AIB All-Ireland Club SFC final: Glen 1-10 Kilmacud Croke’s 1-11
THE scarring on Conor Ferris heals in an instant. Last year, his right boot undid everything. This year, his right glove won Kilmacud an All-Ireland.
Sport is about redemptive stories like his. Roundly blamed for kicking the ball back to Kilcoo in the dying seconds of extra-time twelve months ago when one more handpass would probably have won it, he was given a moment of glory that goalkeepers almost never get in the third minute of stoppage time yesterday.
Conor Glass couldn’t have believed his luck when the ball fell at his right boot. It was a hurried, disbelieving, scuffed shot, almost off his ankle. It was still bound for the corner, and not an easy reach.
“Jesus, yeah, that’s good innit?” laughed Ferris into the TG4 microphone as he’s shown the replay.
Glen left four goal chances behind them in the second half of their first All-Ireland final. You can draw a straight line back to last year again from Stevie O’Hara’s slip to Miceal Rooney’s goal-line clearance for Kilcoo. If that ball ends up in the net, Glen probably win the All-Ireland.
There was nothing about the game that suggested Kilmacud could have rescued the momentum of it if Glen had been able to rip open that bit more daylight.
The Ulster champions were one up with 49 minutes gone. Crucially, for almost the whole of the second half, they were the better team.
Danny Tallon, having scored a thundering individual goal inside 34 seconds, opted to fist Glen into a lead rather than have a go at Ferris on 40 minutes.
But it was moments after Alex Doherty had scored a mark and moments before Jack Doherty crept in behind the ball-watching Rory O’Carroll yet again. They kicked four on the bounce in total to go from two down to two up.
They’d worked out Kilmacud’s kickouts. Emmett Bradley squeezed in to create the illusion of space and as soon as Ferris went long, Bradley sprinted back to the middle to create 2v1s. Glen hoovered up everything in an area where they’d struggled for a long time.
Conor Glass appeared to still be suffering the effects of tonsillitis and struggled to impact on the game. A man of no excuses, he kept trucking through 60 minutes.
Emmett Bradley stepped up yet again beside him with a big display. Glen had loads of good performances – Jack and Ethan Doherty, Ryan Dougan, Connor Carville, Tiarnan Flanagan, Michael Warnock all had moments.
Understandable sense of injustice at 16th man. Deliberate or not, shouldn't happen. But neither player had any impact at all in those few seconds. Glen seeking clarification. Malachy O'Rourke said they'd likely accept result. That feels like the right and dignified thing to do
— Cahair O'Kane (@CahairOKane1) January 22, 2023
When the two Dohertys, particularly Ethan, got half an opening to run at them, they hurt Kilmacud every single time.
Enough of them to win the game and have deserved to win the game. They probably did just shade it, but the 20 minutes before half-time did enough harm and Crokes had just enough quality to stay alive and sneak home.
In a star-studded attack, Paul Mannion was thrown in as a late surprise that didn’t really pay off, Shane Walsh was kept quiet in open play by Warnock, while their semi-final man of the match Hugh Kenny hardly got a kick off Carville.
But it was the lesser lights of Shane Cunningham – scorer of two points, winner of the penalty – and particularly man of the match Dara Mullin that carried them for a long time.
Mullin’s contribution was vital in that he was the one to lift them when they were 1-3 to 0-1 down. He popped the ball to Cunningham to win the penalty. Kicked their next score, generally carried the fight. It was largely on his back that they were dragged to a 1-4 to 1-3 lead at the break.
Even the constant inter-changing between him and Cunningham was pulling Mulholland brothers Cathal and Eunan left and right as they were left to try and deal with it.
Dan O’Brien hurt them too. For size and speed he was perfect to mark Conleth McGuckian, and then had the football to back it up. He was invited into the game and didn’t have to be asked twice.
Glen have gotten the big starts they’ve aimed for in the big games but have struggled to back those up in the second quarter. Same again here, when they couldn’t get their hands on a ball.
But they got a lot sorted at half-time and when they look at it in the cold light of day, the pain will probably get worse. With each slowly passing minute last night, today, this week, the feeling will grow that they’ve left one behind.
Granted, Kilmacud had their goal chance first. Andy McGowan ghosted into space and fed Aidan Jones, but his angle was tight and Connlan Bradley enough of an obstacle to stop it at the near post.
Shane Walsh kicked the 45 over with his left foot. No other man in Ireland would have tried it on their weaker side, least of all from a fairly central position. There’s shades of Ronnie O’Sullivan about it, doing it for his own entertainment, just because he can.
Of course, Walsh’s presence in a Kilmacud jersey has been the autumn’s big talking point. It still feels a bit too much like soccer that a club of 4,800 members can bring a man like that in. An asterisk against this All-Ireland because of it? Make your own mind up.
Glen say they will “seek clarification from the GAA” on whether there is mileage in an appeal after Kilmacud defended the last-gasp 45 with 16 men on the field.
Dara Mullin didn’t go off as he was supposed to, but neither he nor his supposed replacement Conor Casey had no bearing nor influence on Conleth McGuckian’s shot that flashed so closely wide that the Glen fans in the Cusack side opposite went bananas thinking they’d snatched a winning goal.
Malachy O’Rourke didn’t seem any way keen on an appeal and while they’re right to take their breath and consider it, the likelihood is that Glen will take their lead from their manager and accept the result with grace.
Connlan Bradley is 31. His brother Emmett and Michael Warnock just turned 30. The rest are younger. They have it in them to grace Croke Park again, and this will stand to them.
It just won’t feel like that today.
MATCH STATS
Glen: C Bradley; C Mulholland, R Dougan, C Carville; T Flanagan, M Warnock, E Mulholland; C Glass, E Bradley (0-1 free); E Doherty (0-1), J Doherty (0-1), C Convery; C McGuckian; A Doherty (0-2, 0-1 mark), D Tallon (1-3, 0-2 frees)
Subs: S O’Hara for Convery (36), P Gunning for A Doherty (58)
Yellow cards: D Tallon (58), C McGuckian (60)
Kilmacud Crokes: C Ferris; M Mullin, T Clancy; D O’Brien (0-1); A McGowan, R O’Carroll, A Jones; B Shovlin, C Dias (0-1); D Mullin (0-2), S Walsh (1-3, 1-0pen, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45), C O’Shea; H Kenny, P Mannion (0-1 free), S Cunningham (0-2)
Subs: C O’Connor (0-1) for Kenny (46), S Horan for Jones (49), L Ward for Cunningham (56), T Fox for Mannion (72), C Casey for D Mullin (73)
Yellow cards: A McGowan (40), C Dias (53)
Referee: D O’Mahoney (Tipperary)
Attendance: 22,890
