End of the road for Offaly schools football team

It’s hard to know what the future holds for the concept of combination teams in the Leinster Post-Primary Schools championship, particularly given the strong possibility that the Offaly hurling combination could make significant waves this year, but it’s hard to say that there is a huge amount of merit in the concept on the basis of Tuesday's Leinster championship quarter-final at Pearse Park in Longford.

Leinster Post-Primary Schools Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final

St Mel's College, Longford 2-19

Offaly Schools 2-5

Despite having a decent team on paper, with plenty of intercounty minor experience, the step up in class to taking on a well-oiled, talented team from St. Mel’s College proved to be a bridge too far for the side coached by Keith Begley, James Stewart and Pádraig Murray.

By any stretch of the imagination, this was a tough draw for the Offaly group, as this is a very highly-rated St. Mel’s side that has been earmarked from a long way out as real championship contenders, and by far the most likely usurpers of the throne currently occupied by Naas CBS.

Nonetheless, this was an utterly one-sided encounter, and the ease with which St. Mel’s cut through the Offaly defence right from the start meant that as a contest, it was over before it began.

The warning signs were there in the opening two minutes, when St. Mel’s could have had two early goals. Fergal Bracken bailed Offaly out of trouble when he smothered a low shot from Paddy Moran, with Andrew Flynn’s chance pulled wide immediately after that, but the openings kept appearing and with three minutes on the clock, Flynn took a pass from Moran to beat Bracken from close range.

Four points in the next four minutes, all before Offaly even got a shot on goal, heaped the pressure on the Faithful County students, and while they began to settle into the game and get a little bit more ball at midfield, they were rocked again when Bracken saved a shot from Michael Flynn, only for the rebound to break into the path of the corner forward, leading to a simple finish.

Marcas Dalton, operating as a corner-forward who was dropping back to midfield, opened the scoring for Offaly after a quarter of an hour but there was still nothing like the same cohesion and slickness to the away side in the way that they moved the ball, and the quality of chances created by Mel’s was vastly superior.

Three more points were followed by a brief chink of light, a goal from a Ronan Flynn penalty that was awarded after Geordi O’Meara was deemed to have been fouled, and points from Cathal Mahon and Aaron Gorman before half-time ensured that at least the deficit was single-figures.

There was no mystery to how the game was going to play out however, and sure enough St. Mel’s eased to victory in the second half, with an opportunist goal from substitute Oisín Gorman the only Offaly schools score up until stoppage time, when O’Meara and Marcas Dalton scored late points.

Mel’s continued to look incredibly slick going forward as they tacked another ten points onto their tally, including several eye-catching efforts from Paddy Moran, Matthew Carey and Michael Flynn.

MATCH ANALYSIS

MAN OF THE MATCH

Matthew Carey (St. Mel’s College): The classy midfielder has been a real star in this championship, and he put in yet another excellent shift here, scoring six points – five from play – while moving a lot of ball through the middle third. Any one of several St. Mel’s attackers could also have been a decent shout, while it’s much harder to come up with strong candidates on the Offaly schools side. Fergal Bracken in goal and Rúairí O’Neill, particularly in the second half when he moved back to the corner from wing back, were probably the star men.

THE TEAMS

ST. MEL’S COLLEGE: Caolan Hussey; Conor Smith, Adam Donnelly, Kevin Basket; Gavin Farrelly, Ross Shields, James Connell; Matthew Carey, Jonathan Burke; Cormac Harte, Matthew Flynn, Andrew Flynn; Michael Flynn, Harry Mulvihill, Paddy Moran. Subs: Ronan Courtney for Donnelly (half-time), Colm Coyle for Michael Flynn (48), Cormac Flynn for Michael Flynn (55), Eamon Igoe for Basket (55), Jamie Dorr for Burke (58).

OFFALY SCHOOLS: Fergal Bracken; Seán Flynn, Eamon Bolger, Mark Wren; Rúairí O’Neill, Matthew Darcy, Patrick Taaffe; Geordi O’Meara, Aaron Gorman; Barry Egan, Seán Conway, Cathal Mahon; Marcas Dalton, Luke Kelly, Ronan Flynn. Subs: Oisín Guinan for S Flynn (half-time), Darragh Bryant for Taaffe (47), Dylan Daly for Gorman (51), Dylan Moore for Wren (56), Ultan Carroll for Mahon (60+1).

Referee – Ken Daly (Westmeath)

REFEREE WATCH

Ken Daly gave one or two calls that might have erred in favour of Offaly schools once the game started to go away from them, but that was understandable. When it came to the big stuff, the Loughnavalley man was spot on.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

It’s hard to say that there was any swing moment here, but the closest we can say would have been when Fergal Bracken did really well to save Michael Flynn’s shot, but the ball rebounded perfectly for Flynn to tap in St. Mel’s second goal from the rebound, denying Offaly Schools a reprieve they badly needed.

VENUE WATCH

Despite the hard freeze, Pearse Park was in good shape for this game. Extra credit to the groundsman who was out before the game with a leaf blower, removing the frost from the goalmouth which was in the shadow of the covered terrace at the Town End.

TALKING POINT

It was far too late to be a factor in this game, but the sight of Patrick Taaffe coming off injured midway through the second half will be a concern to both the Offaly Schools hurling combination, and Gallen Community school, who earlier this week qualified for a North Leinster “D” hurling final.

WHAT'S NEXT

St. Mel’s College advance to the last four in a competition where Coláiste Choilm and the Tubber contingent of Moate Community School continue to fly the flag for Offaly.

STATISTICS

Wides: St. Mel’s College – 3 (0 in first half); Offaly Schools – 3 (1 in first half).

Yellow cards: St. Mel’s College – 1 (Harry Mulvihill); Offaly Schools – 5 (Eamon Bolger, Matthew Darcy, Marcus Dalton, Oisín Guinan and Barry Egan).

Black cards: 0.

Red cards: 0

THE SCORERS

St. Mel’s College: Matthew Carey 0-6 (0-1f), Michael Flynn 1-3, Andrew Flynn 1-1, Paddy Moran 0-4, Gavin Farrelly 0-1, Colm Coyle 0-1, Ronan Courtney 0-1, Harry Mulvihill 0-1, Matthew Flynn 0-1f.

Offaly Schools: Ronan Flynn 1-0 pen, Oisín Guinan 1-0, Marcas Dalton 0-2, Luke Kelly 0-1, Cathal Mahon 0-1, Geordi O’Meara 0-1.