JK Brackens supremacy apparent in the dismissal of Moycarkey Borris to claim U19A crown

Joe O’Sullivan Bus & Cab Hire Mid Tipperary U19A Football Championship Final

JK Brackens Óg 4-23

Moycarkey Borris  0-6

By Ronan Loughnane 

JK Brackens retained their Mid U-19 A football crown with a facile 29-point victory over Moycarkey Borris in Gortnahoe on Thursday evening last. 

A competition that had five entrants managed to play just four round-robin games while this was only Brackens second game in the competition. Perhaps playing it in conjunction with the hurling competition is not the answer but time constraints don’t make solutions easy. 

Nevertheless, Brackens’ approach was no different than any other final and despite playing into a strong wind they flew out of the traps and had three points on the board inside 90 seconds through Ned Delaney, Cormac Foy, and Tom Corcoran. 

Moycarkey briefly got a foothold around the middle and replied with two good points from Eamon Ryan and Louis Coughlan. A good catch from Padraic O’Shea landed another Brackens point in the ninth minute and the same player grabbed Brackens’ opening goal a minute later following poor Moycarkey defending. 

Brackens attacked at will and added a further five points through Cormac Foy (2), Ciaran O’Shea, Tom Corcoran, and Jamie Ormond. 

A fine save from Brackens goalie Cian Sheedy kept Moycarkey at bay in the 20th minute before Killian Cantwell landed a much-needed point. 

The respite was brief however as O’Shea grabbed his second goal in the 22nd minute to leave Brackens 2-9 to 0-3 ahead. Corcoran and Coughlan traded points to leave Brackens 13 points to the good facing to play with the elements.

The game was completely over as a contest and the second half petered out to its inevitable conclusion. Moycarkey did manage to grab two points inside the opening three minutes of the second half through Eamon Ryan and Tom Ryan but they failed to trouble the scoreboard thereafter. 

Brackens tacked on points at their ease with O’Shea completing his hat-trick in the 40th minute, enough to earn him the man-of-the-match award. 

His brother Ciaran scored the final goal of the evening in the 57th minute to cap a fine victory for Brackens, but they know the road to potential County glory will have far stiffer tests than this one. They had plenty of fine performances all over the field with Padraic O’Shea deserving of special mention for his personal tally of 3-2. 

He was ably assisted by Jamie Bergin, Tom Corcoran, Ned Delaney, Dayle Hogan, and Cormac Foy. Try as they might, Moycarkey Borris simply had no answer to Brackens but they never gave up the fight and were best served on the day by Rhys McCarthy, Louis Coughlan, Killian Cantwell, and Eamon Ryan.

JK Brackens: Cian Sheedy; Tommy Burke, Jamie Bergin, Eddie Corcoran; Cian Broderick, Niall Delaney (0-1), Tom Corcoran (0-3); Ned Delaney (0-2), Dayle Hogan (0-1); Michael Cahill (0-1), Ciaran O’Shea (1-2), Sean Purcell; Cormac Foy (0-6, 0-3f), Jamie Ormond (0-2), Padraic O’Shea (3-2).

Subs used: Kieran Martin for Burke; Patrick Hickey (0-3) for Jamie Ormond; Dylan Quinlan for Cahill; Eoin Kelly for Padraic O’Shea; Jack Marnell for Ned Delaney.

Moycarkey Borris:  Frankie Butler; Rhys McCarthy, Sean Hayes, Cillian Doran; Darragh O’Dwyer, Louis Coughlan (0-2, 0-1f), Daniel Hayes; Killian Cantwell (0-1), John Fitzgerald; Mikey Carroll, Tom Ryan (0-1), Callum Twomey; Eamon Ryan (0-2, 0-1f), Bill Flanagan, Sean O’Dwyer.

Subs used: Darragh Patterson for Fitzgerald; Odhran Lanphier for Flanagan; Patrick O’Donnell for Cantwell; Mark Drohan for Doran; Michael Treacy for Sean O’Dwyer.

Referee: Martin Ryan (Moyne Templetuohy)