Ballyboden advance to date with destiny

Ballyboden St Enda’s (Dublin) 0-15 Clonmel Commercials (Tipperary) 0-10: “We’re going to win this.” With a smile, Conal Keaney evoked his inner Ger Loughnane when asked how Ballyboden will fare in a debut All-Ireland final without Declan O’Mahoney who was shown a straight red card on Saturday.

Amid the club’s jubilation on the O’Moore Park turf at the final whistle, there was a heartbroken O’Mahoney whose emotions had jumped from fearing he may have cost his team a March 17 date in Croke Park to the cold realisation he won’t have a playing role on the club’s biggest day.

Keaney, sporting a sizeable gash under his right eye, too contemplated doom when he kicked a relatively straightforward free short late in normal time: I was thinking I’ll have to think about this for the rest of the year now”.