Drama as Dingle clinch Munster title with last kick of the game against St Finbarrs
DINGLE BELLS: Dingle captain Paul Geaney throws the cup in the air. Pic: Dan Linehan
Catch your breath. A phenomenal finish. Dingle couldn’t have scripted a better final-act steal. The Barrs have never known such cruelty. Munster was theirs, then it wasn’t.
Let’s go straight to the finish. Three minutes of second-half injury-time. The Barrs ahead by one. Twice they attacked. William Buckley’s floated handpass across the large parallelogram came to nought.
Dingle sought to work possession out. Steven Sherlock dispossessed Niall Geaney on the Ryan Stand sideline. Possession back to Buckley. His kick went left and wide.
In the ensuing play, the Barrs again got hands on ball. Ian Magiure was swarmed by three Dingle shirts. The call was for overcarrying.
It was here the final swung 50 metres on the field and swung 148 kilometres from Togher to West Kerry. Barrs substitute Dylan Quinn was adjudged to have impeded the quick taking of the Dingle free. But given no Dingle player was attempting to take a quick free, it was impossible to know who he impeded.
Referee Chris Maguire brought the ball up the field. Conor Geaney, from just inside the opposition 45-metre line, nailed the two-point winner.
A first ever Munster crown for Dingle. A fourth Munster final defeat for the Barrs.
The Barrs failing was never truly putting away their opponents. They twice led by seven late in the third quarter. They never scored beyond the 49th minute. The later refereeing call aside, this defeat is laced with self-inflicted regret.
Dingle’s badge of honour was never allowing the decider to go from them. Even when Paul Geaney had to temporarily depart for six minutes of the second half, they kept to the coalface.
Dylan Geaney unleashed a marvellous two-pointer during the period Geaney was receiving facial treatment. Tom O’Sullivan brought them within four on 47 minutes, 0-19 to 1-12.
The same player was fouled for a Dylan Geaney converted free after Brian Hayes had shoved the Barrs back out to a lead of five.
Another Dylan free and another Dylan two-pointer cut the gap to one heading for injury-time.
Three minutes of incredible drama, waste, and a most wondrous way to win followed.
A grave injustice it would be to go anywhere near the first-half fare and not begin with Steven Sherlock. An exhibition is the easy word to reach for. But in this instance, the easy reach was also the correct and most appropriate reach.
There was 25 minutes on the clock when Tom O’Sullivan was redeployed from the No.6 slot into the right corner where Sherlock was sitting and starting out from.
The move was forced by four Sherlock orange flags. Two from play, two from the placed-ball. There was also a white flag sandwiched somewhere in amongst all the glorious two-pointers.
And he arguably saved his most impressive score for when the Kerry corner-back had joined him for company. Accepting possession in front of the Ryan Stand and about 65 metres out from goal, he swept past three Dingle shirts and then swept the ball over with his up-to-then unused left.
His first-half scorecard read 0-12. Five orange - three of them frees - and two white.
The scoresheet had the look of a one-man act. The act was anything but. William Buckley buzzed about the place with intent and effect. His carries was a valuable source in the blues scoring department.
Ricky Barrett, Luke Hannigan, and Ethan Twomey won the frees Sherlock converted from outside the arc. Twomey, in the play after his free won was turned into two, intercepted a Conor Flannery pass. That play ended in a Sherlock one-pointer.
Brian Hayes and Ian Maguire were presences felt at midfield. Dingle failed to retain four of their opening seven restarts. The problem for the Cork champions was that they failed to punish with a score any of the four restarts stolen. That swung dramatically when orange and white flags came off the first two Dingle kickouts at the beginning of the second period.
By contrast, Dingle mined a return of 0-2 off three first-half Barrs restarts won. Dingle tormented the Barrs kickout later on in the final kickout.
Paul Geaney was the Kerry team’s sole attacking menace in that opening half. The Barrs could have been more clever in policing the opposition spearhead. Alan O’Connor began on the 35-year-old. Sam Ryan spent most of the half attempting to carry out the Geaney brief.
The cover was incredibly scant. Geaney slipped Ryan for a 16th minute goal. He almost slipped him for a second in injury-time. The crossbar preserved the Barrs’ 0-14 to 1-6 lead turning around.
Sherlock finished with six orange, a tally of 0-16, and the man of the match crystal. The silverware, though, was down the hall in the Dingle corner.
Ballyboden next for them on their maiden voyage out of Munster. Mark O’Connor’s return to Australia might have to be long-fingered a few more weeks.
D Geaney (0-9, 2tp, 0-2 frees); P Geaney (1-2, 0-1 free); C Geaney (0-4, tp free, 0-1 free); T O’Sullivan (0-2 each); M O’Connor (0-1).
S Sherlock (0-16, 4 tp frees, 2 tps, 0-1 free); B Hayes (0-2); J Wigginton Barrett, L Hannigan (0-1 each).
G Curran; C Flannery, A O’Connor, TL O’Sullivan; B O’Connor, T O’Sullivan, P O’Connor; M O’Connor, B O’Connor; N Geaney, M Flaherty, T Browne; C Geaney, P Geaney, D Geaney.
M Geaney for P Geaney (39-45); N Ryan for B O’Connor (40); M Geaney for Browne (60).
D Newman; B Hennessy, A O’Connor, S Ryan; E Dennehy, C Doolan, C Dennehy; I Maguire, B Hayes; E Twomey, J Wigginton Barrett, W Buckley; L Hannigan, R Barrett, S Sherlock.
E McGreevy for Ricky Barrett (41); D Quinn for Twomey, C Myers Murray for (47); C Bambury for Flaherty (60).
C Maguire (Clare).
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