Moy and Deel river rivals Cross’ paths again
Locals Dermot O'Malley and Andy Gray having a chat before Crossmolina's home game against Moy Davitts in this year's intermediate championship group clash at St Tiernan's Park. The teams meet again next Sunday for the right to lift the Sweeney Cup. Picture: Lily Hegarty
If neither side has yet to discover their absolute best form or strung together a complete 60-minute performance, it says a lot about the quality of both Moy Davitts and Crossmolina Deel Rovers that the football they have played has still been sufficient to see off the rest of the pack. These two were probably the two most fancied sides to reach the final at the outset of this year’s county intermediate championship and they have worn that expectation quite lightly, albeit each booked their spots in the final by the skins of their teeth.
Moy Davitts rallied from five points behind in the second-half to get the better of Davitts by a single point while Crossmolina were brought to extra-time by a Ballinrobe team who were a last gasp wide away from forcing the other semi-final to penalties.
What makes next Sunday’s showdown so intriguing, apart from the very obvious carrot of senior football in 2025 for the winners, is the recent history between the pair. This will be the third championship clash between Moy Davitts and Crossmolina in barely 14 months, after they were drawn in the same group for two seasons running. The Deel Rovers are hoping it’s a case of third time lucky having lost both other games between the teams.
Last year’s defeat was critical as combined with a loss to Castlebar Mitchels ‘B’, it denied them qualification to the quarter-finals and while losing again this season ultimately didn’t carry the same consequence, it’s arguable the drama offered by both teams in St Tiernan’s Park that day has been unrivalled across all three of the championships this year – senior, intermediate and junior – before or since, except perhaps for the to and fro nature of Crossmolina’s last four triumph over Ballinrobe.
Moy Davitts fought from nine points behind to eight points in front in little more than a 20-minute period during the second-half. Five of the ten goals they have scored this championship were struck in that same 20-minute period whereas five goals is as much as Crossmolina have scored across the entire championship.
Factor in the 20 times that Moy Davitts hit the net in this year’s Mayo SFL Division 1B, scoring at least one goal in every single round and five apiece against Garrymore and Ballintubber, and that arguably their most potent attacking threat, Brian Reape, has played only sporadically because of injury, then it’s easy to understand why James Mulderrig’s side has been fancied to lift the Sweeney Cup from so far out.
Cian McHale could easily be receiving an invite from Kevin McStay into Mayo’s training panel in advance of next season where he would join clubmate Conor Reid, whose running power from midfield, and McHale’s mercurial left boot, are key weapons in Moy Davitts’ arsenal. Both scored goals in that victory over Crossmolina who had led 2-12 to 0-9 but were outscored by 5-04 to 0-5 between the 35th minute and full-time. To put the result that day into perspective, Deel Rovers conceded more than they did in three games against Lahardane, Louisburgh and The Neale combined.
There are chinks in Moy Davitts’ armour too however, of that Crossmolina will convince themselves, like how where the Deel men have kept three clean sheets (it could have been four but for the flukey nature of Ballinrobe’s semi-final goal), Moy Davitts have only one to their name. And taking the previous encounter between the teams out of the equation, Moy Davitts have shipped four goals in four games compared to Crossmolina’s one – the aforementioned fluke by Joe Burke for Ballinrobe where the ball dropped onto his boot after Kevin Quinn’s attempt for a point rebounded off the post.
The Coggins trio, Niall, Aaron and Diarmuid, Daragh Syron at midfield and inside threat James Maheady have added a youthful exuberance to a Crossmolina side that lacks nothing in experience or leadership either, with Fionan Duffy remaining among the hottest intermediate forwards around and Jordan Flynn and Conor Loftus operating at the very highest level for Mayo.
But there’s no shortage of players to have represented their county on the Moy Davitts side either, right down to goalkeeper Chris McGlynn who was formerly a member of Donegal U21 squads managed by Jim McGuinness. Like Brian Reape, Cian McHale and Conor Reid, the Clarke brothers Cathal and Jamie, Colm McHale (Cian’s younger brother), Fiachra Cruise, Sean Kelly and Liam Byrne are among those to have worn the green and red at a multitude of levels.
It’s easy to imagine either squad establishing itself at senior level but they have to get there first – and even then there are no guarantees, as last season’s intermediate winners Kilmeena discovered this year. But all that is for another day.
The last memory the Moy Davitts and Crossmolina players have of each other is the stoppage-time brawl on August 31 that saw three red cards (including two to non-playing subs) brandished by referee Kevin Connelly. More fireworks are to be expected.
