Shay Murtagh Precast Senior Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 4-11 Caulry 2-11.

The must-win game was won and at the end of the day the winning margin was a comfortable 6 points but Shamrocks were made battle all the way for the valuable championship points. 

It was a special night for Shamrocks as 8 players made their championship debut in adult football. Adam Buckley, Ty Masterson, Criostóir Ormsby, Killian Mooney, Ben Sheerin and Paul Keating stepped up from the Minor grade of 2025 and were joined by recent Minors, Dylan Franzoni and Alex Sheerin who were also on their maiden voyage in adult championship football. Dónal Lane also made earned his first Senior cap for Shamrocks before the final whistle. Someone suggested that the last time this happened was in 1963 when Mullingar Shamrocks qualified for the Senior grade after winning the Junior title in 1962. 

Dean Moore, who was a doubtful starter because of injury, opened the scoring for Shamrocks with a point from play before a bout of combined play found Adam Glynn lurking on the end line and in a scoring position. The easy option was to handpass the ball over but Adam had more ambitious ideas. A defender in a scoring position is often a risk but on this occasion Adam made no mistake and powered a shot past Jack Connaughton in the Caulry goal. Adam’s first goal in championship football was a memorable one. Dean Moore followed with a point from a free and after 13 minutes Shamrocks were leading by 5 points. 

The ability to kick two-pointers is now a crucial skill in the new model Gaelic football as is the ability to retain possession from your own restarts. Caulry were proficient in both departments and after 14 minutes Colin Murphy launched the first of Caulry’s 3 first-half two-pointers. Shamrocks continued to attack and Dean Moore provided the final pass for Alex Sheerin who goaled on his championship debut. A brilliant interception by Killian Mooney and transfer to Denis Corroon split the Caulry defence and sent Dean Moore through. The post deprived Dean of a third Shamrocks goal. Caulry cashed in on the escape.

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The final ten minutes of the half belonged to Caulry as they outscored Shamrocks 2-5 to 0-1. Two goals by Stephen Connolly within two minutes brought the sides level at 2-2 each after 22 minutes. The second goal came from an acrobatic punched clearance by Jack Connaughton from under the crossbar that began a move that ended with Connolly shooting past Adam Buckley. Colin Murphy and Luke Buckley followed with two-pointers and Buckley also shot a point. Dean Moore scored Shamrocks lone point and at the interval Caulry held a 2-7 to 2-3 lead. 

The deficit was split in half immediately from the restart as Killian Mooney landed a massive two-pointer before Stephen Connolly pointed a Caulry free. Alex Sheerin kicked a sweet point off his left boot, Brian Doyle did likewise for Caulry. 

Shamrocks took control at this stage (the wind was significant): Dean Moore pointed a free and seemed to have added one from play from the Caulry restart. To those of us looking from a distance, the free seemed wide and the shot from play appeared to be a classic Dean Moore point. However, the umpires, the men with the closest and best view saw things differently. Alex Sheerin added a point – created by a superb Shane Ormsby catch from a Caulry restart. And after 43 minutes, Dean Moore pointed once again to bring the sides level at 2-9 each. 

A great run by Alex Sheerin split the Caulry defence and created the opportunity for Deano to score his second goal and bring his total for the evening to 1-5 (the man in Ballinalack after the League final might not have been too far wrong! – check out the report on the ACL League final). Sean Clinton pointed for Caulry; Adam Buckley made the journey from the goal to convert a 45 and a brilliant and typical run from the back by Dillon Matthews ended with a shot off the post. Dillon deserved better. Paul Keating sensible play played a big part in this move. Shane Lawless pointed for Caulry before Brian Guerin smashed home Shamrocks’ fourth goal. Ty Masterson signed off on an comfortable Senior championship debut by completing the Shamrocks total with a neat point to bring the final score to 4-11 to 2-11 in favour of the men in green. 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Buckley (0-1); Adam Glynn (1-0), Dillon Matthews, Efe Siode (Ben Sheerin); Ty Masterson (0-1), Brendan O’Reilly, Brian Guerin (1-0); Shane Ormsby, Criostóir Ormsby; Donnacha Maguire, David Gavin (Dylan Franzoni) (Dónal Lane), Killian Mooney (0-2) [Paul Keating]; Dean Moore (1-5), Denis Corroon, Alex Sheerin (1-2). 

Clarke’s Bar Junior Football II Championship: Caulry 0-17 Mullingar Shamrocks 0-15

A bad start to championship weekend 1 with a loss to Caulry in Springfield on Friday evening. It was an unbeaten week for Shamrocks at all levels up to this loss which could have been reversed although on the night Caulry deserved to collect the championship points. 

Scores were plentiful in the early stages and after 8 minutes, Shamrocks held an 0-4 to 0-2 lead despite playing into the breeze. Andrew Shaw, Ronan Byrne (0-2) attacking from wing-back and Brian Farrell (after a brilliant interception and run by the excellent Nathan Cornally) recorded the Shamrocks scores. Thomas Dunning and Liam Malynn pointed for Caulry, the latter collecting the rebound from a brilliant Liam English save. 

Dunning and Niall Hannigan exchanged points before the Caulry man levelled matters when he converted a two-pointer free (0-5 each). Points from Seán Doyle and Adan Donoghue (0-2) edged Caulry into a three-point lead before Andrew Shaw contributed another two points to the Shamrocks total. Liam Malynn neutralised these scores with a superb two-pointer from a distance, Kenneth O’Reilly pointed for Shamrocks before Alan Daly kicked Caulry’s third two-pointer of the evening and Thomas Dunning scored his fifth point of the half to bring the half-time score to 0-13 to 0-8.

Shamrocks began the second half with a new sense of purpose; Brian Farrell pointed twice, Niall Hannigan pointed as did Kenneth O’Reilly, gradually coming to terms with the game after a long absence. Niall Hannigan’s point came after Shamrocks swept the ball downfield after Matthew Siode collected a rebound from the goalpost.  Caulry broke the sequence with a point which was balanced by a Ciaran Kiernan effort before a David Gaynor point restored the two-point gap in Caulry’s favour (0-15 to 0-13). Points from Kenneth O’Reilly and Matthew Shaw brought the sides level after 53 minutes and with wind advantage the odds favoured Shamrocks (0-15 each).

However when the need was greatest, Caulry men stepped forward and  raised their game and points from Paddy Sleator and Thomas Dunning sealed the championship win. An attempt to run down the clock could have proved costly as Kenneth O’Reilly interrupted the attempt and his brilliant dipping shot smashed off the crossbar and three times saves by the Caulry goalkeeper Cillian Nagle defied the best efforts of a sequence of Shamrocks players to snatch victory.

Two noteworthy aspects of this game were that we scored 0-15 from play (frees were at a minimum) and failed to record a two-pointer. Caulry kicked three-two pointers one of which was their only score from a free. They made the difference.

Overall, not a bad advertisement for Junior II football.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Liam English; Eamonn Breslin, Jack Kelly (Peter Finch), Tadhg Sheridan; Ronan Byrne (0-2), Dylan Carey, Nathan Cornally; Ciaran Kiernan (0-1), Ameen Hacini (Matthew Siode); Brian Farrell (0-3), Kenneth O’Reilly (0-3), Neil Hannigan (0-2); Tommy Daly (Luke McCabe), Andrew Shaw (0-3) [Matthew Shaw 0-1], Padraig Casey (Conor Heffernan).     

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