Louth GAA club | St Josephs advanced to the Senior Football Championship semi finals

St Josephs advanced to the Senior Football Championship semi finals for the first time in 9 years with this win over Cooley Kickhams in a quarter final replay, where extra time was required following more late drama in Dowdallshill.

In a game where both sides looked understandably jaded after batting it out the previous week in the drawn match, it did look like Cooley Kickhams were about to seal their place in the semi finals, after Niall Morgan’s wonderful strike from outside the arc gave Alan Page’s side a one point lead, nearly two minutes into stoppage time.

Prior to that, Pearse Grimes Murphy found space, before skipping through to kick the Joes into a three point lead with 8 minutes remaining.

But like they did a week earlier, Cooley came roaring back, and wonderful two pointers from Cian Connor and Niall Morgan appeared to swing the pendulum in their favour as they led by 0-11 to 1-7, deep into added time.

But crucially in that last quarter, Cooley squandered golden chances to increase that lead, kicking 4 wides and three shots short, including one, moments after Morgan’s two pointer in a period where they were on top and momentum on their side, and a late strike from Conall McCaul drew the Joes level, taking us to extra time.

The quarter final was a low quality, low scoring affair with the Joes struggling to find their range, shooting into a tricky first half breeze in normal time, with Wayne McKeever’s side amassing 1-3 from 15 first half shots.

In fact, the Joes kicked 6 shots short in that first half, with two of these shots leading to scores for Cooley at the other end, including a two pointer for Fearghal Malone, which opened the scoring for Kickhams inside 5 minutes.

The Joes did settle down, and following a turnover in defence from Aidan Kieran, a move involving Cormac McKeown saw Ben Collier get them off the mark.

The resultant kickout was collected by David Kieran, which led to Ben Collier turning provider for Conall McCaul to level the sides up from play.

This period saw the Joes win five Cooley kickouts in a row, but they failed to make the most of this purple patch, failing to convert this into scores, including a missed goal chance, when Alan Quigley dragged a shot wide from close range.

Cooley punished the Joes for this profligacy, with some sloppy play in the Joes defence, leading to Michael Rafferty teeing up Cian Connor to regain the lead for Cooley, before Rafferty (f) following a breach, and Connor again from play after Gerry Malone was first to a Joes kickout, saw Cooley lead by 0-5 to 0-2 after the first quarter.

A turnover from the impressive Ben McKeown for the Joes, saw Conal Smyth close the gap to two points from play.

Both sides did continue to flounder in front of the posts, and Cian Connor (f) restored Cooley’s three point lead by the 25th minute.

However, the Joes got the perfect tonic just before the break when Pearse Grimes Murphy latched onto a Conal Smyth pass, before cutting in from the left to fire the ball to the top corner, deceiving Cooley keeper Niall Brady, to pull the Joes level at half time at 0-6 to 1-3.

Second Half:

Wides and shots kicked short continued to be a regular theme for both sides, with only three more points added to the scoreboard by the end of the third quarter.

Ben Collier who like Conall McCaul, had 38 possessions, teed up his colleague for another strike from play, before Oisin Reidy traded efforts with Cooley’s Michael Rafferty to leave the Joes ahead by one at that juncture.

Moments before Rafferty’s strike, Cooley came close to a goal, when Tiernan Hannify fired across the face of goal and wide, in a slick move involving Cian Connor and Michael Rafferty.

In a tense final quarter, Pearse Grimes Murphy found space to race through to restore the Joes’ two point lead from play with 10 minutes remaining.

But in that period, Cooley turned up the head, introducing Paul Brennan, Michael Carron and Niall Morgan from the bench, and momentum began to swing in their favour, emerging with the ball from a number of physical rucks, as well as winning 6 out of 10 kickouts contested in that period, including three Joes kickouts in a row, with Paul Brennan, Gerry Malone, and Ronan McBride all getting their hands on the ball here.

That period also coincided with 4 wides, including Ian Arnold striking the upright.

But those marvellous two pointers from Cian Connor and Niall Morgan looked to have been enough for them to get over the line.

But the Joes had that final say, and Conall McCaul stepped up when the Joes needed him, as he drove through to kick the ball over the bar under considerable pressure from Cooley defenders to rescue it for the Joes, taking us to extra time.

The sides were still level approaching the end of the first half of ET, after Michael Rafferty (f) cancelled out a score from Oisin McGuinness for the Joes.

When it came down to it, the Joes held their composure in a match where both sides recorded low conversion rates in front of the posts, with Cooley finishing with 0-12 from 36 shots including extra time.

In ET, the Joes amassed 0-6 from 7 shots in open play, with McCaul and Ben McKeown edging the Darver/Dromiskin side ahead either side of half time.

A Joes counter attack followed after a Cooley attack broke down, with Cormac McKeown and sub Rian Devlin helping another sub Conor Neary to send a left foot strike over the bar, before a Conall McCaul two pointer sealed the deal for the Joes with this five-point victory and with it, their first Senior Championship semi-final since 2017, which was during current manager, Wayne McKeever’s first spell in charge.

St Josephs Scorers: Conall McCaul (0-6), Pearse Grimes Murphy (1-2), Ben Collier, Conall Smyth, Oisin Reidy, Ben McKeown, Oisin McGuinness, Conor Neary (0-1 each).

Cooley Kickhams Scorers: Cian Connor (0-5) (1 tp) (1f), Michael Rafferty (0-3) (2f), Fearghal Malone & Niall Morgan (0-2) (1 tp each),

St Josephs: Aaron Gray; Cian Sheridan, Cormac McKeown, Aidan Kieran; Ben McKeown, David Kieran, Michael O’Brien; Gabriel Bell, Conall McCaul; Oisin Reidy, Ben Collier, Pearse Grimes Murphy; Alan Quigley, Craig Doherty, Conall Smyth.

Subs: Oisin McGuinness for Doherty (24), Conor Neary for O’Brien (45), Jack Mulligan for Quigley (47), Rory McLoughlin for Smyth (53), Rian Devlin for David Kieran (69), Quigley for Mulligan (70), Cormac Marmion for Collier (75).

Cooley Kickhams: Niall Brady; Ian Arnold, Patrick Hanlon, Ronan McBride; Tiernan Hannify, Darren Marks, Gerry Malone; Jack Long, Fearghal Malone; Enda O’Neill, Cian Connor, Jason Brady; Sean Hoey, Michael Rafferty, Joe Hanlon.

Subs: Gerard Hanlon for Brady (39), Michael Carron for Hoey (47), Niall Morgan 0-2 (1x2pt) for Marks (53), Brian Boyle for Malone (54), Paul Brennan for O’Neill (54), Oran McAnerney for Gerry Malone (67), Emmet Duffy for Long (69), Fearghal Malone for Connor (75).