Menlough claim intermediate crown and return to senior status

Menlough 1-12 Claregalway 2-8

In its own more modest way, a similar pattern of play to the All-Ireland Hurling Final, with Menlough always looking to be the stronger side without ever delivering the knock-out blow, and in the end, Claregalway came tantalisingly close to pulling off a most audacious comeback.

It all added up to quite a thrilling intermediate county football final spectacle, in front of close on 3,000 spectators at Pearse Stadium on Sunday with Menlough giving a great exhibition of simple, quick and direct football for the first 45 minutes, before Claregalway eventually roused themselves and came within a whisker of snatching a draw.

The Menlough central diamond of Tomás Mannion, Robert Hughes, David Reilly and Kevin Reilly tore into the early exchanges with a venom that Claregalway just couldn’t match – in terms of sharpness, pace and fielding power, there was only one team in it during the first half.

As the saying goes though, goals are ‘quare animals’, and although Menlough won the first half by eight scores to three, they trotted in at the interval just three points ahead on a 1-7 to 2-1 scoreline – despite all their first half subservience, Claregalway were only a goal behind.

 Claregalway did manage to score their first point from play via the boot of Danny Cummins 11 minutes into the second half, but before that, Joey Glynn, Derwin Costello and Rob Hughes had hit the target for Menlough.

The next score was one of those special moments in Gaelic football. Menlough were awarded a sideline ball under the stand and captain Robert Hughes executed the sweetest of strikes to steer the ball into the breeze and over Brian O’Donoghue’s crossbar – it was every bit as good a strike as Maurice Fitzgerald’s famous score against Dublin at Semple Stadium in 2001.

By then, with Menlough leading by 1-11 to 2-2 as the game strayed well into the final quarter, it seemed to be only a matter of making the bonfire phone calls back home, but Claregalway – after a long hibernation – were about to wake up.

The origins of the comeback were humble enough with a Conor Glynn point from play, and an Eoghan Commins free, bringing it back to 1-11 to 2-4 with seven minutes left on the clock.

Claregalway now had the scent of a draw in their nostrils and by the time referee Ó Fatharta sounded the final whistle after playing two minutes of injury time, Menlough were desperately defending their own posts but they held out for a deserved victory.

 A day of unadulterated joy for the parish of Menlough and Skehana and when Robert Hughes rose the cup in the centre of the Pearse Stadium stand, on the most mellow of autumnal evenings in front of an on-pitch crowd of close on 2,000, another GAA dream had come true. Menlough had replicated their win of 2006 and were more senior again . . . as a bonus, they achieved that goal with a fair complement of style as well.