Men's Senior Round Four

26 May 2014 by Gerry McCullagh

“Sure is it any wonder Kildare are sh*te?” Jokingly remarked one Shamrocks supporter from under the Tom Bateman Pavillion, as the victorious boys in green made there way off the field. His statement of course, was not an attack on Jason Ryan’s Lilywhites, but a complimentary reference to the heroic efforts he had just witnessed by a posse of exiled Kildare men.
You see the collective efforts of Athy’s Danny O’Keefe, St.Laurence’s Mark Finnegan, Clane duo of Philly Doyle and Richie Nevin and “Man of the match” Jason Brosnan from St.Kevin’s, were thee major reason why Shamrocks knocked up their second win of the campaign on a windswept Sunday afternoon.

Playing against 2013 league champions Morley Gaels, Shamrocks Manager Ray Reilly was able to recall wing forward Sean Lynch, whilst Armagh man Danny Mckavanagh, took his place on the bench following a return from a trip home to his native county.
However, it was the numerous positional changes made by ‘Bish’ that was the talk of the shams support. Richie Nevin switched from midfield to centre back, Trim’s Alan Douglas went from wing forward to midfield whilst Seamus Kane took his place on the ‘40 instead of Gavin Donaghy, who moved to top of the left.
The last time these sides met in a competitive fixture, Morley emerged victors with twelve points to spare in last years championship semi final. All early indications suggested it was going to be a similar score line in this one, as the Gaels raced into a 1-01 to no score lead after just two minutes played.
Mark Finnegan finally got the Shams off the mark, following a Gav Donaghy turnover, but after ten minutes Morley held the advantage 1-03 0-01.
Playing into a strong breeze, Shamrocks finally settled and pulled themselves back into the game with four unanswered points. Finnegan added two more whilst Alan Douglas curled a ’beauty’ just inside the right-hand post from the right side to leave just two between them.
As the half time whistle drew near, Shamrocks hit for their first goal. Former Derry man Donaghy collected deep in his own half, after an intersession of quick hand passes Darren Drummond found corner forward Brendan Maguire in space, Maguire quickly offloaded to O’Keefe who spotted Douglas bearing in on goal and the Meath man made no mistake, rifling the ball to the roof of the net to end what was a serious move for the Shams. Seamus ‘Shakes’ Kane added a free to leave the score 1-06 1-05 in favour of Shamrocks going in at the break.

HT Western Shamrocks 1-06
Morley Gaels 1-05

Kane picked up where he left off in the second half, kicking a forty-five meter free following a trademark run from Aodh Ruadh colleague Darren ‘Chips’ Drummond. Danny O’Keefe got his first point, when he was put through by the tireless Douglas and the big no.10 soon added two more, the pick of which a huge score from fifty meters, to stretch the advantage to four points.
Defensively Danny McKavanagh’s introduction to the middle proved an incisive one with his impressive work rate, thee aforementioned Nevin was marshaling the center well, whilst Jason Brosnan was giving an exhibition in full-back play. Even the Shams Custodian Pat White was called into making a great point blank save following a lapse in the Shamrocks defense. White was also finding his range on the kickouts, incredibly finding corner forward Brian Dempsey on one occasion, who simply popped it to the on-rushing Finnegan for his third score. Dempsey then helped himself to one, flicking over on the left foot, on what was the St. Joseph’s man first action of the year, leaving it 1-12 1-06 with time running out for a fledging Morley.
There was time for one more hammer blow however, as dangerman Finnegan found substitute Collie Donnelly inside, the Dromore Co. Tyrone man hit an unstoppable shot into the top left corner to leave it double-scores at the finish, 2-12 1-06.
So an impressive performance to close out the round for Shamrocks following last weeks defeat, which leaves Ray Reilly’s men top following the first round of fixtures.

FT Western Shamrocks 2-12
Morley Gaels 1-06

(With the Shams not having
another game until next month, ill be conducting one off ‘Teammates’ interviews with some Shamrocks Stars over the coming weeks, stay tuned to the Western Shamrocks App for updates!)