End of an era as legendary Farranferris bow out as champions
Sadly, far from it. For the shrill of referee Michael Corcoran's full-time whistle sounded the death knell for the famous yellow jersey, never to be seen again.
The end of an era for a very special seminary and great GAA nursery.
For teachers like Ruairi O'Rahilly, who coached Farna to victory yesterday, there was no need to get a reaction. A sense of gloom and an eerie realisation that it was all over for Farna. In a sense, it was defeat in victory.
On the game itself, perhaps heaven was on the side of Farranferris, for they had to battle hard to fend off a tigerish Mayfield side that contributed to their own downfall with some appalling shooting.
Farna were far more economical from the opening whistle, with David Deasy and Niall Fahy in fine form as they raced into a 0-4 to 0-0 lead inside 12 minutes with a couple of points from Fahy and a free apiece from James Feehan and James O'Rourke.
It took Mayfield 15 minutes to find the target with a Jonathan Buckley free, but they bounced back well in the second quarter. Points from Buckley and Simon Geaney reduced the deficit to the minimum after 19 minutes and with Ian Murphy and Geaney in fine form, they trailed by just a point at the break, 0-5 to 0-4.
Some appalling shooting in the second-half Buckley and Geaney the main protagonists let Farna off the hook big time as Mayfield pressed for an equaliser. And Farna showed their gratitude with three splendid points on the trot from Feehan, Shane Kelly and Richard O'Keeffe to lead 0-8 to 0-4 entering the final quarter.
In fairness to Mayfield they battled hard to get back into the game, Burns getting their first score of the half in the 51st minute with a free. But for all their effort they couldn't breech a strong Farna defence for the all-important goal that would have saved the game, though Burns went close late on, his 45 taken off the line.
It was to be Farna's day on their swan song, ironically on a football pitch rather than a hurling field which their contemporaries had graced for so long. They bowed out as champions, each one of the players keeping their jersey after the game. No more use for them now.
Scorers for Farranferris: J. Feehan 0-3 (0-2 frees), N. Fahy 0-2, J. O'Riordan (free), S. Kelly, R. O'Keeffe 0-1 each.
Mayfield C.S.: J. Buckley 0-2 (0-1 free, 0-1 sideline), S. Geaney, D. O'Leary, R. Burns (free) 0-1 each.
FARRANFERRIS: R. Quaine; K. Walsh, D. Hannafin, C. O'Sullivan; D. Deasy, I. Fleming, D. Carroll; S. Kelly, I. Looney; T. O'Mahony, J. O'Rourke, N. Fahy; J. Feehan, R. O'Keeffe, K. Cronin.
MAYFIELD CS: D. Hackett; P. Martin, B. Power, D. McCormack; S. Walsh, T. Boyd, I. Murphy; R. Burns, C. O'Sullivan; J. Buckley, D. Whelan, S. Geaney; P. Duggan, P. Hegarty, D. O'Leary. Sub: J. O'Keeffe for Martin.
Referee: M. Corcoran (Delanys).
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