Dowd leads the way in facile win for Southern Gaels

Southern Gaels 3-26, Clonkill 0-11

By Gerry Buckley

Southern Gaels copper-fastened their place in the semi-finals of the Westmeath intermediate hurling championship at a poorly-attended TEG Cusack Park last Saturday afternoon with an emphatic win against an out-of-sorts Clonkill side in what was the fifth and last round robin tie of their respective campaigns.

The men in maroon and yellow were never headed and were full value for their 24-point winning margin, playing some delightful hurling in the process on the pristine surface at Westmeath GAA headquarters. They will now hope to advance to a second successive Adrian Murray Cup decider when they square up to Turin in the penultimate round. On this evidence, they can be a match for any of the teams remaining.

Eamon Martin and Alex Smyth traded points in the opening 75 seconds but, despite playing against the wind, Tony O’Keeffe’s charges began to look the livelier team from an early stage and they added points from the sticks of Eamon Martin and Luke Whelan. A point exchange between Evan Scally (a free from the halfway line) and Seamus Hoctor preceded the game’s first goal in the seventh minute, when a Sean Murphy delivery teased the losers’ defence and Sean Dowd was on hand to find the net via an opponent’s hurley to put his team 1-4 to 0-2 ahead.

Tit-for-tat point scoring ensued for the next 13 minutes, courtesy of veteran Paddy Dowdall (a monster strike) and Dowd (a ‘65’), Mark Keegan and Whelan, Scally and Dowd, Scally (a free) and Johnny Martin, Luke Kenny (seconds after his introduction) and Cian Geary, and Scally and Dowd (both from frees). These scores left the Gaels ahead by 1-10 to 0-8 with 20 minutes elapsed.

On the half-hour mark, a great move by the winners ended with Johnny Martin shooting tamely at Darragh Egerton when a goal beckoned. Points in added-time from Eamon Martin and Dowd (a free) stretched Southern Gaels’ lead. Stephen Colgan’s point close to the half-time whistle left Clonkill trailing by 1-12 to 0-9 at the interval, and also due to face into the wind on the change of ends.

The Athlone-based outfit tagged on five unanswered points in the opening seven minutes of the second half via MJ Kelly (despite stumbling), Dowd (a free), Cian McCarthy (a classy score), and a quickfire brace from Murphy (the first of them from a very tight angle). A fortuitous goal by Dowd (who appeared to be going for a point) soon followed, and when Johnny Martin and Dowd (two – a free and play) added points, the game was well and truly over as a contest with Southern Gaels ahead by 2-20 to 0-9 at the end of the third quarter.

There was no shortage of resilience from the winners at the other end either, typified by a great block from Eamon Martin on his opposite number Conor Daly in the 46th minute. A minute later, a converted free by Scally was the first time that the men in green and gold troubled the scoreboard operator in the second half.

Indeed, the same player’s fifth successful placed ball some ten minutes later wrapped up their disappointing total for the afternoon.

The closest that Clonkill came to manufacturing a face-saving goal came when Jonathan Keogh saved well from Luke Kenny, with Christopher Austin rifling the sliotar narrowly wide from the rebound. Otherwise, it was virtually all-Southern Gaels as they rifled over six more points by the hour mark. The scorers were Sean Dowd (three, the first of them from open play), Eamon Martin (a monster strike), sub Chulainn Dowd (becoming their tenth scorer on the day), and Whelan.

In injury-time, a delightful flicked pass by Eamon Martin teed up Whelan for a well-taken goal to rubber-stamp a very comprehensive victory.

Scorers – Southern Gaels: S Dowd 2-10 (0-6f, 0-1‘65’), L Whelan 1-3, E Martin 0-4, J Martin, S Murphy 0-2 each, S Hoctor, C Geary, MJ Kelly, C McCarthy, C Dowd 0-1 each.

Clonkill: E Scally 0-6 (5f), A Smyth, P Dowdall, M Keegan, L Kenny, S Colgan 0-1 each.

Southern Gaels: Jonathan Keogh; Graham Houlihan, Diarmaid Murtagh, Cian Geary; Dermot Treacy, Diarmuid Martin, Cian McCarthy; Luke Whelan, Sean Dowd; Eamon Martin, Johnny Martin, Anthony Mannion; Seamus Hoctor, MJ Kelly, Sean Murphy. Subs used: Shane Galvin for Mannion (inj., 26), Jamie Anders for Treacy (40), Dean Burns for Kelly (43), Chulainn Dowd for Murphy (43), Neal Rattigan for Geary (43).

Clonkill: Darragh Egerton; Jack Murtagh, Jamie Coffey, Enda Morrison; Liam Moran, Paddy Dowdall, Christopher Austin; Stephen Colgan, Carl McCormack; Conor Daly, Liam Farrell, Evan Scally; Eoin Kenny, Mark Keegan, Alex Smyth. Subs used: Luke Kenny for McCormack (inj., 20), Scott Murtagh for Moran (inj., 23), Cian Quinn for Farrell (h-t), Riley Sheehan for Morrison (43), Jake Muldoon for Keegan (52).

Ref: Robbie Cornally (St Oliver Plunkett’s).