Youthful U21 team bow out of the competition
February 10, 2025
Yesterday, in Mallow, attended by a decent crowd, Killavullen went under to Clyda Rovers in the U21 B grade football championship. Regraded from the A grade, Clyda had simply too much about them, for a very young Killavullen outfit, and Clyda will only be vastly improved when our former player, and previous Cork Minor and U20 player, Patrick O Grady plays in the next round with them. He choose to sit out this game, after his recent transfer.
Clyda opened the scoring, but Killavullen equalized from a free from Colm Hayes, who was very impressive on the day, and forced Clyda into making changes in the second period to curb his influence. Jamie Magner added a second point for us, and Clyda equalized soon thereafter. Colm added a second point to his tally, and number three for us, before Clyda scored a rather soft goal, when it seemed that their player was in the square. The score stood and they added a further point to build up a four point lead. Colm added another free before the first two point score of the game, came from outside the arc from Niall Feaheny. The interpretation of the new rules by the officials and crowd will take some getting used to, but the referee of the day, the vastly experienced Wayne King did his very best to signal to the crowd when such a score occurred. Kian Lane scored a point for us, to draw us level, and then, Colm Hayes scored an audacious point from outside the arc, and a tight angle to boot, to put us in the lead.
This was a bit of a false dawn, because Clyda were very dominant and experienced and much older down the centre of the field, and they scored two points, from play and a converted free just before the interval to leave the score at the break 1-06 to 0-09.
Killavullen introduced Seamus Cronin for David Walsh at this juncture but Clyda got the opening score of the second period, a point and then followed up with a telling score, a goal shortly thereafter. Owen Magner got a point back for us, but Clyda were now dominating around the middle of the field, with the result that our forwards were starved of possession. Clyda scored another point, and then a goal and our reply was a free from Colm. Clyda tacked on two further points and we introduced Ian O Mahony for Evan Sheahan. We earned a penalty, and Colm tucked that away brilliantly but Clyda responded effortlessly with the next two points. Colm O Mahony scored a point from a good distance out, that led to some confusion, as the arc was hard to see on the pitch, but in fairness to Mallow, their pitch is in very heavy use, and so the paint of the arc got brushed away, with the traffic. Niall Fitzgerald was introduced for Ultan Cottey. The margin of defeat would have been greater at the end, but for two great saves, made by Darragh in our goals. Clyda got the next three points, but credit the young Killavullen lads, they did not throw in the towel, and kept battling away, and were rewarded with late points from Rory Regan and Kian Lane, which was interspersed with another point from Clyda, to leave the score at the end, 3-16 to 1-14.
Killavullen bow out of the competition, after only one foray, whilst Clyda advance to play St. Dominic’s in the semi-final, next Sunday. The other semi-final will be between Liscarroll-Churchtown Gaels and Mitchelstown, also to be played next Sunday, with the final earmarked for Sunday, the 23rd. The dates are dictated by a Cork GAA schedule.
The team and scorers were;
- Darragh O Connor
- Barry Cotter
- Thomas Fennell
- Evan Sheahan
- Ultan Cottey
- Niall Feaheny ( 1 x 2 Point Score)
- Joe Cagney
- Colm O Mahony (0-01)
- Jamie Magner (0-01)
- Kian Lane (0-02)
- Rory Regan (0-01)
- Owen Magner (0-01)
- David Walsh
- Colm Hayes (1-06 ; 1-Pen, 1 x 2 points, 0-04F)
- Conor Barrett
Substitutes;
- Seamus Cronin for David Walsh
- Ian O Mahony for Evan Sheahan
- Niall Fitzgerald for Ultan Cottey