Dublin SFC final: Ballyboden St Enda’s 1-16 Na Fianna 1-12
A devastating final quarter from Ballyboden St Enda’s saw the club claim a first Dublin football title in six years and a fifth in the club’s history. The key score came from Cein D’Arcy – the Galway centrefielder popping up on the end of a move to ram the ball into the net in the 53rd minute to extend his team’s lead to seven, 1-14 to 0-10.
That move had been stitched together from a quickly taken defensive free, which put the ball into Colm Basquel, who linked with Ryan O’Dwyer and he supplied D’Arcy with the crucial assist.
The Dublin championship’s run of weird endings briefly threatened when trailing by nine going into injury-time, Na Fianna pulled back an unanswered 1-2 to trim the margin, but the outcome was unalterable.
The Glasnevin club, chasing a double with their hurlers looking to retain their title next week, were a little maligned by the nine-point deficit but they were unable to stay in touch once Ballyboden put their foot to the floor.
RM Block
The match was delayed by 15 minutes for a medical emergency after a spectator had taken ill and there was a one-minute silence before the throw-in as a mark of respect to Tipperary football manager Philly Ryan, who died suddenly earlier on Saturday.
The first half was a matter of phases. In the ninth minute O’Dwyer’s curling shot from the left put Ballyboden 0-3 to 0-1 ahead after Brian O’Leary had opened the scoring for Na Fianna, an agile turnover after he appeared to have been beaten to the incoming ball.
There was bad news for the southsiders when their full back Shane Clayton had to leave the field injured and was replaced by Ryan Baines.
Although Basquel posed a threat nearly every time he ran at Na Fianna’s defence, Ballyboden persisted with a laborious approach, shovelling the ball around the arc.
After a lengthy possession, Basquel got blocked and Na Fianna showed by contrast how to do it with a quick break which saw Conor McHugh, a late replacement for Keelan Sexton, do well to provide the assist for Ciarán Reddin to kick the equaliser to make it 0-3 apiece.
Within a minute, centrefielder James Doran had kicked them ahead and they had soon assembled a four-point lead, courtesy of effective direct play.
The winners had gone without a score for 12 minutes but they quickened the tempo and Daire Sweeney provided the cutting edge with four points, including an urgently converted snap shot to register the team’s fifth. He also converted frees for fouls on Basquel and O’Dwyer, as Boden began to make penetrative runs.
It was score for score in the immediate aftermath of half-time but David Quinn let off a venomous shot in the 37th minute which could have altered the course of the game. Instead, Hugh O’Sullivan made a fine save to block with his leg.
The first sign that Ballyboden might be on their way came when centre back Peter Healy launched the final’s only two-pointer and within a minute, as defenders hung out of him, O’Dwyer managed to kick a point. There was now three in it, 0-12 to 0-9.
McHugh, who had a fine match up front for Na Fianna, reduced the margin to two but his team didn’t score again until the late injury-time rush. Basquel led the charge with a point and got fouled for a converted free before playing his role in the goal that settled the matter.
Sexton scored on the rebound from a penalty for Na Fianna but they had run out of road.
BALLYBODEN ST ENDA’S: H O’Sullivan; B Bobbett, S Clayton, C Flaherty; A Gavin (0-0-1), P Healy (0-1-0), P Warren; C Darcy (1-0-0), J Holland (0-0-1); R O’Dwyer (0-0-2), R McGarry, J Madden; J McGuire, C Basquel (0-0-2), D Sweeney (0-0-8, 7f).
Subs: R Baines for Clayton (3 mins); C O’Dwyer for McGuire (45); K Kennedy for Warren (52); H Donaghy for Healy (58); D O’Reilly for Madden (60).
NA FIANNA: D O’Hanlon; A Rafter, J Cooper, F Potts; N McGovern, E Murchan, O Donohoe; C Early, K Deeley; J Doran (0-0-2), B O’Leary (0-0-4, 3f), D Quinn; C McHugh (0-0-5, 2f), C Reddin (0-0-1), S Caffrey.
Subs: V Flynn for Deeley (34 mins); K Sexton (1-0-0) for Caffrey (46); D Kennedy for McGovern (49); D Clerkin for Quinn (53); D Lacey for Reddin (56 mins).
