This article is from page 78 of the 2011-11-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 78 JPG
St Flannan’s College 4-08 – Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon 0-06 at St Flannan’s College, Ennis
ST FLANNAN’S College of Ennis hosted Scoil Mhuire of Ennistymon in the Senior B decider on Tuesday and after last year’s thrilling final, the Ennis side also exacted full revenge to take the title away from the four-in-a-row hopefuls. Both sides had some impressive names on the programme, girls who have competed for club and county at Under 16 and Minor.
St. Flannan’s were well up for this meeting and started extremely spritely, Shaunagh O’Brien taking a great point on the volley in the first few minutes and Orla Devitt pointed at speed soon after. Aoibheann Malone claimed the Townies third point on 15 minutes. Some good play between Emer Hillery and Ashling Torpey failed to yield anything at the other end as Ashling Corbett put in some great blocking tackles and captain Sinead O’Keeffe snuffed out a lot on the Flannan’s half-back line. A very predatory Flannan’s forward section then went into overdrive and produced four goals in the remaining ten minutes of the first half with Niki Kaiser involved in three of them. First Shauna O’Brien rattled the upright and then she netted from the perfect pass from Kaiser who collected the rebound. Kaiser herself was next to grab a goal after a very strong solo and then she set up Orla Devitt for the third. Aoife Shannon almost palmed over a rocket from Niamh Markham but it just caught the crossbar and the three time champs were stunned by Flannan’s fourth goal in ten minutes. A strong Ennistymon rally fizzled out as several scorable chances went abegging. Aoibheann Malone then banged over the second of her five points from play just before referee Linda Russell called for half-time at 4-4 to 0-0.
Malone restarted with another point and Kaiser brought it up to 4-6 for the Ennis school before the seasider’s Emer Hillery/Aisling Torpey combo got going. Torpey converted two points, a sign of increased activity around the Flannan’s parallelogram and Hillery took a great point from play to reduce the deficit further at 4-6 to 0-3. A strong Flannan’s attack which included Devitt, Eleanor Carey, Kaiser, Shaunagh O’Brien, Anneka O’Brien and Malone poured massive pressure on the visitors and Malone poached two more points, interspersed by an Eva O’Dea point for Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon. Ashling Torpey took another lovely point but it would be ten minutes before Scoil Mhuire would be beyond the St Flannan’s ‘45 such was the work rate of Sophie Hanna, Aoife Keane, Captain Sinead O’Keeffe, Sinead Quinn and Aisling Corbett. Scoil Mhuire’s forwards, Eva O’Dea, Captain Kayleigh Murrihy, Katie Considine were putting in some great work and it was Shannon Murrihy who scored the last point of the game for the three in a row winners, Scoile Mhuire. This was a big win for St. Flannan’s and a side with eight current minor football champions from all divisions on the panel, plus camogie champs, should do very well in the next Munster round, to be announced.