February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Mark Jones
DUBLIN — A couple of rescheduled National Football League games were played last weekend and Fermanagh took full advantage of Meath’s lack of motivation to register their second win in Division 1B. It finished 0-14 to 0-7 at Enniskillen with Ray Gallagher kicking an impressive five points.
Even though the All Ireland champions were without half their starting lineup, as well as without manager Sean Boylan, who missed the game due to flu, Fermanagh were full value for the victory.
However, it was all much tighter in Division 1A, where Armagh and Galway played out a 2-7 to 1-10 draw at Crossmaglen. While Galway preserved their unbeaten record as the competition shuts down until February, they had to wait until the final minute before Ja Fallon slotted the equalizing point.
UCC 1-17, Doonbeg (Clare) 0-7
This Munster club football final replay may have ended with two sendings off and a welter of recriminations, but the tawdry events of the last few minutes at Limerick were never enough to detract from what was an outstanding performance by UCC.
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Picking up from where they left off in the drawn decider, the students served up some glorious football on a bog of a pitch. Their movement, passing and shooting were of the highest quality, and heaven knows what humiliations Doonbeg would have endured had the game taken place on a dry high summer pitch.
As it was, the Clare champions’ frustration eventually boiled over and both Gerry Killeen and Paul Hehir got their marching orders during a tetchy finish. Killeen threw a couple of punches before being dismissed by referee Brian White. However, the veteran forward still had more spleen to vent on his way to the dugout.
Body checking UCC’s Caoimhin Breathnach as he headed for the line was bad enough, but then Killeen offered an obscene gesture toward the students’ supporters and also spat in the direction of the stand.
Hehir was next to go when he thumped Gary Stack off the ball as Doonbeg totally lost their composure. Team manager Pat Hanrahan, made no excuses for his players’ conduct.
"A few of our lads got frustrated and we apologized to UCC, who were fully understanding. Nobody was injured, thanks be to God. It was a small bit of frustration. We’ll have to accept whatever disciplinary action that comes our way."
If Doonbeg’s reaction to a football lesson was unacceptable, it still wasn’t hard to understand their frustration. They looked to have had the drawn game won and they must have been confident of landing a second Munster title in succession. But no one could have predicted an hour of such collective class by UCC.
From the time Keith Moran punched a goal in the 24th minute to give them a 1-4 to 0-2 lead, the students had a swagger about them. Swinging the play from left to right, UCC stretched the Doonbeg defense to the limit, and with Ian Twiss and Michael O’Cronin in flying form, the winners’ advantage had ballooned out to 1-16 to 0-4 before the bad feeling began to creep in.
A semi-final meeting with All-Ireland champions Crossmaglen Rangers next year will certainly represent a step up in class, but if UCC continue to perform with this sort of flair and imagination, anything is possible.