This article is from page 71 of the 2011-07-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-9 – St Joseph’s Miltown 0-6 at St Michael ’s Park, Kilmihil
IT didn’t take long for the men of Miltown to realise that their grip on the Cusack Cup was gone – 12 minutes in fact, because in that time Kilmurry Ibrickane flexed their football muscles and when playing into the gale stormed into a 1-2 to no score lead.
Game over really, because from there Miltown were playing a game of catch-up they never looked like winning against a Kilmurry team, shorn of many regulars but still utterly dominant in nearly everything they did.
No Shane Hickey, no Declan Callinan, no Paul O’Connor, but still with plenty of reserve talent to sweep away the Miltown challenge with the minimum of fuss for this double scores win.
They never really looked back when early points from play by Niall Hickey and Michael Hogan gave them a foothold, while two scores from placed balls by the 12th minute had them on the high road.
Ian McInerney, who hit four points over the hour, floated over a free in the tenth before Enda Coughlan drilled a penalty to the net two minutes later – the kick came after a sweeping Kilmurry move was only ended when Michael Hogan was upended eight yards from goal.
Miltown were on the ropes and though they rallied thanks to a couple of Dessie Molohan frees by the 17th minute, they still trailed by 1-5 to 0-4 at the interval after Kilmurry points from Michael Hogan and Ian McInerney were responded to by points from Micheal Malone and Dessie Molohan before the break. With the wind Kilmurry were never in danger – while playing within themselves their four-point lead was still intact by the 50th minute after points by Peter O’Dwyer and Ian McInerney cancelled out two Eoin Curtin frees to leave matters resting at 1-7 to 0-6. The closing ten minutes were a procession as Kilmurry unloaded their bench long before the finish and further points by Peter O’Dwyer who dominated the midfield exchanges throughout and Ian McInerney eased them into a first final since 2009 when they were shocked by Cooraclare in the final.