The Andy Merrigan Cup will spend the summer in Antrim after a highly competent and slick St. Galls performance was enough to see them past the challenge of a plucky and determined, but ultimately limited Kilmurry-Ibrickane challenge.
The Andy Merrigan Cup will spend the summer in Antrim after a highly competent and slick St. Galls performance was enough to see them past the challenge of a plucky and determined, but ultimately limited Kilmurry-Ibrickane challenge.
The Ulster champions had a sprinkling of stardust on show with eye-catching forwards like CJ McGourty, Ciaran McGourty and Kevin Niblock all landing a succession of killer blows, and indeed it was like watching a county team in action such was the high standard. Equally impressive was the defensive performance that completely choked the opponents out of the match for as long as the issue was in the melting pot.
Both sides were quick out of the traps. Kilmurry-Ibrickane delivered the perfect reply to an assured Ciaran McGourty opening point, flashing home a goal - all this occurring inside the first minute.
Declan Callinan surged through the heart of the Galls defence, drawing the cover before dishing it off to the overlapping Stephen Maloney who thumped home emphatically for the best possible start for the Clare side. However, they failed to carry on as they had begun, and with a composed and controlled performance full of slick movement and accurate kicking, the Ulster champions took a firm stranglehold on the game.
Ruling the midfield and half-back area with a death-grip, Kilmurry-Ibrickane were not even getting wides - so impregnable was the Galls rearguard, they couldn’t get near enough to goal to have a shot.
In the 26 minutes to the Clare side’s next and only remaining score of the half, a Johnny Daly free, Galls racked up 0-8, with excellent place-kicking from CJ McGourty (0-3) and two fine efforts from play by Kevin McGourty being the standout scores. Goal chances went begging too, a fourth minute effort from CJ well saved and the same player being excellently blocked as he pulled the trigger on 16 minutes.
At 0-8 to 1-1 at the break, the four-point deficit flattered Kilmurry-Ibrickane more than it did Galls, with the statistic of eight scores playing two telling a truer story.
The set pattern continued into the second half, with Galls at times seeming to toy with their opponents in their precise and comfortable play. Full-forward Kevin NIblock scored one point and made another, added to by Sean Burke, before the Banner men got forward for their first score of the game from play in the 43rd minute, by Stephen Maloney. That left it 0-11 to 1-2, with Rory Gallagher fisting over his side’s twelfth a minute later, to ensure that all Galls players from 8-15 scored from play on the day.
It proved the signal for the Antrim men to switch off a little, allowing Kilmurry-Ibrickane to pick up more scraps of possession and hold their opponents scoreless until injury time when Niblock lofted over the last score of the game. In that time, the Munster champions had only registered 0-3, however, Maloney again, Ian McInerney from a free and Michael O’Dwyer all splitting the posts.
It took some of the bad look off the scoreboard for Kilmurry-Ibrickane on a day when they were beaten by the better team in every department, but it did nothing to take the gloss off an excellent team performance and first ever All-Ireland football crown for a club side from Antrim.