Commercials spring from traps quickly to dethrone Ardfinnan
Clonmel Commercials 3-5 Ardfinnan 1-7
Reigning South and County Minor Football champions Ardfinnan lost their titles to old rivals Commercials in this final played in Monroe on Saturday night. The Clonmel team laid the foundation for this victory with blistering starts to both halves, which yielded 3-4 of their total and gave them the platform to play the game at their own pace.
The concession of thse goals proved too much for Ardfinnan and although they had plenty of possession their forwards struggled to make an impression on a rock-solid Commercial defence in which Liam Glendon, Seamus Kennedy and Jamie Peters were outstanding.
Ardfinnan won the toss and elected to play with the aid of the breeze, but were rocked back on their heels when a loose pass out of defence saw influential full forward Michael Quinlivan set up Kevin Gunne for a goal after 30 seconds. Quinlivan quickly added a point and then set up Colman Kennedy for another. Daniel O'Regan opened Ardfinnan's account with a 5th minute point but Commercials' Ian Fahy replied to leave his team ahead by 1-3 to 0-1 after 10 minutes.
The Ardfinnan defence, with Michael O'Sullivan and Oisin Flynn to the fore, began to get to grips with the Commercials forwards, and midfielders Jonathan Ryan and Billy Hewitt began to win more possession around the middle of the field. But the Commercials defence was keeping Ardfinnan danger men Shane Fagan and Daniel O'Regan quiet.
After 23 minutes Shane Fagan set up corner forward Johnny O'Donnell for a goal chance but his effort was well saved by Commercials goalie Paul Nolan. Shortly afterwards Michael Goonan was wide with another effort. As the half entered injury time Ardfinnan added 2 points from Jonathan Ryan and a Billy Hewitt free to leave them trailing at half time by 1-3 to 0-3.
Commercials resumed the second half as they started the first when Michael Quinlivan set up Levi Whelan for their second goal within a minute. Almost immediately the same player was fouled in the square and Levi Whelan netted the resultant penalty and quickly added a further point to open a 10-point gap.
Ardfinnan now altered their team completely, with Nigel Carbery going into goal, Colin Nugent and Philip Murphy switched to midfield; Jonathan Ryan moved to full back; Tom Kirwan sent wing back and Billy Hewitt to centre forward.
As Commercials began to sit back Ardfinnan started the long fightback with 3 points from Shane Fagan., Billy Hewitt and Philip Murphy to reduce the margin to seven with 10 minutes left. But they were also guilty of some poor shooting and bad option-taking in this period and never looked like creating the goal scoring chance they needed to really give them a chance, as the Commercials defence, helped by full forward Michael Quinlivan, stood firm.
With seven minutes left they finally got the breakthrough when Daniel O'Regan was fouled in the square and Michael O'Sullivan netted the resultant penalty to leave four points between the sides. However Commercials’ Shane Power pointed in the 27th minute and although Michael Goonan had the final point Commercials comfortably held on.
For Commercials this was a sweet win and made up for their 2 point defeat to the same opposition in last year’s semi-final.
Their best on the night were defenders Liam Glendon, Seamus Kennedy, Jamie Peters and Shane Taylor, while midfielders Gearoid Buckley and Mathew Hynes worked hard all through. Up front Michael Quinlivan was their main man and he got good support from Levi Whelan, Ian Fahy and Shane Power.
This was a most disappointing result for Ardfinnan and they will regret the poor start to both halves, especially the second, which proved so costly. On a night when some of their bigger players struggled to get into the game their best were Michael O’Sullivan, Oisin Flynn, Tom Kirwan, Philip Murphy, Billy Hewitt and Johnny O’Donnell, while Colin Nugent made a difference when switched to midfield.
Scorers - Commercials - Levi Whelan (2-1, 1-0 penalty) Kevin Gunne (1-0), Michael Quinlivan, Colman Kennedy, Ian Fahy and Shane Power (0-1 each).
Ardfinnan - Michael O’Sullivan (1-0 penalty), Billy Hewitt (0-2 frees), Daniel O’Regan, Jonathan Ryan, Shane Fagan, Philip Murphy and Michael Goonan (0-1 each)
Commercials - P Nolan K Browne L Glendon J Peters capt J Lonergan S Kennedy S Taylor G Buckley M Hynes C Kennedy I Fahy K Gunne S Power M Quinlivan L Whelan.
Subs - S Flynn P Powell E Ryan.
Ardfinnan - C Nugent D Bray O Flynn J Phelan P Murphy M O’Sullivan A Cowan B Hewitt capt J Ryan J O’Mahoney T Kirwan D Regan M Goonan S Fagan J O’Donnellan.
Sub - N Carbery.
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Weather for Clonmel
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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