This article is from page 76 of the 2009-09-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 76 JPG
WHITEGATE deservedly assumed the role of championship favourites after winning out in the battle of the heavyweights in Tulla on Saturday. After meeting twice already this year in the Clare Cup, both sides were well accustomed to one another and that familiarity was exploited by Whitegate who seemed to have more homework done on their opponents.
This was supposed to be Eire Og’s year. They were determined to bounce back to where they believe they belong, competing in the senior championship however these desires will have to be put on hold for an- other year at least as it is now the men from east Clare who, barring a Shock, look to be the team who will be competing for the title.
Eire Og started the brightest and rushed into an early four point lead after six minutes. Danny Russell from two frees secured a point and a goal to give the Townies the perfect SIE a
However, Whitegate soon settled with some placed balls of their own. George Waterstone with two frees and two 65s levelled the game after 13 minutes. The comeback was un- derway. It took another five minutes for the first score from play. Davy O’ Halloran finally brought an end to the personal duel that was beginning to develop between both sides’ free takers with a fine point. Two more points from Fergus Flynn and a well taken over the shoulder effort by Ni- all Daly completed Eire Og’s scoring for the first -half.
However, with ten minutes of the half still remaining, Whitegate turned the screw in what was to
prove a decisive match winning pe- riod of dominance. Despite the fact that Eire Og still had a significant amount of possession, they could not convert this control into scores whereas Whitegate took their chanc- es. Waterstone added to his tally this time from play, John O’Brien added his name to the scoreboard and of course two inspirational points from impressive midfielder Ian Fahy all resulted in Whitegate leading on a score of 0-10 to 1-4 at the break. The second-half commenced like the first with Waterstone and Russell exchanging points. From the inten-
sity illustrated by both teams, it was inevitable this game would go down to the wire. Forty minutes gone and Whitegate suffered their first big blow. Waterstone had to be replaced due to injury. This could have been disastrous but Whitegate kept fight- ing and his loss was absorbed by the extra effort given by all his other team mates. Suprisingly it wasn’t the last we saw of him either. When the pressure really was on, he returned with a few minutes remaining, even managing to convert another °65 in the 58th minute.
Waterstone cannot take all the
credit though as the scoring was well distributed in the closing period of the second-half. Michael O’Brien, Stephen Malone and even goalie An- drew Fahy with a monster free from inside his own half added points for his team.
Two other factors were key to MWA TTR ere eekcean bbe oplmp keel Lae D hop Firstly two Eire Og 20 metre frees were stopped. Russell with the first attempt and Barry Nugent with the second were both prevented as the Townies desperately pushed for the goal they required to have any chance of winning.
The second factor was the perform- ance of man of the match Tommy Holland. His duty for the day was to man-mark Nugent and try to neu- tralise his effect on the game. That is exactly what he did as Nugent’s influ- ence was kept to a minimum by the former county senior panelist.
For the final minutes, Eire Og huffed and puffed but they could not prevent an impressive Whitegate from progressing into the semi-final after aQ-19 to 1-11 win. By many, this was billed as the real county final for 09, well if that is the case Whitegate won’t have long more to be declared champions officially.