winners, it had taken them 25 minutes of the opening half to get their noses in front for the first time; the Claremorris outfit had drawn level on four occasions, with Darragh Beirne, Ronan Kelly, Beirne again, and Mark Noonan, their first scorer from play, each negating St Gerald’s points by Evan Walsh, two, a free included, Dara Neary and Patrick Garvey.
But when Ciaran Treacy nipped in to steal a St Gerald’s kickout and set up Jake Mullin to finally kick St Colman’s ahead five minutes before the break, the Red and White maintained their pressure right until the interval. Treacy won a free after a needless push by Paul Hurst and after that was converted by Ronan Kelly, Dylan Burke magnificently fielded the subsequent kickout to supply Darragh Beirne whose first point from play gave St Colman’s a 0-7 to 0-4 interval lead. That mightn’t have been the case, however, if Patrick Garvey had managed to get a more powerful flick to Dara Neary’s 28th minute free, which Evan Campbell stopped on his line, or had Neary and Oisin Costello not kicked wides from excellent scoring chances in front of the posts earlier in the half.
Garvey was to become even more influential after the restart, scoring points in the 33rd and 35th minutes in between which referee Shane Corcoran deemed Rio Mortimer’s challenge on the St Gerald’s man a foul, as the pair contested Harry McHale’s high delivery into the goalmouth. Jude Lavin sent Campbell the wrong way from the penalty spot and St Gerald’s were 1-6 to 0-7 ahead by the time Darragh Beirne, with a brilliant point from 45 metres, landed the opening St Colman’s point of the second-half, in the 39th minute.
A minute later, and with Conor Kavanagh punished for over carrying, it was Beirne’s lightning quick reactions that saw him lob a free over the St Gerald’s defence into the lap of Sean O’Connell who stepped inside his marker to bury a goal past Euan McGowan into the bottom right corner. St Colman’s were back in front and soon stretched their lead to three when Beirne nailed his third long range point from play.
The game was far from over, however, and with St Gerald’s ending the third quarter with another Garvey point and beginning the fourth with one from Jude Lavin, the margin was back down to one.
But when O’Connell, Treacy, Beirne and Kelly, a free, hit a point apiece unanswered between the 49th and 57th minutes, how important that was to prove to St Colman’s considering full-back Rio Mortimer was about to be sent to the line for a late tackle. Dara Neary swung over the resultant free but missed another from dead centre on the hour mark, leaving St Gerald’s chasing a four points deficit entering stoppage time.
Joe Forry, Evan Walsh and Josh Concannon linked up superbly to fashion that excellent goal chance which Riley Cowan instead popped over the bar, and Patrick Garvey broke Forry’s high ball for Lavin’s late blocked shot, as time ran out on St Gerald’s who will wonder quite how their campaign turned sour. The Castlebar school had begun with an eleven points first round win against now semi-finalists Summerhill College before losing by three points to Ballinrobe Community School and now to St Colman’s, who lost by seven points to Summerhill. It’s a funny old game.
The Claremorris side’s semi-final against Leitrim Schools this Friday is at 12.30pm at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence, where the other semi-final between St Jarlath’s and Summerhill will be played tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12.45pm.
