Roscrea's scoring prowess wins the day in U17 North football final win over Toomevara

North Tipperary U17B Football Championship Final

Roscrea 2-13

Toomevara 4-1

Under the lights of County Clare on the UL campus all-weather last Wednesday night was the unusual setting for this evening's North Tipperary U17B Football Championship Final between Toomevara and Roscrea, which saw the boys in red come out on top in an entertaining contest.

A good start from Toomevara was notable in the early parts of the game but as the contest moved forward it was Roscrea who were the better team and they had a far more prolific spread of scorers by the final whistle, outscoring Toome 15 scores to five.

This was an historic win for Roscrea as the club has only started fielding football teams this year and it shows the talent of the town with the big ball that they can compete for titles at this early stage of that transition.

Toomevara, captained by Michael Gleeson, settled well and were awarded a fourth-minute penalty, for a foot block on Cody Quirke. The penalty was calmly converted by Patrick Hackett but soon after, Roscrea began playing more controlled football as the half wore on and dominated midfield for large periods of the first half. 

Sam Dooley was causing the Toome defense many problems and he scored the first score of his one goal and ten points (1-10) haul on the ten-minute mark. Darragh Hayes in goals produced many good saves as Roscrea started stringing passes together with Dooley converting most of them. 

A major turning point occurred just as half-time approached when Jack Hogan had the ball punched out of his hand, while through on goal, and into the Roscrea net only for it to be disallowed. A late Jack Walsh point gave Roscrea a 0-5 to 1-0 lead at half-time.

Roscrea began the second half where they left off in the first with great passing movement and fine scores taken by Aaron O'Donoghue and substitute Aaron Moloney. 

All frees were punished by the unerring boot of Player of the Match, Sam Dooley, while Toomevara could only play well in patches with goals by Cody Quirke and substitutes Austin Duff and Michael Ryan.

Roscrea also scored goals by Aaron Moloney and Sam Dooley and these scores proved to be decisive as Roscrea held onto their six-point advantage until the final whistle sounded. Roscrea won the game by 2-13 to 4-1 and became deserved North Under 17B Football champions in 2023. 

Toome could point to their total of 13 wides as the reason for the loss but in truth, Roscrea played more intelligent football and took their chances when they came.