Breaffy joy is another man’s hard Knock’
Yousif Coghill of Breaffy leaves Knockmore's Darragh Staunton and Oliver Armstrong trailing in his wake. Picture: Conor McKeown
So often the nearly men of the Mayo senior football championship, Breaffy delivered a performance on Sunday afternoon that will have their cards well marked as they head into the quarter-finals where they will look to avenge last year's late collapse against Westport when they meet again in a fortnight’s time.
Driven on by relentless physical power, hard work and an unshakeable belief in their own abilities, particularly that of kicking two pointers, they raised the orange flag six times over the hour to run out more comfortable winners over Knockmore than the five points margin on the scoreboard would suggest.
Winning three games from three in a tough group is a fine achievement for Sean Deane’s men, but they know it will count for little more than a hill of beans if they cannot finally get over the finishing line in the championship.
That’s for later on down the track; on Sunday they hit the ground running and never took their foot off the gas. On the few occasions it looked like Knockmore were getting back into the game, Breaffy were able to deliver a couple of quickfire punches to keep themselves in control of the scoreboard.
Knockmore’s consolation is that they have avoided the relegation playoffs.
Yousif Coghill burst through to open the scoring for Breaffy a minute in, then Joe Mellett tapped over two quick frees before Peter Naughton opened the Knockmore account. Breaffy were dominating the middle of the park and plundering the Knockmore kickout in the opening exchanges and by the time the game reached the 15 minute mark they were already eight points to the good.
Conor O’Shea and Mellett added singles before Aidan O’Shea and Matthew Ruane hoisted over huge two pointers to put their side into a 0-9 to 0-1 lead. Aidan Orme replied for Knockmore and Conall Dempsey pointed a two-point free to bring their side back into the game.
But Breaffy’s response was to go up the field and land two-pointer number three of the day through Mellett. Pearse Ruttledge hit back with his own score from outside the arc for Knockmore before Orme landed another single.
Conor O’Shea stemmed the Knockmore run with a point from play and Dempsey had the last say on the half with his side’s eighth point, but they still went in trailing by four points (0-12 to 0-8) at the break, although that was anything but an insurmountable gap for a team of Knockmore’s abilities to close.
They did get the first score of the second-half from a Naughton point, but the killer for Knockmore was that Breaffy could always find a response to their scores. Livingstone stepped up and drove over his first two-pointer of the day from a free, Ollie Armstrong responded, but in return Matthew Ruane nailed his second two-pointer of the day to keep his side six points to the good.
Orme closed the gap to five but again Breaffy with their next score stretched their lead out to seven thanks to another perfectly judged two-point effort from a Livingstone free. Joe Mellett added two close range frees to their tally and Aidan O’Shea landed his third point of the afternoon to have Breaffy 10 points ahead with the game having now passed the 50 minute mark.
Sub Caolan Hopkins kicked two points on the spin, with Orme getting another for Knockmore, but time was against them and Breaffy had the hard yards done earlier and weren’t going to get caught. Peter Naughton did pull back a goal with practically the last kick of the game, but it was all too little too late for Ray Dempsey’s side.
Breaffy move on to the last eight and a home quarter-final against Westport, where they will hope to exorcise the demons of last year and take another step to finally claiming their maiden county title. In the football year we’ve already had, they have every right to believe that this year it could be them. But they will also know they’ve reached this part of the book in other years only for the final chapters to be a disappointment.
Scorers – Breaffy: Joe Mellett 0-1-5 (0-5f), Matthew Ruane and Jack Livingstone (2tpf) 0-2-0 each, Aidan O’Shea 0-1-1, Conor O’Shea 0-0-3 (1f), Yousif Coghill 0-0-1.
Knockmore: Peter Naughton 1-0-2, Aidan Orme 0-0-4 (1f), Conall Dempsey 0-1-1 (1tpf), Pearse Ruttledge 0-1-0, Caolan Hopkins 0-0-2, Ollie Armstrong 0-0-1.
Breaffy: Jack Livingstone; Conor Beirne, Mark Dervan, Conor Coghill; Yousif Coghill, Robbie Fadden, Daire Morrin; Niall Carter, Matthew Ruane; Aidan Cunningham, Aidan O’Shea, Davitt Neary; Joe Mellett, Conor O’Shea, Pierce Deane. Subs: Tommy O’Reilly (for Deane), Oisin Costello (for Cunningham), Gavan McManamon (for Carter), Rory Martyn (for Mellett), Mark Ward (for C Coghill).
Knockmore: Colm Reape; Nathan Armstrong, David McHale, Conor Breslin; Adam Naughton, Shane McHale, Kieran King; Darragh Staunton, Connall Dempsey; Tom Clarke, Aidan Orme, Pearse Ruttledge; Charlie Bourke, Ollie Armstrong, Peter Naughton. Subs: Keith Ormsby (for Clarke, blood), Adam Battle (for Clarke), Ormsby (for A Naughton), Caolan Hopkins (for Breslin), Tadgh Staunton (for Bourke), Conor Flynn (for O Armstrong).
REF: James Regan (Hollymount-Carramore)
