Super sub McDonnell inspires St Joseph's revival
St Joseph's 4-14, Ballycomoyle 1-13
For around 67 minutes on Friday evening, the defensive shackles were thrown off and St Joseph’s and Ballycomoyle went hell for leather in an exciting Junior Football Championship encounter at Shandonagh that saw the Streamstown men emerge with 10 points to spare.
Considering they trailed by six points after as many minutes, there was something seismic about the shift in power. From then to the final whistle, St Joseph’s scored 4-12 and conceded just 0-8 in an outstanding display.
They were content to start with Jordan McDonnell, the best forward in junior football, on the bench. Gareth Southgate had similar ideas in Germany lately, but this is a totally different scenario of course. McDonnell was unmarkable when introduced in the 38th minute, scoring 2-2 and setting up Daniel Keegan for a tap in goal, albeit after Ballycomoyle seemed unfortunate not to earn a free out.
By then the game was over anyway, Ballycomoyle’s early vigour fading like the July sunshine. Their terrific start deserved better, but games are not won in the first six minutes and they learned a harsh lesson once they started losing control around the middle third.
St Joseph’s rolled the dice and Eoin Carberry and Paddy Malynn will have learned that a repeat of such a lacklustre start would have serious consequences come the business end. They still looked a pretty potent outfit once they got control of their own kick-out, something that cost them six scores in a crazy six-minute spell at the start, including a goal from Alex Little, whose shot rattled the roof of the net, after Charles Flynn’s pass.
That explosive opening had them 1-5 to 0-2 clear, but 12 minutes later it was level - the St Joseph’s goal from Daniel Keegan a blow to the solar plexus. Noah McDonnell was involved and Pierce Weir Norris’ fisted pass put Keegan clean through the heart of the opposing cover to score with a low strike in the 10th minute. They were starting to fire and Dean Slevin scored a neat point when the game was really tight near the end of the first half, after Conlon and Ross Elliffe combined.
At half-time it was 1-9 to 1-7 in St Joseph’s favour and Ballycomoyle were left to deal with the psychology of having led so handsomely only to see it evaporate. Ultimately, St Joseph’s won the second half by 3-4 to 0-6 - just one score more, but three of those were green flags and it was certainly the case that once St Joseph’s applied full torque, they went through the gears much slicker than the opposition.
St Joseph’s had more match winners and their options off the bench carried greater threat. Jordan McDonnell has already won the ‘impact sub of the season’ accolade after round one, but he has a whole lot more to offer and juggling all the balls will be key to how the season pans out, one feels.
His low finish on 38 minutes made it 2-10 to 1-8 and that was effectively game over. The saints had added 1-3 in the 11 minutes after the break and McDonnell played in Keegan to wrap things up with 17 minutes of normal time to play - the gap now nine points. McDonnell got his second major when Wayne McCormack had a shot saved and he pounced on the rebound with menacing intent: 4-12 to 1-11 after 50 minutes.
Ballycomoyle will watch a lot of other teams in higher grades win games with 1-13 and perhaps less as the summer rolls on, but there’s two sides to every story as the cliché goes.
And yes, defending successfully is a key aspect of the game.
No doubt David Molloy and Philip Rainey will comb through the finer details ahead of the second round next weekend.
Micheál Daly and John Egan are up there with the best players at this level and that, plus their early promise gives them a platform moving forward.
Scorers - St Joseph’s: J McDonnell 2-2 (0-1f), D Keegan 2-1, B McDonnell 0-4 (1f), R Elliffe 0-3, M Lynam, A Scally, D Slevin and N Moran 0-1 each.
Ballycomoyle: J Egan 0-5 (2f), A Little 1-0, M Daly 0-4 each, D Williams 0-3, J McHugh 0-1.
St Joseph’s: Patrick Egan; Andy Conway, Mikey Lynam, Brian Fitzgerald; Brian Killian, Pierce Weir Norris, Andy Scally; Aaron McDonnell, Noah McDonnell; Ben McDonnell, Daniel Keegan, Dean Slevin; Brian Keegan, Ross Elliffe, Alan Conlon. Subs: Jordan McDonnell for Killian (37), Wayne McCormack for B McDonnell (46), Gerry Gleeson for Slevin (53), Niall Moran for Keegan (56), Eoin Kelly for Scally (60).
Ballycomoyle: Gary Lynch; Daniel Reilly, Billy Ryan, Brian Caffrey; TJ Higgins, Colm Dermody, Micheál Daly; Charles Flynn, Cian Shryane; Brendan Doyle, Dan Higgins, John Egan; Alex Little, James McHugh, David Williams. Subs: Max Charles for McHugh (51), Adrian Leahy for Caffrey, Evan Farrell for Little and Kevin English for Shryane (57).
Ref: Ken Daly (Loughnavalley).