LONDON SFC SEMI FINAL 2005
One
exceedingly awful game of football.
By
John Collins (Irish World)
St
Brendans 1-10
Garryowen
0-1
If
Mr Kipling ever decides to give up the bakery
game and start to make exceedingly one-sided
and un-entertaining games of football, then he
will probably be breaking the door down to try
and get a video of this match to use as a
guide.
This
fixture was an embarrassment to Gaelic
football in London and particularly the
semi-final stages of the London or any other
Senior Football Championship. Indeed it
wouldn’t even have made a decent advert for
the ladies U-12 Football Final in Kilkenny.
Simply
there was only one team in this game and in
fairness to the Brendans there is only so much
that any one team can do in any given game.
Without a partner to tango with, you simply
shuffle around in circles looking quite
foolish with people wondering why you even
bother.
It
took Garryowen 48 minutes to get their first
and only score of the game and although they
did manage a few attempts at goal on their way
to that single point, they never looked like
they would make a game of this.
In
the first three minutes they generously
presented Shane McAnarney with a simple tap-in
goal after the defence made a mess of a free
from Niall Clinton that fell short of the
goal, when instead of gathering and clearing
the ball, the Garryowen defence simply handed
the ball to the awaiting Brendans midfielder
and watched him tap home. In a game where the
odds were always going to be stacked against
them, that was the equivalent of handing the
deck to your opponent and inviting them to
take their pick of whatever cards they wanted.
Minus
the brilliant Adrian Brett, the Brendans were
still able to field an exceptionally strong
forward line and in particular it was the
lesser known figures in that attack that
provided much of the ammunition for their
march into their first final since 2002.
Liam
O’Connell, Danny O’Connor and Simon Cullen
all played significant roles in the game,
while the back line were supreme in mopping up
anything that Willie Quinlon or Darren Ward
could muster up.
Always
the Brendans had a man left over to sweep up
the balls that fell short of the Brendans’
goal and those that did make the distance were
comfortably dealt with by the commanding Billy
Molloy.
This
was no sort of test for the winners and
although watchers were quite shocked by the
poor quality of the football put on by the
Championship favourites, the under-foot
conditions and the quality of the opposition
had a great deal to do with that fact.
Meanwhile,
Garryowen were simply appalling and produced
what was probably the most incompetent display
by any team in a county semi-final in my time
in London.
They
have some quality players in their side …its
just seemed on Sunday that they hadn’t even
the embryo of a clue of how to best use that
talent.
Scorers:
St
Brendans: L O’Connell 0-3; S McAnarney
1-0; B Solan 0-2 (both frees); D O’Connor
0-2; S Cullen 0-1; N Clinton 0-1; S Manley
0-1.
Garryowen:
W
Quinlon 0-1
(free).
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