Maigh Cuilinn's All Ireland Dream Dies

Post date: Nov 28, 2011 1:35:41 PM

From GalwayGaa below

ROBERT EMMETTS 1-12, MOYCULLEN 2-7

The great story of Moycullen's hurling year of 2012 came to an end earlier today as London Senior champions Robert Emmetts proved too good for the Galway lads in this AIB All-Ireland Club Intermediate Club Hurling quarter-final.

The London side were very dangerous up front, with their full forward line causing all sorts of problems for the Moycullen backs, and that trio ended up scoring 1-10 in all, with 1-8 coming from play. And yet, on the stroke of full time, Moycullen had almost done another comeback, with a late Vinnie Faherty goal bringing the deficit to 1 point, but after Eanna Noone missed a injury time equaliser from a tough '65, The London side went up the field and sealed their win thanks to corner forward Maurice Callanan.

Ardrahan native Maurice Callanan proved a major thorn in the second half, and he scored all his 5 points after the interval, with 3 of them coming from play. The other Galway native in the London side was wing back Niall Healy of Cappataggle, as he cleaned up a lot of lose ball in the second half. Also, worth noting the other two Galway lads on the Robert Emmetts panel, with Oranmore-Maree's Colm Cormican and Kilnadeema-Leitrim's Rory Costelloe togging out as subs.

The opening stages of this game started evenly enough, with Moycullen getting a 2nd minute lead from a Eanna Noone free. The lively Peter Atkinson of Wexford got Robert Emmetts off the mark with a pointed effort from play, and he almost raised a green flag a minute later but was blocked down in the last second. Eanna Noone restored the Moycullen lead with another free after 6 minutes, and the next score came a full 8 minutes later when Shane Ryan of Emmetts equalised from play. Peter Atkinson gave Emmetts the lead on the 20th minute as the London club began to get on top. The hard working Vinnie Flaherty levelled for Moycullen from play, but then in the next 3 minutes Emmetts took a five point lead. Full forward Eddie Brennan took a point from play, followed by another from play from the stick of Peter Atkinson. An Emmetts goal chance was the saved, but half a minute later they finally raised a green flag. A high ball came in, and after a bit of confusion, Eddie Brennan was at hand to poke the ball to the back of the Moycullen net. That score left the scores reading Emmetts 1-5 to Moycullen's 0-3 after 25 minutes played.

The game was beginning to fall away from the Galway champs, but an inspirational point from halfway from midfielder Pat Lydon helped rally the cause on the 26th minute. Then on the 30th minute a long ball in from Philip Lydon was misjudged by Niall Higgins in the Emmetts goal, and the ball ended up in the back of the net. Moycullen kept the pressure on as the game played into injury time, and they were rewarded with a '65, which midfielder Eanna Noone sweetly struck over the bar to leave the sides level at the interval.

Half-time score: Moycullen 1-5, Robert Emmetts 1-5.

Moycullen got off to the great start after the break, and in the first minute half-forward Daniel Kelly pointed from play after a great drive by Mark Lydon. But from then on it almost became a tale of the two Galway men in the Robert Emmetts jerseys. Maurice Callanan replied with 3 points, two from placed balls, to give Emmetts a 1-8 to 1-6 lead. On the 44th minute Niall Mannion reduced the margin to one point, after he was set up by good work by Vinnie Flaherty. But 4 minutes later Maurice Callanan got his 4th point of the half as he pointed from play. With 7 minutes left to play Emmetts extended the lead to 3 points when Shane Ryan got his second white flag of the afternoon.

At this stage Moycullen were beginning to chase the game and almost tried to spread the play up front. But Cappataggle native Niall Healy was left loose and he cleared a mountain of stray ball delivered into the Moycullen front line. With 3 minutes left on the clock the Emmetts side increased their lead when lively Peter Atkinson pointed from play (scores now read 1-11 to 1-7 to Emmetts).

Were we going to have another great comeback from Moycullen? Well they put in a mighty effort and you could sense from them at this stage that they were not going to leave anything behind them. On the stroke of full-time they raised the roof when Vinnie Flaherty struck for a goal that sent their supporters wild. They were still down by a point, and so went on the attack again. Then they were awarded a '65. This was like the closing stages of the first half all over again. Up stood Eanna Noone. But this time it was not as straightforward with the wind in his face and a trickier angle. He struck it sweet, but it just faded at the end and just went narrowly wide. But there was still time left. Unfortunatley for Moycullen, it was Emmets who won the puck-out and it was fed into Ardrahan's Maurice Callanan and he popped over his 5th point of the day.

The final whistle went to the joy of the Robert Emmetts side as they now progress to the All-Ireland Club semi-final in the new year.

As for Moycullen, it's no consulation to them, but "pride" comes to mind. Just over a month ago they made their club proud by clinching the County Intermediate Title. They then represented their county with pride as they clinched the Connacht Title. And now they have shown plenty of pride for the province of Connacht in Ruislip today. It was never going to be easy in Ruislip, espically against a senior side with the quality of players with Robert Emmetts. At times today things werent going Moycullen's way and yet they stuck with it and fought back every time.

And the final chapter of this great story hasnt even been written yet. Next year Moycullen will play senior championship hurling, and so An Gaeltacht will have representatives for the first time in 32 years. We look forward to watching them back on home soil, and hopefully they can take a few weeks hard-earned break, before it all starts all over again!

Robert Emmetts scorers:

Maurice Callanan 0-5 (0-2 frees), Peter Atkinson 0-4, Eddie Brennan 1-1, Shane Ryan 0-2.

Moycullen scorers:

Vinnie Flaherty 1-1, Eanna Noone 0-3 (0-2 frees, 0-1 '65), Philip Lydon 1-0, Niall Mannion 0-1, Pat Lydon 0-1, Daniel Kelly 0-1.

Wides: Robert Emmetts (8), Moycullen (10).

Robert Emmetts:

Niall Higgins, John Anderson, Eddie Walsh, Brian Healy, Niall Healy (Capataggle), Paul Horkan, Gary Hill, K. Bolger, Mick Walsh, Brendan Ennis, Aidan Fitzgerald, Shane Ryan, Maurice Callanan (Ardrahan), Eddie Brennan, Peter Atkinson.

Subs: Colm Cormican (Oranmore-Maree), Rory Costello (Kilnadeema-Leitrim).

Moycullen:

Michael Darcy, Sean McDermott, Matt Donohue, Barry Faherty, Thomas Higgins, Mark Lydon, Seosamh O'Fatharta, Eanna Noone, Pat Lydon, Dan Kelly, Vinnie Faherty, Niall Mannion, Conor Bohan, Philip Lydon, Christopher Hurney.

Subs: Morgan Darcy for C. Bohan, Seamus Conneely for Philip Lydon.

Referee: Sean Cleere (Kilkenny)

By The Man with the Cap