Kilmeena breeze through to junior club final in style

Kilmeena goalscorer Darragh Keavney

Kilmeena (Mayo) 1-18 Clonbulogue (Offaly) 0-6

Kilmeena will be setting sail from the shores of Clew Bay and turning east for Croke Park after a devastating showing against Offaly champions Clonbulogue in Longford.

The west Mayo men played with the advantage of a significant breeze in the first half and they put it good use going in leading 1-12 to 0-2 leaving no doubt as to the outcome of this contest.

The raced into an early 0-3 to 0-0 lead inside the opening four minutes with Darragh Keaveney, Sean Ryder and Jack Carney all landing early points.

Ruairi O’Neill got the scoreboard going for the Faithful men after he got in behind his man to slot the ball over, but it was as close as this game got on the scoreboard.

Kilmeena were dominating the middle of the park with Mayo panelist Jack Carney showing his class winning primary possession and setting up attacks at will.

Ten minutes in Darragh Keavney struck for Kilimeena goal, Carney spotted him on the overlap and hand passed the ball into his path and Keavney made no mistake with his finish.

Kilmeena kept the pressure on and reeled off point after point over the next ten minutes with Keavney (2), Keith Joyce (2), Niall Feehan (2) all keeping the umpires busy.

Clonbulogue did get their second score of the day from a Jamie Gunig pointed free five minutes before the break, but they were will in the rearview mirror of the Mayo champions at the short-whistle, with Kilmeena leading 1-12 to 0-2.

If they were going to get back into the game Clonbulogue were going to need to strike early in the second half, but it was Kilmeena who hit the ground running after the restart with Sean Ryder and Keith Joyce getting the first two points of the half.

Clonbulogue did mange to get a run of points thanks to a brace of points from Keith O’Neill and a long range special from corner back David Dempsey.

Kilmeena hit back with Carney and John McGlynn getting rid of any signs of a comeback with two well taken points.

Clonbulogue’s challenge had the full stop put on it when midfielder Jack McEvoy was shown a second yellow card and his side were reduced to 14 men for the final 15 minutes.

The final flourish to the scoreboard was added by points from Carney and veteran Niall Ryan, a survivor of when this side made the All-Ireland junior club final back in 2003.

Kilmeena will be full of confidence after convincing wins now in both the Connacht final and All-Ireland semi-final, but they will know a huge challenge is coming down the tracks next week.

Scorers for Kilmeena: D Keavney (1-4, 2f), J McGlynn, K Joyce, J Carney (0-3 each); S Ryder, N Feehan (0-2 each), N Ryan (0-1).

Scorers for Clonbulogue: K O’Neill (0-3, 2f), J Guing, R O’Neill (0-1 each).

KILMEENA: P Groden; C McGlynn, J Keane, J Ryan; N Feehan, S Staunton, R O’Donnell; J Carney, N Duffy; K Joyce, S Ryder, C Madden; J McGlynn, N Ryan, D Keaveney.

Subs: K Sheridan for Duffy; J Groden for D Kearney; S Moore for Ryder; P Keane for Staunton; J Smyth for Joyce.

CLONBULLOGUE: C Corcoran; D Dempsey, J Quinn, S Furey; E Bennett, I Curry, T Morrisey; J McEvoy, P Bennett; S Foran, K O’Neill, S O’Brien; J Guing, D Quinn, R O’Neill.

Subs: J Foran for Quinn, T Dempsey for O’Brien; J Byrne for O’Neill; E McEvoy for Moore.

Ref: M Farrell (Cavan).