Danske Bank Mageean Cup final: St Louis, Ballymena 2-14 St Killian’s, Garron Tower 0-17
AT Halloween 2015, Primary Seven pupil Aodhán McGarry watched wide-eyed as his brother, and current Antrim senior, Ryan helped St Louis, Ballymena collect their second Danske Bank Mageean Cup title in the Dub Arena at Queen’s.
Seven years later the younger sibling returned to the same south Belfast venue to achieve his dreams from 2015 by playing a central part in St Louis’ third title success, a narrow victory in a thrilling derby final against St Killian’s, Garron Tower.
McGarry jointly captained his school to victory alongside Ronan McCollum, scoring a goal and eight points to collect the James O’Kane Player of the Match award.
After a brisk start from St Killian’s that produced points each for Cormac McKeown and Orrin O’Connor inside the opening two minutes, McGarry bulldozed his way through the centre of the Garron Tower defence and off-loaded for McCollum to double to the net.
St Killian’s though were back in front within a couple of minutes with another point from McKeown and the first of nine from Joe McLaughlin.
Play though swung from end to end for the duration of the first half with St Louis initially in front, but then St Killian’s finished the half strongly for the teams to leave the pitch level on 1-8 to 0-11. McGarry scored five points, McCollum 1-2 and McLaughlin countered with six points.
However both sides also missed opportunities, Garron Tower guilty of a few wides from open play, while McGarry uncharacteristically pulled two frees to the left of the post.
As with the first half, St Killian’s were first out of the blocks with Brogan O’Connor inside 70 seconds flashing a shot off the base of the post with the goal-keeper stranded. He made amends a minute later by pointing from 30 metres.
The sides went on to trade points for the first 24 minutes of the half, with McGarry’s radar restored to full operation mode. He and McCollum added three points each while McLaughlin led the charge for a Garron Tower side that looked dangerous in the third quarter but couldn’t convert that into scores as the Ballymena half-back line tightened their grip inside their own 45m line.
McGarry, now operating at midfield, regularly dropped back into defence to pick up possession and spray passes wide for McCollum to pick up. In the 54th minute however McGarry drifted down the centre while Jack McCloskey took the ball on the right wing, cut in and brought a good save from John V Morgan. The sliotar broke loose and McGarry was on hand to ground pull to the net.
There was a full ten minutes of play remaining, but you always felt that St Killian’s wouldn’t get the goal they needed and, with Ballymena filtering a lot of players back into the shooting zone, three points also became unlikely.
McLaughlin managed to pull one back in the 59th minute, but that man McGarry pointed a free from inside his own half in added time to fulfil the dreams he had since watching his brother seven years ago.
While McGarry and McCollum did the scoring, the St Louis defence was impressive; Francis McMullan, Kevin O’Boyle, Darragh and Pearce Patterson excelled while Jack McCloskey’s darting runs stretched the Tower defence.
Joseph McLaughlin top scored for St Killian’s and they had points from six different sources, a wider scoring base than the winners. However, apart from O’Connor’s bullet to the base of the post at the start of the second half, there was little sign of a goal that could well have propelled them in the direction of the cup presentation at the end of an exhilarating final.
St Louis: C McFerran; S O’Boyle, P Patterson, L McFerran; K O’Boyle, D Patterson, F McMullan; T McFerran (0-1), J McCormick; J McCloskey, A McGarry (1-8, 0-7 frees), P Martin; D Martin, S Óg Blaney, R McCollum (1-5, 0-2 frees)
Subs: R O’Boyle for S Óg Blaney (34); B McCloskey for J McCormick (39); C McKenna for S O’Boyle (60 +3)
St Killian's: JV Morgan; A McSparren, M McSparren, C Mooney; E Ward, N Magee, C Devlin (0-1); P McIlwaine, A Birt (0-1); O O’Connor (0-2), J McLaughlin (0-9, 6 frees), C McKeown (0-2); N Hynds, B O’Connor (0-1), Peadar McDonnell (0-1)
Subs: C Ward for P McIlwaine (41); K McNaughton for A McSparren (47); C McIlwaine for B O’Connor (51); P McIlwaine for P O’Donnell (57); B O’Connor for O O’Connor (57)
Referee: Tarlach Conway (Ballinascreen)