Macroom 1-9
Mitchelstown 1-7
BRENDAN KENNEALLY REPORTS
MACROOM won the Rebel Óg County Division 1 Football Championship final in dramatic fashion at Mallow on Sunday afternoon.
The Mid Cork team came from four points in arrears with ten minutes to go to stage a tremendous late rally that yielded 1-3 without reply from their North Cork opponents who had seemed to have victory within their grasp.
The late flurry of scores for Macroom was all the more remarkable as the Mid Cork boys, West region champions, had been scoreless for 20 minutes. Mitchelstown had dominated midfield through Cathal Walsh and kicked six points without reply to turn a half-time deficit of 0-5 to 1-1 into a four-point lead of 0-6 to 1-7 before the Macroom scoring revival started.
Central to the Macroom rally was the impact of the substitutes introduced by the winners, in particular the contribution of Ruairí O’Shea who kicked two points with his first touches of the ball after being introduced in the 54th minute and then set up the winning goal in the 57th minute for Sam Leavy.
Macroom looked the better side in the first half but after conceding a goal in the fifth minute were never able to shake off the Avondhu lads who defended well. Cian O’Sullivan opened Macroom’s scoring with a point before Mitchelstown struck for a goal from Conor Walsh after opening up the Macroom rearguard.
Odhran Creed got a point for Macroom in the 14th minute but the next point did not come until the 20th minute courtesy of Jack Leavy. Cian English replied with a Mitchelstown point but Macroom finished the half well with two fine scores from Colin Kelleher to leave them leading by 0-5 to 1-1 at the break.
After a Macroom point from Jack Leavy immediately on the restart, Mitchelstown began to dominate, were level within five minutes and then kicked four more points to go clear.
With the score at 1-7 to 0-6 at the three-quarter stage Macroom were in trouble but the selectors introduced a string of substitutes. In the 51st minute Jack Leavy kicked over a point to re-kindle their title aspirations, 1-7 to 0-7. Ruairí O’Shea, just on the field, had a point on 54 and one minute later brought Macroom to within a point when he converted a free from the right.
Macroom were sweeping forward in waves and their cup of joy was overflowing in the 57th minute when a combined move ended with Ruairí O’Shea setting up a chance for Sam Leavy which the centre forward took in style with a bullet-like low drive to the far corner of the ’Town net.
The game went into added time with Mitchelstown trying for a goal to save the day but Macroom stood firm and took their first county minor title in 20 years.
Scorers
Macroom: S Leavy 1-0; J Leavy 0-3; C Kelleher 0-2 (1f); R O’Shea 0-2 (1f); O Creed, C O’Sullivan 0-1 each.
Mitchelstown: C Walsh 1-0; C Walsh 0-3; H Conway 0-2 (1f); C English, L Heafey 0-1 each.
Macroom: Noe Kollar; Donagh Murray, Cormac Burke, Eoghan Healy; Ray Griffin, Ryan Sabas, Bobby Murphy; James Slattery, Mark Condon; Ruadhán McKenna, Sam Leavy, Odhran Creed; Colin Kelleher, Jack Leavy, Cian O’Sullivan.
Subs: Jack O’Shea (36), Billy Murphy (40), Billy Coleman (47), Ruairí O’Shea (54), Regan Wong (59).
Mitchelstown: Eoin Kirwan; Simon Whelan, Seán Barry, Ross Barry; Clement Motherway, Eoin Sherlock, Anthony Aherne; Cathal Walsh, Jack Hanrahan; Jack Sheehy, Harrison Conway, Caoimhín O’Gorman; Cian English, Conor Walsh, Lachlan Heafey.
Referee: Ciarán Murphy.
