LOUGHGIEL SHAMROCKS 4-13
COOLDERRY 0-17
In sport some upsets are baffling. In this case it is easily explained. Two goals in as many minutes immediately before half-time exaggerated Loughgiel’s contested superiority beyond Coolderry’s reach. There and then the Offaly champions were swallowed whole. To claim their second All-Ireland title Loughgiel produced a performance of devastating intensity and cuteness, seizing a day which had reduced so many other Antrim teams in the past. Loughgiel rose to the occasion and grew to the challenge.
Much like Na Piarsaigh in the semi-final, Coolderry couldn’t blunt the threat of Liam Watson and on that failure they perished. There were other terrific performances on the Loughgiel team but Watson was the single biggest difference between the sides and at times he was unplayable. He finished the match with 3-7, 2-2 from play, and his opportunism in the first half banished whatever doubts the underdogs might have harboured.
Watson’s first goal, after 18 minutes, was the scruffiest of this hat-trick. Shay Casey’s shot was blocked into his path by the Coolderry goalkeeper but he scuffed his ground stroke and it trickled at half pace under the body of the covering corner back.
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Such was the diffidence of Watson’s finish that nobody was quite sure he had scored until he raised his arms in delight.
His other goals, though, were emphatic and, in terms of the outcome, decisive. For the second he won a free a little outside the 21, slightly to the right of the Hill 16 goal. His marker, Trevor Corcoran, had committed the foul and when he lined up on the goal line Watson fired the ball over Corcoran’s head and into the top corner. With half a dozen players massed on the Coolderry line it was far from the percentage play but Watson gambled and hit the jackpot.
Within a minute he struck again. This time, he ghosted in behind Corcoran, half-stunned a long delivery on his hurley, urged it forward with the second touch and flicked it home with the third. Coolderry shifted Corcoran for the final minutes of the first half and replaced him at half-time by then the damage had been done.
In truth, it’s hard to imagine who would have contained Watson in this kind of form. Loughgiel switched him to full forward at the throw-in and it took them a while to include him in the play but once they did he exploded in Coolderry’s face. Eddie McCloskey at wing-forward delivered some terrific ball and both of Loughgiel’s corner forwards were so lively that Watson’s various markers had no help from the flanks; between them Shay Casey and Brendan McCarry contributed 1-3 and by the end four of Loughgiel’s starting forwards had scored from play.
In contrast, very few of Coolderry’s marquee names played to their potential. Barry Teehan, who was superb in the semi-final, couldn’t get going while Brian Carroll and Damien Murray offered only a sporadic threat. Eoin Ryan in the corner was arguably the best of their forwards and Kevin Connolly made a positive impact, too, when he came on after half time.
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Their biggest problem was that Coolderry were chasing the game almost from the start. They trailed from the sixth minute, when Casey turned brilliantly and kicked the ball to the net from close range, and for the remainder of the match Coolderry were level for just a three minute spell in the middle of the first half.
The only period when they generated the kind of rhythm and creativity that had marked their performances this winter came directly after half time when they rattled off four points without reply from Murray, Connolly, Parlon and Carroll. One of those chances, though, should have been turned into a goal when Connolly’s shot was deflected away by DD Quinn at a manageable height and they didn’t really create a clear-cut goal chance after that.
That deficiency was unsustainable in their circumstances. Trailing by nine points at the break, 4-6 to 0-9, they were never going to charge at Loughgiel with points alone. Kevin Brady and Joe Brady came into the game a little bit more and Brendan O’Meara gave them greater stability at full back but they had given themselves far too much work to do. With the roster of inter-county forwards at their disposal a high-scoring shoot-out shouldn’t have been an inconvenience to Coolderry but they were simply out-gunned.
In any case, it didn’t take long for the Antrim champions to staunch the bleeding. Three points in a row, including two long-range beauties from Watson and Barney McAuley, restored their lead to eight points after 50 minutes, 4-10 to 0-14.
From there to the finish Coolderry could only muster three further scores. Led by Martin Scullion at centre back the Loughgiel defence hustled the Coolderry forwards for all they were worth and squeezed them to death. Watson did the rest.
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Star man: Liam Watson (Loughgiel) Referee: A Kelly (Galway) Loughgiel: D Quinn, P Gillan, N McGarry, R McCloskey, J Campbell, M Scullion, J Campbell, B McAuley 0-1, M McFadden (S Dobbin h-t; T McCloskey 57 mins), J Scullion, D Laverty, E McCloskey 0-1, B McCarry 0-3, L Watson 3-7, 1-5 frees, S Casey 1-0..
Coolderry: S Corcoran, B Kelly (B Larkin 57 mins), T Corcoran (K Connolly h-t; 0-1) A Corcoran, K Brady 0-1, J Brady, B O’Meara, K Teehan, D Kelly, B Carroll 0-3, B Teehan, C Parlon 0-2, E Ryan 0-2, M Corcoran, D Murray 0-8, 8f