Curraha 3-12 St Michaels 0-08

It was round 4 of this year's Division 2 AFL campaign and it was the meeting of last year's Intermediate finalists which had the same outcome as last year's result with Curraha coming away with the two points on offer.

Despite it being round four it was only St Michaels second outing due to the weather and it was Curraha who drew first blood with a goal from Andrew Battersby on 6 minutes. The home side responded however and had two points on the board before Conor Moriarty raised the white flag for Curraha with a converted free. After this St Michaels began to get on top and scored five unanswered points to race into a three-point lead but a 45 and a late penalty from Moriarty had Curraha ahead at the break by a single point.

St Michaels opened the second half with a point to bring the teams level but this would be their final score of the game as Curraha got back into the lead from a Sean Keogh point. Battersby raised the green flag for his second and his sides third goal. This left the score line on 3-03 to 0-08 with fifteen minutes remaining and the away side would kick nine unanswered points from David Toner (2), Moriarty (2), David Coyle, Padraic O'Hanrahan, Seamus Hogan and substitute's Andrew Coyle and Niall McLarnon.

Curraha: L. Hoga, S. Hogan 0-1, N. Murphy, M. Jackson, S. O'Hanrahan, N. Shortall, D. Toner 0-2, B. Murphy, B. Joyce, P. O'Hanrahan 0-1, A. Battersby 2-0, P. Dowling, D. Coyle 0-1, J. O'Connor, C. Moriarty 1-4. Subs: S. Keogh 0-1 for N. Murphy, A. Coyle 0-1 for Battersby, I. Battersby for S. O'Hanrahan, C. Joyce for P. O'Hanrahan, N. McLarnon 0-1 for Moriarty.

St Michaels Report

St. Michaels 0-08, Curraha 3-12            
         
St. Michaels came unstuck on Sunday last in Carlanstown when Curraha used all of their vast experience to see off the home challenge in comprehensive fashion. In fairness to St. Michaels they acquitted themselves quite well in the opening 30 minutes with points from Ciaran Lynch (3), Peter O'Connell, Ray Reilly, Ronan & Davy Lynch (1 each )  left them trailing by just a single point at the interval. Two goals, one after 4 minutes and the second from the penalty spot on the stroke of half time gave the visitors a 2-2 to 0-7 interval lead.    

A converted free by Ciaran Lynch in the opening minute of the second half levelled matters for the second time for the home side, however that proved to be the final score of the game for St. Michaels as the visitors could do nothing wrong for the remaining 29 minutes as they added 1-10 without reply at their ease.

St. Michaels struggled to get their hands on any meaningful possession and were finding it difficult to penetrate the Curraha defence as a lot of their decent attacking forays broke down at the inopportune moment. Curraha were finding it much easier to score and they bagged their third major on 39 minutes and the game began to take a somewhat inevitable pattern thereafter.
St. Michaels introduced a number of substitutes and were also reduced to 14 men when Peter O'Connell was first into the showers following a second yellow with four minutes remaining.                                                                                     

St. Michaels: Darren O'Connell, Mark Stafford, Jamie Reilly, Sam Briody, Christopher Drew, , Matthew Halpin, Paddy Clarke, Peter O'Connell 0-1, Shane McCormack, Ronan Lynch 0-1, Ciaran Lynch 0-4, David Lynch 0-1, Oran Meehan, Cian Sheridan, Ray Reilly 0-1.  Subs: S. McDonnell for Sheridan, B. Tobin for R. Reilly, B. Reilly for D. Lynch, C. Sheridan for Meehan.

Report and photo Pascal Reilly PRO.

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