Dundalk IT bow out of Freshers A Championship

Dundalk IT’s freshers bowed out of the A Championship at the quarter final stage following this eight point defeat to TUS Midlands in Athlone on Thursday night last.

In truth, the better side won on the night as the Athlone college led from start to finish, with goals either side of half time killing off any hopes of a DKIT revival, despite a spirited performance from Eamon McEneaney’s side, who refused to throw in the towel throughout the 60 minutes.

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TUS Midlands made the most of a huge first half breeze advantage to land the first three points on the board through the lively pair of Cian Duggan (2) and Shane Corcoran inside 6 minutes.

DKIT were shooting into the tricky breeze and were under the cosh early doors, but a patient move through the hands involving Donal McArdle and Cian Spaight saw Inniskeen Grattans’ Shane O’Connor fire over a terrific point from a tricky angle into that breeze.

However, DKIT would fail to score for the next 20 minutes, a period which saw TUS rattle off 1-6 without reply, with most of their scores emanating from turnovers, as they imposed their physical superiority on DKIT.

Strikes from Ciaran McDonnagh and Shane Corcoran stretched their lead to four points, before an Eoghan Carty free left TUS 0-6 to 0-1 to the good by the end of the first quarter.

Anytime they turned over a DKIT attack, TUS looked for that early ball into their lively inside line, with Kildare’s Andrew Hill causing huge problems on the right flank, supporting lively inside forwards Cian Duggan, Shane Corcoran and Brian Ronan, while Niall Heneghan and Ciaran McDonagh saw plenty of possession here.

Following a neat move, Andrew Hill’s deflected strike found its way to the DKIT net to stretch their lead to seven by the 18^th minute.

Points from Brian Ronan and Cian Duggan (f) left DKIT trailing by 1-9 to 0-1 with six minutes left until half time.

However, DKIT threw themselves a temporary lifeline going into halftime. Following a neatly taken point from wing back Joe Murray, DKIT gave themselves hope when the next kickout led to the marauding Pearse Grimes Murphy teeing up Shane O’Connor to rattle the back of the TUS net to leave seven between the sides, a deficit they might have felt they could claw back in the second half with the breeze in their favour.

However, those hopes were blown away by TUS on the next attack, when a clever move through the hands, led to Andrew Hill grabbing his second goal of the game to leave DKIT ten points behind at the break, a key moment in the game.

Second Half:

It is fair to say that TUS arguably killed the game off as a contest after the restart when Andrew Hill fired home his hattrick after he reacted first to a loose ball in the DKIT square, leaving the Dundalk side trailing by 3-9 to 1-2 just two minutes into the second half.

Despite DKIT landing their third point via Armagh’s Liam Rafferty (f), TUS were in a ruthless mood, with the lively Brian Ronan palming home goal number four to rub further salt in the Dundalk side’s wounds.

A Cian Duggan free left TUS ahead by double digits with 20 minutes remaining.

However, one thing which this DKIT fresher’s side has shown throughout this season is a determination to never give up the ghost.

To their credit, DKIT battled on, oping to kick the ball that bit more direct into the towering presence of Liam Rafferty in the square, as Eamon McEneaney’s side went for broke, springing forwards Enda McDonnell, Adam Dullaghan and Aaron Donnelly from the bench in a bid to claw back the deficit, while Cian Spaight worked tirelessly on the win for DKIT, finishing with 27 possessions over the hour, while Shane O’Connor had 20 touches of the ball.

DKIT were rewarded for this, as following a two point free from Liam Rafferty, Pearse Grimes Murphy fired the ball to the bottom corner to leave it at 4-10 to 2-5 in TUS’ favour at the end of the third quarter.

Following back to back Ciaran McDonagh frees for TUS, DKIT raised another green flag, when a long ball into Rafferty created havoc in the square, with St Brides’ Aaron Donnelly seizing on the loose ball to score his side’s third major of the night.

Liam Rafferty burrowed his way through to drill the ball home for DKIT’s fourth goal of the night moments later to close the gap to seven with three minutes left.

However, with DKIT pushing players forward, gaps were left at the back, and Brian Ronan took full advantage to slot home TUS’ fifth goal to leave ten between the sides.

Despite a stunning two pointer from the hardworking Dylan Hughes for DKIT, the outcome had long been decided in this quarter final, with DKIT losing out in a defeat which should not leave them too downhearted having gone toe to toe with the elite of Freshers Gaelic football this season, reaching the quarter finals in both league and championship at the A grade, to go with the senior men’s positive Sigerson Cup showing this year.

Dundalk IT: Michael Finnegan; Paddy Harten, Rian Devlin, Eoghan Cumiskey; Lorcan Monahan, Ryan Shevlin, Joe Murray (0-1); Shane O’Connor (1-1), Dylan Hughes (0-2) (1 tp); Cian Spaight, Cillian Rafferty, Pearse Grimes Murphy (1-0); Sean Flynn, Liam Rafferty (1-3) (1 tpf) (1f), Donal McArdle.

Subs: Enda McDonnell for Cillian Rafferty (46), Aaron Donnelly (1-0) for Murray (51), Adam Dullaghan for Monahan (54), Oisin Cunningham for McArdle (59).

TUS Midlands: Sean Gillespie; Pa Kenna, Cian Whitney, Conor Breen; Taylor Slevin (0-1) (one ’45), Eoghan Carty (0-1) (1f), Adam Fox; Niall Heneghan, Daithi Dowling; Andrew Hill (3-0), Ciaran McDonagh, Paul Keegan; Cian Duggan (0-4) (3f), Shane Corcoran (0-2), Brian Ronan (2-1).

Subs: Eoin Carroll for Dowling (HT), Jack Tobin for Duggan (36), Luke Maguire for Slevin (52), Peter Moran for Keegan (54), Darragh Delaney for Ronan (60).

Referee: Aaron Clogher (Co. Roscommon).