Dunshaughlin cruise to Div 2 title with demolition job

A FL DIV 2 FINAL

Issuing a strong statement of intent to the rest of the Senior Championship, Dunshaughlin coasted to a 1-21 to 2-4 victory over an understrength Seneschalstown to claim the A FL Div 2 silverware at Ashbourne this evening, writes Davy Rispin.

Even if they had their full complement, the Yellow Furze outfit would not have lived with the pace, power, and precision of Dunshaughlin who put on an exhibition of football over the course of the hour.

Richie Kealy’s men were awesome, playing a beautiful blend of attractive football mixed in with some tenacious tackling. It was all too easy for the 2022 Intermediate champions against what was an understrength Seneschalstown outfit admittedly.

Signalling their intentions from the off, Dunshaughlin took the lead inside 30 seconds with Tommy Kinsella rifling over from close range. This was followed by further scores from Luke Mitchell (two) and the Kinsella brothers Tommy and Ruairí as Dunshaughlin eased into a 0-5 to 0-0 lead after 12 minutes.

Stephen Kernan’s men barely had a kick up to that point, but Cathal Hickey did narrowly fire wide at the end of the first quarter, and this seemed to give his side some belief.

Hickey was involved in the next major moment, pulling on a loose ball but was caught in doing so by Adam Kealy with referee Kieran Olwell awarding a penalty kick.

Hickey stepped up but his ferocious drive was brilliantly tipped onto the crossbar by Tim O’Sullivan. However, the ball rebounded to Hickey who was once again fouled, this time by Jared Rushe and a second penalty was given. This time Dylan Keating assumed responsibility and dispatched with aplomb to give his side a glimmer of hope.

Keating notched a free shortly after to reduce the margin to the minimum, but this would be as close as Seneschalstown would get, going 30 minutes without a score following that.

In that same period of time, Dunshaughlin reeled off 13 points in succession either side of half time to completely blow away their beleaguered opponents.

Two from Mitchell and one each from Mathew Costello, Ruairí Kinsella, Fursey Blake and Conor Duke had Dunshaughlin cruising at the interval, 0-11 to 1-1.

The one-way traffic continued into the second period with the excellent duo of Ruairí Kinsella (two) and Mitchell (three) adding to Dunshaughlin’s ever-growing tally.

Jack Hetherington and substitute Ben Duggan helped the rampant leaders establish a 0-18 to 1-1 lead at the three-quarter mark of the contest.

Hickey ended the 30-minute wait for a score for Seneschalstown with a neat score from a tight angle, but the respite was temporary with Aaron Murphy goaling on 50 minutes.

For all their intricate play, it was a direct ball in from Duggan which caused chaos with the ball eventually falling to Murphy who made no mistake from six yards out.

Seneschalstown continued to plug away and forged a goal of their own two minutes later thanks to sheer persistence from Darren O’Brien.

A Murphy mark and Mitchell free were cancelled out by efforts from Alan Mulvany and Hickey (free). Duggan capped off a fine cameo with a second point at the death to add the icing to a superb performance for the men in black and amber.

Dunshaughlin - Tim O’Sullivan; Oisín Foley, Alastar Doyle, Jared Rushe; Ciaran McCarrick, Adam Kealy, Jack Hetherington (0-1); Conor Gray, Charlie O’Connor; Conor Duke (0-1), Ruairí Kinsella (0-4), Mathew Costello (0-1); Fursey Blake (0-1), Tommy Kinsella (0-2), Luke Mitchell (0-8 three frees, one mark, one ’45). Subs - Fiach Hartigan for Hetherington 40m, Ben Duggan (0-2) for R Kinsella 41m, Aaron Murphy (1-1 one mark) for T Kinsella 42m, Danny Quinn for Foley 45m, Neil Byrne for Blake 46m, Tadhg Ó Dushláine for Duke 47m, Ryan Robinson for Gray 51m.

Seneschalstown - James Meade; Cormac Carolan, Danny Waters, Séimí Byrne; Ronan Conneely, Brian Maguire, Mark Fox; Cathal Hickey (0-2 one free), Donal Commons; Robbie Finnegan, Joseph Moore, Darren O’Brien (1-0); Dylan Keating (1-1 one penalty, one free), David Fox, Alan Mulvany (0-1). Subs - Sean Carey for Maguire 4m, Neil Darby for M Fox 40m, Jack McDonnell for D Fox 51m.

Referee - Kieran Olwell (Moynalty).