Hanlon on song as St Brigid’s survive Turin comeback

St Brigid's 4-16, Turin 3-12

Gerry Buckley

St Brigid’s eked out a semi-final slot against Southern Gaels in the race for the Adrian Murray Cup in TEG Cusack Park last Saturday afternoon with a seven-point win against a Turin side which only came to life in the second half.

Albeit having had the aid of a useful wind blowing towards the Dunnes Stores end of Westmeath GAA headquarters, the men in saffron and white looked like they were going to win by the proverbial cricket score when they led by a whopping 16 points at the break. However, Turin showed admirable spirit on the change of ends, if never quite looking like they were going to produce a Lazarus-like comeback.

A fine solo run by Finbar Coyne, albeit with a suspicion of ‘steps’, teed up David Hanlon for a well-taken goal with exactly two minutes on the clock. The latter then turned provider for Chris Daly who pointed when a goal beckoned. Sean Leech was denied a goal at the other end by Paddy Carroll before Ray Aughey’s seventh-minute free got Turin on the scoreboard.

A probing delivery from near the stand sideline by Coyne led to a close-range tap-in by Hanlon for his second three-pointer. Points followed from Hanlon (a ‘65’) and Conor Slevin (an opportunist score). Aughey doubled his tally from frees for the losers, but they still trailed by 2-3 to 0-2 at the end of the opening quarter.

Hanlon (two) and Daly tagged on further points for Dermot Faulkner’s charges before a Daly delivery was superbly fetched by Coyne who gave Eoin Aughey no chance from close range. A monster strike by Slevin and neat points from Coyne and Hanlon followed. Turin almost got in for a score in added-time, but Ray Aughey was unable to convert the resultant ‘65’. St Brigid’s led by 3-9 to 0-2 at the interval.

Carey was wide from a free for Turin just 30 seconds after play resumed, but he made amends with a fine goal less than a minute later. Hanlon slotted over a routine free for St Brigid’s and their fourth goal quickly followed, Eoin Aughey denying Hanlon a hat-trick but unable to keep out Slevin’s tap-in from the rebound.

Untypically sloppy defending by the winners gifted Danny McGrath a kicked goal in the 38th minute, and this kick-started a gutsy Turin revival which yielded five unanswered points by the 43rd minute from the sticks of Ray Aughey (four frees) and Leech (after a great piece of fielding). The gap was now nine points (4-10 to 2-7).

However, St Brigid’s settled their fans’ nerves by scoring four points without reply, courtesy of Hanlon (two frees) either side of a Kieran Geraghty brace from play. To their credit, John Gorman’s troops rallied again and they scored an unanswered 1-3 by the 56th minute via Ray Aughey (a free), sub Andrew Corcoran (from a tight angle), Carey (a well-worked score), prior to Ciaran Kiernan finding the net with aplomb to leave the gap at seven points (4-14 to 3-10).

Geraghty completed his hat-trick of points before Leech was denied by Carroll. The dual star then compensated somewhat with a neat point from play. A minimum of four minutes of added-time was announced during which both sides raised a white flag to round off the scoring – Hanlon (a free) for St Brigid’s and Leech a low-trajectory point for their opponents (with the last puck of the game).

Scorers – St Brigid’s: D Hanlon 2-8 (0-5f, 0-1‘65’), C Slevin 1-2, F Coyne 1-1, K Geraghty 0-3, C Daly 0-2.

Turin: R Aughey 0-7 (7f), K Carey 1-1, C Kiernan, Danny McGrath 1-0 each, S Leech 0-3, A Corcoran 0-1.

St Brigid’s: Paddy Carroll; Kieran Geraghty, Seamus Faulkner, Conal Dunne; Evan Gorman, Joe Hyland, Niall Cully; Stephen Quinn, Paul Carey; Chris Daly, Conor Slevin, Aonghus Cody; Sean Deegan, David Hanlon, Finbar Coyne. Subs used: Evan Connell for Cody (49), Eoghan Gallagher for Quinn (inj., 53).

Turin: Eoin Aughey; Sean Scally, Alan Aughey, Jack Dowling; Oisín Lestrange, David Aughey, David McGrath; Ciaran Kiernan, Declan McGrath; Craig Neville, Sean Leech, Khassim Carey; Ray Aughey, Danny McGrath, Jack Penrose. Subs used: Michael Carey for A Aughey (inj., 30+1), Luke Gardiner for Scally (h-t), Andrew Corcoran for Neville (h-t), Chris Sleator for Penrose (55), Ronan Leavy for R Aughey (59).

Ref: Derek Heffernan (Raharney).