Capital Concrete Senior Football Championship Final 2024
North London Shamrocks 1-11
St Kiernans 1-08
It wasn't to be for our seniors in Mcgovern Park on Sunday going down by three points to first time winners North London Shamrocks after a tough battle , in truth we didn't play at the levels we know we can get to but Shamrocks still were not able to put any real daylight between the sides and on another day we could have nicked it , We made one change to the semi final team with Eoin Walsh called in to the starting fifteen for Jamie Gillen following a swift recovery from injury and our bench looked particularly strong boosted by the return of Kevin Henry from injury , we couldn't have asked for a better start with early scores from Conor o Donoghue and Sean Tucker settling us and with a considerable breeze behind Shamrocks we would have been very happy , Sean dropped one short but made amends from the dead ball soon after to make it 0-03 points to 0-01 to us , we were though struggling to win kick outs at either end and this eventually turned itself in to scores for Shamrocks with points from range from Michael Carroll and Joe McGill levelling things up , following this kick out Shamrocks opened a real gap with a well taken goal from Rafferty after being played in by the dangerous Adam Dunne , we needed to win some dirty ball but it was all Shamrocks now and two more points soon followed to open up a 1-05 to 0-03 lead and this game had turned in their favour , Tom got us going again with a well taken free and things could have been even better but the Shamrocks keeper did well to keep out Conor o Donoghues effort at goal to put it out for a 45 , we didn't get anything from this and a high challenge on Dave Carabine saw the Shamrocks half back going in the book -he could have gone in there much earlier for the goading and off the ball stuff he was doing , we set up a number of promising moves but time and again were turned over and couldn't get a shot off , when Danny Doyle turned the Shamrocks keeper Brody over high up the pitch a quick break was on and while the goal threat seemed unlikely a mistake by the defender while covering his line saw Toms shot go straight in and offer us a lifeline, 1-05 to 1-04 now and only a point down , Diver responded with an excellent score for Shamrocks but we still had time to set up another goal chance when Kevin McCarthy slipped in Killian Brady but he couldn't get the ball out of his feet and the danger was averted , still a two point deficit at half time was pretty good after a first half against the elements .
The second half saw us immediately take a scalp from the lead with a good score form David Rogers after quick thinking from Marcus to set him off and we thought we would push on now and really stretch the Shamrocks , however our lack of primary ball winning meant we were never getting enough ball and they were able to steady the ship and kicked the next three scores from McGill , Clarke from a very soft free on Rafferty and Rafferty from play -1-09 to 1-05 now , a black card to Kevin Mc made life hard and whether something was said to the lineman it seemed very harsh at a crucial time and we were really up against it now , Sean shot wide from a tight angle but a massive free from Tom and a huge score from play from Oran brought us right back in to this again , Tom pulled a free to the left and Shamrocks soon had a man in the sin bin after dragging Conor down when through , Kevin Henry lined the free up but it went short and we didn't get anything from the play, second half sub for Shamrocks Thomas Linehan scored from play to re open a three point gap but Tom was able to pull one back again from a free and we were back to a two point game , Tom rose highest to win the next kick out and while being tussled and dragged he won a free in which was in a good position , however after consulting with the lineman the referee Mark Hanley brandished a red card For Tom Waters for what appeared to be very slight contact with Dan Clarke and we were down to 14 men with seven minutes to play , we introduced Jamie Gillen and Rob Reid for Danny Doyle and Keith Curran but following period of stoppages the referee having consulted with his umpires showed Jamie a red card for what they stated was strike on corner back Eoin Flanagan with four minutes left to play, this call seemed particularly harsh and really all but ended the contest as Shamrocks had a numerical advantage and were able to pick their passes and worked some scoreable frees , one of which was converted by Ciaran Diver to put a goal between us , we had time for one long ball from Eoin Walsh down in to Shamrocks territory but nothing came of it and the referee below his full time whistle , we lost little in defeat and we must commend these players and their management team for the year they have given us by getting to all four finals and winning two.
We will be back -that's for sure ..
scorers
Tom Waters 1-03
Sean Tucker 0-02
Oran Kerr -Conor o Donoghue and David Rogers 0-1 each .
