West senior football champions Eire Og Annacarty Donohill bridge an eleven year gap

Report by Francis Coughlan at Dundrum 

Eire Og Annacarty Donohill bridged an eleven-year gap to claim just a second ever O’Carroll Cup when they defeated Rockwell Rovers in Dundrum on Saturday evening.

In 2012 a Damien O’Brien goal helped them to claim honours while this time round Dinny Crosse’s penalty goal early in the second half would ultimately prove the difference.

Following their victory over defending champions Arravale Rovers the New Inn side would have been many people’s favourites to go one better than twelve months ago and claim a first Senior football title in the Division.

Eire Og though have never proved easy opponents for anyone and especially with silverware on offer as the adage “the old dog for the hard road” paved the way for a memorable victory.

The game may now go down in the history books as a memorable West final but that will matter little to this Eire Og team who along with their supporters stayed on the field for a good while after the game to relish this moment.

Eire Og will not put this victory down to any few individuals but a total team effort with an ethos to work for each other, defending in numbers, holding their discipline and forcing an unreal amount of turnovers while always looking comfortable going forward in possession.

Rockwell Rovers too defended stoutly getting numbers back in defence but ill discipline was punished by Darragh Mooney and Dinny Crosse. Too many times they were forced to go lateral with Eire Og filling the defence forcing the New Inn men shoot from distance.  

Goalkeeper Darragh Mooney had Eire Og playing against the wind off the mark in the second minute with a pointed free off the ground into the railway end.

Rockwell in the early stages looked as if they had the ability to punish Eire Og with their quick movement through the hand and they would gradually settle into the game.

This didn’t happen however and it was Eire Og who would dictate terms with numbers behind the ball. Aidan Barron who got on a lot of ball for Rockwell got them off the mark in the seventh minute. Scores were certainly hard to come by and it took another five minutes before Dinny Crosse pointed a free from close range.

One of the turning points of the game came between the fifteenth and twentieth minutes when Rockwell Rovers kicked five wides in a row while also dropped a free into the hands of Darragh Mooney. These were crucial misses that certainly would have given them confidence.

Eire Og were winning a lot of ball around the middle third with Donal O’Dwyer to the fore. Mooney then went on to kick his second free with nine of the half to play. In first half injury time TJ Ryan kicked his first and Rockwell Rovers second point to see the half time score 0-3 to 0-2 in favour of Eire Og.

Eire Og now playing with the wind added to their tally when Dinny Crosse kicked his second free just after the resumption. The turning point of the game came in the fourth minute of the half when Paudie Bradshaw was pulled down and referee David Grogan signalled a penalty.

Dinny Crosse stepped up to take the penalty sending his shot off the crossbar into the net. By the tenth minute Darragh Mooney had kicked his third point from a placed ball. In a game where scores were at such a premium a six-point advantage was a huge lead.

Just before that Rockwell Rovers had lost Eoin Byrne through a black card. Rockwell were now playing with just one in the full forward line, TJ Ryan marked by the Eire Og full back, and then Eire Og sat Brian Fox deeper to ensure no quick ball was sent in to Ryan.

Eire Og continued to defend in packs and although Alan Moloney did kick two pointed frees it was felt Rockwell would need a goal to put themselves on contention. With just over six minutes left to play Donal O’Dwyer finished a good Eire Og move with a fisted point, their first from play in the game.

It would also be their last score of the game as they led by five. Rockwell pressed hard for the remainder trying to run at the Eire Og defence looking to make a breach with players like Joe Lawrence, Liam Fahy and Tom Tobin pushing hard. This breach never materialised and the most they could add was points from TJ Ryan (free) and Joe Lawrence.

Following the game, Tommy Hayes, West Board Chairman presented the O’Carroll Cup to Eire Og captain Michael Bradshaw with Shane Hennessy representing the sponsors.

Scorers & Teams:

Eire Og: Dinny Crosse (1-2, P+F), Darragh Mooney (0-3f), Donal O’Dwyer (0-1)

Rockwell Rovers: TJ Ryan (0-2, (0-1f), Alan Moloney (0-2f), Aidan Barron (0-1), Joe Lawrence (0-1) 

Teams:
Eire Og: Darragh Mooney, Ciaran Loughman, Liam Og O’Dwyer, Darragh O’Brien, Paudie Bradshaw, Brian Fox, Michael Bradshaw, Tom Fox, Eoin Kennedy, Seanie Ryan, Donal O’Dwyer, Willie O’Neill, Paul Downey, Dinny Crosse, Connie Bradshaw
Subs Used: Kevin Fox, Conor O’Brien, Aiden Griffin, David Fox

Rockwell Rovers: Eoghan Doyle, Paul Hally, Robert O’Donnell, Pater Heaney, Liam Lonergan, Liam Fahy, Kevin Cleary, Tom Downey, Tom Tobin, Aidan Barron, Alan Moloney, Luca Fitzgerald, Patrick Hally, Joe Lawrence, TJ Ryan
Subs Used: Eoin Byrne, Jack O’Kelly, Eoin Shine (blood), Willie Flynn

Referee: David Grogan (Aherlow)