Seniors beaten by Boden

Close but not close enough sums up this round robin championship encounter in O’Toole Park on Saturday evening 30th August 2008 as Crokes lost out by 1-16 to 1-11 against reigning county champions, Ballyboden St Endas.

Within 90 seconds Ballyboden’s Conal Keaney grabbed a sixty five and kicked to the net.  Two Eoin Fitzgerald points had the minimum in it by the sixth minute.  Boden then pointed a free to which Ross O’Carroll replied in kind in the ninth minute  Then came three Boden minors before a Fitzgerald free made it 1-4 to 0-4 on the quarter hour.  By the eighteenth minute the Firhouse Road men were 1-5 to 0-4 ahead and might have been more but for their profligacy with wides.

James Burke brought it to 1-5 to 0-5 in the nineteenth minute.  A minute later a long Aodhan de Paor ball was won by Ross O’Carroll.  He offloaded to his full forward colleague, Fitzgerald, who finished to the net.  Ballyboden replied with two quick points.  Crokes pegged them back through overs from Fergal Armstrong and Fitzgerald, a 60 metre free, before the short whistle.

Boden raised the first white flag of the second half within thirty seconds of the restart.  Ninety seconds later Fitzgerald had Crokes level again.  In the thirty fifth minute Boden nosed ahead once more only for the hard working Neil Casey to equalise in the thirty sixth.  The sequence was repeated in the thirty ninth and forty third minute with Fitzgerald pointing for Crokes.

Games are won and lost in the final period.  Ballyboden pointed in the forty sixth minute.  With Crokes looking like they were getting on top what appeared a good Ross O’Carroll point was initially awarded by the referee but waved wide by the umpire.  What made the outcome more exasperating was that a score had been awarded to Boden for an effort that looked wide from almost the same position in the first half.  Crokes then had a wide.  From the puck out Ballyboden were awarded a free which was pointed and three more followed in the fifty third, fourth and fifth minutes.  Crokes seemed to run out of steam and dropped a few balls into the keeper’s hand.  In the fifty eight minute Boden got their last score to bring their total to 1-16.  An immediate riposte in the form of a point from a Fitzgerald free brought Crokes to 1-11 and thus ended the scoring.

Overall there were many positives for Crokes to take from this game but the fade out in the last seventeen minutes, where they only registered one point (from a free) is a cause for concern as is the fact Boden’s wide tally of 13 was more than double that of Crokes at 6 - if such a is taken as an indication of advantage.  Most influential for Crokes was full forward Fitzgerald, who spent much of the second half in the half forward line.  Up front he was ably assisted by Neil Casey while the fullback line was solid throughout.  Niall Corcoran had a sound game at centre back and Daibhi de Paor grew in prominence as the game progressed.

After two round robin games Ballyoden have four points while Crokes and St Brigids have two each with the North East Selection pointless.  Crokes now play the latter in the final round robin game at Blunden Drive (O’Toole’s home ground) on Friday 5th September at 7pm.  Victory should go a long way to securing one of the two quarter final spot available to the group.  The representative team will come into the match buoyed by their narrow one point loss to St Brigids on Saturday and with a strong team spirit fashioned in the Nicky Rackard Cup where most of them were on the Fingal team under the same manager, former Crumlin and Dublin player, Denis Murphy.

Team:

R Sweetnam, W Ryan, D Mahoney, Rory O’Carroll, A de Paor, N Corcoran, D de Paor, F Armstrong (0-2), A Grogan, H Gannon, J Burke (0-1), S O’Rorke, N Casey (0-1), E Fitzgerald (1-6, f -2), Ross O’Carroll (0-1).  Subs: C Clinton for H Gannon, MacD O’hOgain, R Mangan, D Byrne, P Graham, N Butler, D McGovern, A Tiernan, M Dalton, F Garvey, B O’Rorke, R O’Loughlin, R Walsh, B Hoyne.

To see images of the match click HERE or on the image below

To see other images of the Seniors in action on 2008 click HERE