Late flurry sees Naas claim Division 1 title
Naas with the Division 1 trophy after beating Moorefield in the final
Naas eventually shrugged off the typically dogged challenge of Moorefield to clinch a fifth successive Hanlon Concrete Senior Football League Division 1 title at a baking Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday afternoon.
When the bustling Ryan Moore won a 20-metre free which Evan O’Brien converted to bring the sides level with three minutes remaining, extra-time looked a real possibility, but Naas had enough class and experience down the home stretch to see it through.
A breakaway from their own defence ended in Kevin Cummins rifling over his fifth point of the day and they followed that up with a 13-metre free from Ciaran Doyle after referee Fergus Devereux appeared to take exception to some advice offered from the sideline.
In injury time, late substitute Darragh Kirwan, who has been focusing more on the small ball than the larger version of late, embellished the win with a free and a fisted point to push the margin out to four points.
A red card issued to veteran defender Liam Callaghan after the final whistle rounded off a disappointing finish for Moorefield, but they’ll take plenty of encouragement from a hugely competitive outing as they face into a championship group next month where their first opponents will be…Naas on 23 August.
Moorefield had the wind behind them in the opening half playing into the Kilcullen End and they started as they meant to continue, shooting two-pointers for fun. Indeed, of their eleven first half points, only one came from a single, from corner-forward Tommy Rooney in the 22nd minute.
Mark Murray and O’Brien put them 0-4 to no score ahead with orange flags from a free and play, respectively, with Naas starting very slowly.
Paul McDermott, the driving force for the holders from midfield, particularly in the opening half, opened their account with a shot driven low into the teeth of the breeze and just clearing the crossbar and after the midfielder was fouled Cummins converted the free to make it 0-4 to 0-2.
Moorefield, though, had their plan and they were sticking to it. With only their fourth shot of the afternoon they landed their third two-pointer, this one exquisitely curling over off the outside of Anthony Durney’s right boot on thirteen minutes. 0-6 to 0-2.
Naas hit a purple patch over the next five minutes, helped initially by a three-up breach by their opponents, with Doyle punishing that indiscretion. Neil Aherne saw a dipping effort well gathered by Moorefield ‘keeper Cian Casey at the angle of post and crossbar but three quickfire points from play from Liam O’Connor, Doyle and McDermott levelled the game at 0-6 apiece.
Moorefield regained the advantage though with five points of their own inside four minutes. Masterson was cursing his mis-hit two-point attempt when it fortuitously bounced high in front of Luke Mullins and the ‘keeper had to tip it over and the midfielder then bombed a sideline on top of Rooney, the diminutive corner-forward doing superbly to fetch it from the skies and fire over the point.
Masterson then hit a monstrous two-pointer from all of sixty metres to send Moorefield ahead 0-11 to 0-6 with five minutes remaining to the interval.
Another couple of scores at that stage for the Newbridge side could have made it very interesting but when Naas won a long-range free kick they brought Mullins forward to kick superbly for two-points and the workaholic McDermott finished off the half’s scoring with a point cutting in from the right wing, his third of the game.
That made it 0-11 to 0-9 at the interval but Naas were close to a goal on the restart when another marauding run from McDermott set up Rob Murray, with namesake Mark Murray coming to the rescue for Moorefield with a superb block. The green-clad Murray registered a point at the other end immediately afterwards.
A rarely spotted Mark Maguire point from Paddy McDermott’s offload got Naas off the mark in the second half and with Alex Beirne now into the fray, the Kildare star’s two-point free levelled things at 0-12 apiece.
Kevin Murnaghan edged Moores ahead again but after a long ranger from Doyle equalised, Naas hit the front for the first time with Cummins taking advantage of the wind to raise his side’s third (and final as it turned out) orange flag. 0-15 to 0-13.
Moorefield’s traditional doggedness came to the fore with Eoin Meehan and Murray pointing to level it before Naas appeared set to go clear with points from O’Connor, Cummins and Doyle, all from play.
Any notion that the county town side might canter to the finish were dispelled in the 48th minute. Full-back Mark Dempsey surged through the centre of the Naas defence and found Tommy McGrath to his right, with the wing-back finding the net with a composed finish to make it 1-15 to 0-18.
Back and forth we went. Aherne and Doyle (free) responded quickly for Naas, but Moorefield once more found a retort. Jack Butler scored a lovely left footer from the right and O’Brien converted the free when Moore was fouled. 1-17 to 0-20.
That was as good as it got for Moorefield, however, with Cummins, Doyle and Kirwan (two) pushing Naas over the line with those late strikes.
Luke Mullins 0-2 (tpf); Mark Maguire 0-1, Eoin Doyle, Brian Byrne; Rob Murray, Cathal Daly, Paddy McDermott; Paul McDermott 0-3, Conor McCarthy; Liam O’Connor 0-2, Kevin Cummins 0-5 (1tp,1f), Brian Stynes; Ciaran Doyle 0-6 (3fs), Dermot Hanifin, Neil Aherne 0-1. Subs: Alex Beirne 0-2 (tpf) for Stynes HT, Elliott Beirne for Hanifin 42, Daniel Lenehan for Daly 45, Daire Guerin for McCarthy 51, Darragh Kirwan 0-2 (1f) for Aherne 57.
Cian Casey; Liam Callaghan, Mark Dempsey, Seán Dempsey; Anthony Durney 0-2 (tp), James Murray, Tommy McGrath 1-0; Cian Moore, Aaron Masteron 0-4 (2tps); Eoin Meehan 0-1, Kevin Murnaghan 0-1, Mark Murray 0-4 (1tpf,2fs); Evan O’Brien 0-3 (1tp,1f), Jack Butler 0-1, Tommy Rooney 0-1. Subs: Luke Sweeney for Meehan 46, Ryan Moore for C Moore 47, Dan O’Callaghan for Butler 58.
Fergus Devereux.