North London Shamrocks 1-11
St Kiernans 1-08
It wasn't to be for our seniors in Mcgovern Park on Sunday going down by three points to first time winners North London Shamrocks after a tough battle , in truth we didn't play at the levels we know we can get to but Shamrocks still were not able to put any real daylight between the sides and on another day we could have nicked it , We made one change to the semi final team with Eoin Walsh called in to the starting fifteen for Jamie Gillen following a swift recovery from injury and our bench looked particularly strong boosted by the return of Kevin Henry from injury , we couldn't have asked for a better start with early scores from Conor o Donoghue and Sean Tucker settling us and with a considerable breeze behind Shamrocks we would have been very happy , Sean dropped one short but made amends from the dead ball soon after to make it 0-03 points to 0-01 to us , we were though struggling to win kick outs at either end and this eventually turned itself in to scores for Shamrocks with points from range from Michael Carroll and Joe McGill levelling things up , following this kick out Shamrocks opened a real gap with a well taken goal from Rafferty after being played in by the dangerous Adam Dunne , we needed to win some dirty ball but it was all Shamrocks now and two more points soon followed to open up a 1-05 to 0-03 lead and this game had turned in their favour , Tom got us going again with a well taken free and things could have been even better but the Shamrocks keeper did well to keep out Conor o Donoghues effort at goal to put it out for a 45 , we didn't get anything from this and a high challenge on Dave Carabine saw the Shamrocks half back going in the book -he could have gone in there much earlier for the goading and off the ball stuff he was doing , we set up a number of promising moves but time and again were turned over and couldn't get a shot off , when Danny Doyle turned the Shamrocks keeper Brody over high up the pitch a quick break was on and while the goal threat seemed unlikely a mistake by the defender while covering his line saw Toms shot go straight in and offer us a lifeline, 1-05 to 1-04 now and only a point down , Diver responded with an excellent score for Shamrocks but we still had time to set up another goal chance when Kevin McCarthy slipped in Killian Brady but he couldn't get the ball out of his feet and the danger was averted , still a two point deficit at half time was pretty good after a first half against the elements .
The second half saw us immediately take a scalp from the lead with a good score form David Rogers after quick thinking from Marcus to set him off and we thought we would push on now and really stretch the Shamrocks , however our lack of primary ball winning meant we were never getting enough ball and they were able to steady the ship and kicked the next three scores from McGill , Clarke from a very soft free on Rafferty and Rafferty from play -1-09 to 1-05 now , a black card to Kevin Mc made life hard and whether something was said to the lineman it seemed very harsh at a crucial time and we were really up against it now , Sean shot wide from a tight angle but a massive free from Tom and a huge score from play from Oran brought us right back in to this again , Tom pulled a free to the left and Shamrocks soon had a man in the sin bin after dragging Conor down when through , Kevin Henry lined the free up but it went short and we didn't get anything from the play, second half sub for Shamrocks Thomas Linehan scored from play to re open a three point gap but Tom was able to pull one back again from a free and we were back to a two point game , Tom rose highest to win the next kick out and while being tussled and dragged he won a free in which was in a good position , however after consulting with the lineman the referee Mark Hanley brandished a red card For Tom Waters for what appeared to be very slight contact with Dan Clarke and we were down to 14 men with seven minutes to play , we introduced Jamie Gillen and Rob Reid for Danny Doyle and Keith Curran but following period of stoppages the referee having consulted with his umpires showed Jamie a red card for what they stated was strike on corner back Eoin Flanagan with four minutes left to play, this call seemed particularly harsh and really all but ended the contest as Shamrocks had a numerical advantage and were able to pick their passes and worked some scoreable frees , one of which was converted by Ciaran Diver to put a goal between us , we had time for one long ball from Eoin Walsh down in to Shamrocks territory but nothing came of it and the referee below his full time whistle , we lost little in defeat and we must commend these players and their management team for the year they have given us by getting to all four finals and winning two.
We will be back -that's for sure ..
scorers
Tom Waters 1-03
Sean Tucker 0-02
Oran Kerr -Conor o Donoghue and David Rogers 0-1 each .
