Senior Footballers secure top spot in AFL1

Senior football league v St Judes, Páirc Úí Mhurchú, 27 July 2019

Ballyboden St Endas 4 – 16

St Judes 0 – 15

Before today, Judes had the meanest defence with the least scores conceded and Boden had the highest score, so something had to give in this battle of the neighbours. Within a minute Aran Waters, raiding up the left wing, fisted over a point. Judes responded almost immediately with a pointed free. Boden then took over with Darren O’Reilly fisting over to restore the lead for the home side. Aran Waters got up again to pop over a point with his right foot, Conal Keaney pointed, after he was set up by Tom Hayes who intercepted a Judes pass, and then Warren Egan finished to the net from a tight angle after some good work by Alan Flood. Darren O’Reilly and Aran Waters (this time with his left foot) added points before Judes got two points back (1 free). The home team took over the scoring again with Warren Egan and Darragh Nelson popping over points. Then, following serious pressure on the Judes backs by the Boden forwards, the ball reached Conal Keaney and he finished to the net with 25 minutes gone. Unusually, Ryan Basquel hadn’t scored yet, but he was to change this over the next four minutes. First, he converted a free and then added three points from play in quick succession. As the game entered added time, Judes added three points (1 free), to leave the half time score at 2 – 12 to 0 – 6.

After two minutes of the restart, Tom Hayes took a pass from Darren O’Reilly and he finished to the net. Donogh McCabe popped over a point and Judes got a point back. Following good work by Darren O’Reilly, Ryan Basquel and Sean Gibbons, Tom Hayes again found the net. He quickly added a point as did Donogh McCabe to leave the score at 4 – 15 to 0 – 7 with just 10 minutes of the second half gone. The visitors then took over for the next 10 minutes and had five points (3 frees) in a row before Conal Keaney broke their flow with a point. Some sterling defending by Shane Clayton, Bob Dwan, Cathal Flaherty and Darragh Gogan denied Judes a goal on a couple of occasions but Judes did manage to score three more points before the final whistle to leave the home side with a convincing 13-point win. With just two matches remaining (against Brigids and Davis’s) Boden cannot be caught at the top of the league table.

TEAM: Darragh Gogan; Bob Dwan; Shane Clayton; Cathal Flaherty; Sean Gibbons; Darragh Nelson (0 – 1); Aran Waters (0 – 3); Declan O’Mahony; Donogh McCabe (0 – 2); Darren O’Reilly (0 – 2); Conal Keaney (1 – 2); Alan Flood; Tom Hayes (2 – 1); Ryan Basquel (0 – 4); Warren Egan (1 – 1). SUBS USED: Mikey Dunne; Paddy Dunleavy.

Report by Paddy Walsh, pics by John Kirwan