Ballinlough 0-8 Gaeil Colmcille 3-9 

Ballinlough and Gaeil Colmcille met in this unwanted Final for both sides as the loser would be condemned to Division 3 of the All County Football Championship or whatever format its equivalent takes shape next year.

The visitors got off to a roaring start hitting 1-04 without reply by the tenth minute with Young sharp shooters Taidgh Dardis and Jack Butler converting, while the ageless Gary Arkins continued to pull the strings and chipped in with a couple of early points.

Ballinlough finally got motoring with a pointed free for Ciaran Ryan in the 13th minute, but the Kells men were relentless with Jack Butler adding his second goal before a converted free for the Gaeil Colmcille side.

The home side were heavily reliant on frees for scores in this opening period and Ciaran Ryan duly obliged with another point from the placed ball in the 21st minute, but Gaeil Colmcille aided by a significant breeze, added their third goal of the half in the 22nd minute to put themselves in a commanding lead.

Although there was just shy of ten minutes to be played in the opening half, that goal was to be the last score of the first half, so when Referee Peter Skelly blew the half time whistle Ballinlough trailed on a scoreline of 0-02 to Gaeil Colmcilles 3-05.

Upon the restart Ballinlough introduced the Bomb Squad from the bench with Ronzer McGuinness, Niall Farrelly and Conor Briody all entering the fray, and they got on the ball early and won a free for their side which Shane Lynch duly dispatched.

Another point from the influential Arkins got the Kells men scoring again and that point was followed up with two more, the second of which could easily have gone under the bar only for the efforts of Senan McDermott in the Ballinlough net.

Around the 40 minute mark, the impact of the Ballinlough substitutes began to tell and they dominated the rest of the half, with Niall McDonnell firstly fisting over a tidy point, the goal chance was probably on but Niall opted for the safe option of taking the guaranteed point on offer.

Shane Lynch added a free in the 42nd minute and he was on target a couple of minutes later when a free was brought forward from the middle of the park. Lynch, with the wind at his back, opted to bring the ball back out again for the two point effort and he landed an excellent two point free in the 45th minute to lower the deficit.

Another substitute who was making a nuisance of himself since he came on was Conor Briody, who was playing his first game for the club after a long absence, and he capped off his fine cameo with a well struck point in the 57th minute.

Despite that valiant effort to improve the scoreboard, time was against the Lough men and when Referee Peter Skelly brought the ball forward for a late 3v3 infringement to hand Gaeil Colmcille a handy point, the home side knew their goose was cooked.

So when the full time whistle sounded the scoreboard read Gaeil Colmcille 3-09 to Ballinloughs 0-08.

While the result was disappointing, in the grander scheme of things this competition served its purpose as several players got plenty of football over the past month whether that be young lads just starting out at adult level, or the few more seasoned campaigners who have decided to pull on the boots for one more year and help out the club.

We’d like to thank Tommy and Keith for all their efforts with this particular group of players over the last year or so, and a massive thanks to the players themselves for their commitment in ensuring we fielded a team in every round even when numbers were tight, thanks lads !!

Ballinlough Team: S.McDermott, E.McCabe, F.McDonnell, C.Rennicks, L.Finnegan, J.Lynch, N.McDonnell (0-01), L.Maguire, S.Lynch (0-04(2f, one 2ptF)), D.Galligan, R.Smith, T.McCullen, M.Tynan, J.Farrelly, C.Ryan (0-02(2f))

Subs: R. McGuinness for R. Smith H/T, N. McDonnell for C. Ryan H/T, C. Briody (0-01) for M.Tynan H/T, P. Briody for D. Galligan 50’

Referee: Peter Skelly

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