Dunsany see off St Vincent's to claim first ever Meath Junior title

Tom Gannon reports

Dunsany 1-5

St Vincent’s Ardcath 0-7

Having lost eight JFC finals since the formation of the club, Dunsany got over the line in the 2024 junior decider against St Vincent’s Ardcath on Sunday afternoon at Pairc Tailteann.

Conditions certainly played its part and both sides struggled to get scores on the board into the hospital end of HQ. Crucially though, Dunsany, playing into the wind, managed to find the net in the first half in what turned out to be a massive moment in this low-scoring contest.

Eoin Harkin was by far the stand-out performer for Dunsany as he accounted for all of Dunsany’s scores bar Cian O’Sullivan’s crucial first-half goal. Harkin had a particularly fruitful start to the second-half and four of his five points came inside the third quarter.

Dunsany didn’t manage to register any score in the final 15 minutes but they didn’t need to as they hung on well for a slender margin victory.

A fantastic long ball in from Paddy Arnold set up Patrick McGill to open the scoring for St Vincent’s after three minutes. The opening exchanges were filled with turnovers as both sides struggled to settle.

Dunsany opened their account with a massive score in the 10th minute. Harkin’s beautiful wide kick pass found Luke Horan's chest. Horan played a ball across the face of Evan Connor’s goalmouth before Cian O’Sullivan finished to the back of the net. It was a huge boost for Dunsany to get a goal given the strength of the wind that they were playing into.

St Vincent’s had to respond and their midfielder Michael McIvor was up to the challenge. McIvor slotted their next two scores and both of McIvor’s long-range efforts were equally impressive. McIvor’s points were split by the first of Harkin’s points. A short-range free that was far from straightforward into the gusty breeze.

St Vincent’s secured the last two points of the half through Jack Byrne and Conor O’Brien as the men in white and maroon headed for the break leading 0-5 to 1-1. St Vincent’s were slightly happier heading in at the break, but Dunsany knew that they held the wind advantage in the second 30 minutes.

Dunsany came out in the second half with intent and pretty much dominated possession in the early exchanges. Harkin produced a stunning score five minutes into the half. Harkins's direct running saw him burst past four St Vincent’s defenders before popping over to level the contest.

A few minutes later Harkin put Dunsany ahead, this time the impressive element was the build-up and link-up play between Harry Cahill, Pauraic Burke and James Cahill before Harkin once again polished off the move with a well-taken score.

Dunsany had all the momentum at this stage and another Harkin free put Kevin Cahill’s men two points to the good. With the wind assisting, a Niall Flynn kickout cleared almost everyone who had gathered in the middle third and bounced lovely for Mark Horan to run onto. Horan would have surely made more of the opportunity had he not been fouled. Harkin converted the resulting free and Dunsany now held a three-point advantage.

The last quarter of the match was all about St Vincent’s trying to find a way to get back into the tie and they did reduce the gap back to one with two points courtesy of Gary Tuite. However, the Ardcath men could find no more as Dunsany claimed their first-ever JFC title.

Dunsany – Niall Flynn; Alexander Smyth, Cathal Burke, Gavin Byrne; Cian O’Sullivan (1-0), Harry Cahill, Declan Smyth; Shane Brennan, James Cahill; Mark Horan, Eoin Harkin (0-5, three frees) Pauraic Burke; Luke Horan, Jack Cottrell, Lorcan Byrne. Subs – Alex Brady for Cotteral 29m, Cathal Murphy for Brennan 52m, Kris Gorman for O’Sullivan 55m.

St Vincent’s Ardcath – Evan Connor; Adam Tuite, Davy Tallon, Mark Crawley; Conor Harford, Niall Tallon, Gary Tuite (0-2, one free); Robert Tallon, Michael McIvor (0-2); Conor O’Brien (0-1), Jack Byrne (0-1), Paddy Arnold; Nigel Hand, Ryan Hand, Patrick McGill (0-1). Subs – Andrew McEntee for R Tallon 44m, Lorcan Byrne for Arnold 55m, Stefan O’Neill for Byrne 57m, Robbie Lynch for Harford 61m.

Referee – Keith Sheerin (Castletown)