Antrim Minor Football Championship Final

Casement’s 0-23 St. Paul’s 0-8

A pacey and powerful Casement’s, Portglenone had little trouble in retaining their Minor Football Championship title when they proved too good for a battling St. Paul’s under the Dunsilly floodlights on Friday night.

Retaining all but one of last year’s winning side, the Bannsiders started this one as firm favourites and dominated right from the throw-in as they raced into an early lead through Conor Burns, Odhran Doherty and James McDonnell.

Dillon Rogers-Duffy got St. Paul’s off the mark with a point in the 10^th minute but the Shaw’s Road side were being suffocated by a hungry and talented Portglenone defence.

The fast, direct running of the Portglenone attack was beginning to open up their opponents defence and Eoghan McErlean got his name on the score card before Odhran Doherty punished a breach as he raised the first Orange flag of the evening to put his side five ahead.

McErlean, James McVeigh and Conor Burns added further points to move the Casement’s 0-9 to 0-1 ahead after 17 minutes as the best efforts of St. Paul’s floundered on the rocks of a hungry Portglenone defence.

Dillon Rogers-Duffy added a second point for St. Paul’s from a 13 meter free but the ‘Hoops’ were being forced to play a lot of cross-field ball as the Casement’s defence continued to deny them time and space.

Duffy’s second point of the evening heralded St. Paul’s best period of play and with Cormac Trainor urging them on from mid-field, they added further points through Jay Gault and another from Duffy to close the gap to five after 28 minutes.

The final score of the half would come from the boot of Odhran Doherty to send the Casement’s to the dressing room with a fairly healthy 6 point lead but St. Paul’s were guilty of a bad miss late in the half and must have felt that they could turn things around in the second half.

It never looked like materialising however as the reigning champions stepped up another gear on the restart with Conor McKeever creating and punishing a turnover with a point after 4 minutes and the sweet striking Doherty raising another Orange flag.

The South West side were flying as their pace and hunger began to open up gaping spaces in the St. Paul’s defence with McKeever adding a great point and Doherty continuing to impress from distance with his third 2 pointer of the evening.

Frank McAleese, and two more from the mercurial McKeever moved the Casement’s out of sight by the 20^th minute but to their credit, St. Paul’s were still giving it everything with Odhran Phillips, Jay Gault, Cormac Trainor and Jude Gamble to the fore.

They were rewarded for their efforts when Gamble finally opened their second half account with a point in the 23d minute as Portglenone began to empty their bench.

Odhran Doherty and Conor Burns brought the Portglenone total for the evening to 0-23 with St. Paul’s finishing with 2 pointed frees from substitute Matt O’Neill and another from play to put a better look on the final score-line.

Another great performance from an excellent Portglenone side who have been together up through the age groups and have won everything they have contested within Antrim.

They were a team without a weakness on this occasion with Cillian McKenna, Thomas Douthart, Tom Duffin, Odhran Doherty, Conor Burns and Conor McKeever outstanding.

It’s been a while since an Antrim team have made an impression in the St. Paul’s-Ulster tournament but there is a feeling if this Casement’s team can get a favourable draw then they might just give it a lash.

Casement’s: 1 Joe Duffin, 2 Ronan McAleer, 3 Cillian McKenna, 4 Cillian McDonnell, 5 Thomas Douthart, 6 Tom Duffin, 7 James McVeigh, 8 Odhran Doherty, 9 Dara Campbel, 10 Tom Convery, 11 Conor Burns, 12 Frank McAleese, 13 Phelim McCloskey, 14 Conor McKeever, 15 Eoghan McErlean

Subs: 16 Eoghan Smith, 17 Charlie Convery, 18 Oisin Convery, 19 Patrick John O’Boyle, 20 Patrick O’Boyle, 21 Conall Morgan 22 Rory O’Kane

St. Paul’s: 1 Shea Sands, 2 Tom Kearney, 3 Eamonn Kearney, 4 Darren Harmon, 5 Oisin McLaren, 6 Odhran Phillips, 7 Jay Gault, 8 Cormac Trainor, 9 Odhran Walsh, 10 Brendan McMorrow, 11 Oisin Gamble, 12 Jude Gamble, 13 Daire Thornbury, 14 James McDonnell, 15 Dillon Rogers-Duffy

Subs: 16 Cillian Richie, 17 Gerard Maguire, 18 Kaiden Farrell, 19 Oran Duncan, 20 Eoghan Coyle, 21 Cillian O’Neill, 22 Matthew Armstrong, 23 Matthew O’Neill, 25 Hayden O’Callaghan, 26 Kevin McCall, 27 Fionn 28 Aodhan McNally

Referee, Declan McLarnon (St. Agnes)

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McKeever Hotels Antrim Intermediate Hurling Championship Final

Carey Faughs v Robert Emmet’s Cushendun

Pairc Mhuire, Cushendall – Throw-in 1pm

Saturday’s McKeever Hotels Intermediate Hurling final has been brought forward to 1pm tomorrow in an effort to avoid the incoming storm Boelo which is forecast to hit the northern parts of the country on Saturday afternoon, a wise move by the organisers I have to say.

