First adult game in Killavullen pitches in 2025 yields victory
March 17, 2025
Killavullen won out against Buttevant in this Division 3 Football league encounter, in the first game on Killavullen pitches in 2025. The surface was looking well, though devoid of lines, which the club has contracted Kilkenny based local man, Michéal Noland and his Intelligent Marking’s robot to do, and the catch netting was missing behind the lower goals since storm Éowyn.
Colm O Mahony opened the scoring with a long range score, which the referee, PJ Aherne from Mallow, deemed to be a two point score. Buttevant got a point back from a free, and were nearly in for a goal, but Michael Cagney courageously blocked the goal bound shot at the feet of the attacker. Seamus O Mahony scored a nice point, and then, Joe Cagney, marauding up the field from his half back berth scored a lovely point on the run. Dominic Bolster was involved in a lot of good play for Killavullen, and stretched out our lead to 0-05 to 0-01. Owen Magner was next to score from his half forward berth, after good running from the other wing back, Niall Carroll caused an overlap. Colm O Mahony then scored another point, and was unlucky to see another effort come off the post before Seamus O Mahony added another point for us. Buttevant scored a two point score to stay in touch, signaled with two hands in the air, by the referee, to allow the spectators see the result. Sean Palmer and Niall Feaheny was very influential in the midfield area with the runs and defensive covering and in general, the team seemed to have a lovely balance about it. Sean added a point from open play, but Buttevant scored another two point score. Buttevant got inside our defense and worked away in along the end line, with the ball, and the centre across the goals was bravely fisted out for a 45, by a vigilant Cian O Connor. Buttevant did score the resultant 45 Metre shot and were right back in the game with a converted free, and then, took the lead with a bizarre goal. A long range shot from out the field got a false bounce on the newly laid goal mouth area, spun up onto the post and down, and spun over the goal line which was very harsh, on our goal keeper Darragh, as the normal trajectory of the ball before the bounce would have suggested it was going wide. The score at the break was 1-09 to 0-09.
Killavullen withdrew their minor players at the interval as they have a minor game on the Monday, against Clyda Rovers, and introduced Padraig Looney and Ian O Mahony. Padraig was operating now at midfield, and immediately made a telling contribution with a quick fire second half goal, and a point from a free. Seamus O Mahony added to our tally with another point. Colm Looney was brought into the team, and scored a fisted point over the bar, quickly after being introduced. The same player was through on goals shortly thereafter and stayed upright despite being fouled, which would have resulted in a penalty and was unlucky to see his close range shot hit the outside of the post. Owen Magner was picked out in space with a clever pass from Thomas Fennell, and Owen steadied himself and scored a two point score. Barry Cotter and Jack Martin were introduced and Barry was pivotal to creating another goal chanced that was foiled by the Buttevant custodian, from Colm Looney again, though Colm might have been distracted by the antics of his friends, Podge Cronin and Mikey O Connor, as the umpires. Both were injured and could not participate in the game, but were giddier than most, as umpires. Seamus O Mahony added another score for us, and the charmed line of the Buttevant goal survived another close encounter when an effort from David Walsh was just pushed beyond the post by the over worked custodian. Seamus scored another point, and then saw an effort strike the crossbar before Buttevant scored a point from open play. The final score in a very entertaining game was scored by Seamus when he wriggled free from his man, and spun the ball over the bar with the inside of this foot.
The final score was 1-17 to 1-09.
The team was;
- Darragh O Connor
- Thomas Fennell
- Cian O Connor
- Joe Cagney (0-01)
- Michael Cagney
- Niall Carroll
- Niall Feaheny
- Sean Palmer (0-01)
- Owen Magner (0-03)
- Seamus O Mahony (0-06)
- Colm O Mahony (0-03)
- Colm Hayes
- Dominic Bolster (0-01)
The utilized substitutes were;
- Padraig Looney (1-01, 0-01F)
- Ian O Mahony
- Colm Looney (0-01)
- Barry Cotter
- Jack Martin
- Ian O Mahony
- David Walsh
- Seamus Cronin
Headquartered in Denmark, Intelligent Marking is the developer of the world’s premier autonomous line marking robot, which lines pitches using a pre-programmed robot, GPS sub-station and a tablet device. It typically takes two people between 3 and 5 hours to initially mark a GAA pitch. This new technology can do it in less than an hour.