Carey Faughs and Cushendun will have enough to worry about without the weather adding to their anxieties. This is only their second meeting in the Intermediate final, the last one coming back in 1990, when it took a replay to decide who left with the silverware. Both games were played at Father Barrett Park, Loughgiel. The first ended level at 1-14 to 1-14, but the Faughs were victorious in the replay, winning emphatically by 6-7 to 2-4.  

Cushendun are the only unbeaten team in the competition and will probably go in as slight favourites, but we all know that this competition is the tightest of all the championships played in Antrim.

Carey came through a tight battle with Glenarm in their semi-final under the lights at Dunnsilly on the Friday night. That said, it may not have been just as close as that would indicate, because Glenarm scored a goal with the last puck of the game. In the other semi-final the following day at Father McGinn Park, Glenravel, the Emmets were pushed all the way by Creggan. They had their free-taking maestro, Conaloth ‘Loaf’ McNeill, to thank for getting them over the line. That unbeaten record by Cushendun appeared to be in danger of disappearing when Creggan dominated the first half and were nine points up at one stage. However, after the change of ends, Loaf took control and fired over points from all distances and angles, the pick of them was a real beauty from a sideline cut from 50 metres.

Cushendun started their campaign back in July when they beat Cloney Gaels in the first of the league section by 2-22, 0-16, but anyone who was there on the night will tell you that it wasn’t as one-sided as that scoreline would suggest as one of the goals, and a flurry of points came in the last few minutes.

They had home advantage again in their second outing on August 2, when they had 10 points to spare over St Paul’s, notching up an impressive 1-27 into the bargain. They hit 28 scores again in their first away game of the campaign when they travelled to Father McGinn Park, Glenravel, and beat the Con Magees by 0-28 to 1-13 and their high scoring feats continued  when they travelled to Randalstown two weeks’ later and beat Tir na nOg by 4-14 to 1-12.

That win guaranteed their place in the knockout stages of the competition. The only thing to be decided when they met Glenarm in their last league game was whether they went straight into the semi-finals or had to play a quarter-final. That clash with Glenarm at Pairc Mhuire, Cushendall, was probably one of the best games of the competition so far. The Emmets were pushed to the pin of their collars to earn a draw against a fired-up Glenarm team. Shane O’Neill’s dominated for most of that game and were still eight points to the good entering the last ten minutes. However Pearse McKeegan struck a vital goal with only minutes remaining and ‘Loaf’ stepped up to the mark again to fire over the equaliser deep into added time.

Gaining a point out of that game  saw them top the group on score difference which meant they had a month without  any competition, and for long  spells in the semi-final over Creggan they looked very ‘ring rusty’ until Loaf steeped up to deliver the winning punch.

The Faughs started their campaign with a convincing win away to Clougmills where they run out winners by 1-24 to 1-16. They were totally dominant in a very one-sided opening half and the only thing that appeared to be in question was the size of the winning margin. However, they appeared to switch off in the second period as Cloughmills outscored them, and though they were never really in any danger there were a few worry signs.

Their second game in Group 1saw them travel to Dreen to take on Rasharkin and they had too much power on the day, hitting 27 points while conceding just 11.

With an odd number in their group, they had to sit out for 4 weeks before meeting St Gall’s in their game at St Patrick’s Park, Balalyvoy where they held the upper hand and ended up winning by nine points, 2-21 to 0-18 to all but guarantee qualification.  

However they lost the next game of the league section to Creggan on a day when they lost their captain Conal McGlynn for the rest of the sesason with a bad knee injury. Despite that defeat the score difference between their nearest rivals in the group saw them advance to a semi-final meeting with Glenarm, and as mentioned earlier they got through by a single point but in thruth they looked fairly comfortable for good parts of the game.

McGlynn’s injury was a bad blow coming on top of the loss one of their real stars, Conor McBride, who immigrated to Australia early in the season.  On top of that their veteran centre back James McCouaig took a step back this season. Losing one the three would have been a hard blow for a team to take but losing all three will be hard to overcome.

However we saw just two years ago the fighting spirit of this Carey side as they took the Antrim and Ulster titles, quite often when the odds were stacked against them so do not write them off.

Cushendun go into the game as favourites, despite the injury doubt over corner-back Paddy Morgan through injury. They will represent Antrim in the Ulster Championship regardless of Saturday’s result as Carey  are ruled out  because they won the Ulster title just two years ago.

That will be the last thing on Cushendun’s mind when they take to the field tomorrow in Cushendall. Their aim is to bridge a nineteen year gap and bring the  Intermediate crown back to Mary McBride’s on Saturday evening with a win that would bring them level with  Carey on four titles each.

The men on the other side of the Vanishing Lake will view it much differently and they will hope Hunters Bar in Ballyvoy will be the resting place for the silverware