Longford Football (& Hurling) Thread

[seafoid]

Kilmacud croaked

And Mullinalaghta will be remembered by their people. Legends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uInaSe19Lsg


Irish Times
A Christmas fairytale as Mullinalaghta win first Leinster club title

Longford underdogs see off Kilmacud Crokes with late, late penalty from Gary Rogers

Seán Moran

Choirs of angels will need to turn the volume up in the skies around north-east Longford in a fortnight's time if they are to be heard, as chances are that the new AIB Leinster club football champions will still be making plenty of noise in Mullinalaghta.

The statistics of the coup are already well aired. The half-parish on the border of Cavan with its population of 447 was facing up to the might of twice All-Ireland champions Kilmacud Crokes and their membership, conservatively pitched at 10 times their opponents' population.

For further context, when the counties met in the summer's Leinster championship, Dublin had 19 points to spare. The Spartans were better odds at Thermopylae.

There was also a mild sending-off controversy when referee David Gough showed Mullinalaghta's James McGivney a second yellow card in the 64th minute but didn't follow up with a red. McGivney did leave the pitch shortly afterwards, as did Kilmacud's Cian O'Sullivan, also for a second yellow.

Epiphany

It was Gary Rogers, whose extraordinarily calm penalty in the last minute of normal time effectively won the match, who gave a matter-of-fact insight into his team's eve-of-battle epiphany.

"Last night we looked at a few videos of Kilmacud. It was only last night we kind of realised, we might actually give them a go. Man on man, when we went 15 on 15 it just worked for us. In fairness they missed a bit. We missed a bit in the first half but we got the rub of the green then and got the penalty and look, I put it away."

Kilmacud goalkeeper David Nestor had saved a penalty in injury time in the semi-final and Rogers hit his kick in the same direction.

"Yeah, that side, but I always pick a different side anyway so it didn't really matter. I just said I'll hit it as hard as I can and if he saves it, fair play to him. I hit it as hard as possibly could. I seen the lad for Portlaoise; in fairness, it was a great save. Just delighted that it went in."

So it was that on the 50th anniversary of Longford's only senior provincial title, the county has added the club equivalent. Just as in 1968, they will face Kerry opponents in the All-Ireland semi-final, in this case the other Crokes – of Killarney.

Busy spring

For manager Mickey Graham it guarantees a busy spring. Recently appointed manager of his own county, Cavan – who face a daunting return to Division 1 of the AFL – he will have the added responsibility of preparing the club for a tilt with the 2017 All-Ireland winners.

"Yeah, the show goes on, but I'm not going to worry about that now at this moment in time. I just have to sit down and gather all my thoughts and let this settle in, because this is going to be one hell of a party over in Mullinalaghta for the next week and up to Christmas because of this. For this club to do it is a fairytale."

He singled out his full back Paddy Fox for praise after an afternoon keeping Dublin's All Star forward Paul Mannion scoreless from play.

"People were talking about the marquee forwards they'd have, but I've seen Paddy Fox the last three years and he is one of the top full backs you'll see in the country, and he showed that today against one of the most marquee forwards in the country."

Kilmacud manager Robbie Brennan was realistic after what was a gravely disappointing defeat for the favourites.

"To be fair, I think Mullinalaghta probably deserved it. We didn't play well so I don't think we can have too many complaints really after it."
















Mon, Dec 10, 2018


Mullinalaghta stun Kilmacud Crokes to take Leinster crown

Late penalty scored by Gary Rodgers was enough for underdogs to slay the favourites



Seán Moran at O'Connor Park, Tullamore


Kilmacud Crokes 1-6 Mullinalaghta 1-8

The AIB Leinster club SFC final has developed a reputation for drama in recent times but even so, Sunday's finale in Tullamore brought the house down. A first win for a Longford club in the championship's history – and in the county's first final – was achieved in a blizzard of late activity as Mullinalaghta came from three down with five minutes to go to outscore the hot favourites, Kilmacud by 1-2 to nil in the time remaining.

Even the manner of the achievement was gripping, as the critical score came from a penalty, awarded after a flowing move was abruptly halted after a foul on Aidan McElliggott by Cian O'Sullivan in the 58th minute at which point the Dublin champions led by two, as David McGivney had trimmed the lead.

Kilmacud goalkeeper David Nestor had saved an injury-time penalty in the semi-final against Portlaoise to prevent the match going to extra-time but this time – coincidentally also against a player called Rogers (Craig) – Gary Rogers's kick to the same right-hand side sent Nestor the wrong way and pushed the outsiders into the lead, 1-7 to 1-6 with a minute of normal time left on the clock.

Within 60 seconds the ball was turned over and worked to the left where McElligott shot his team two clear.

There was no mistaking the gravity of the situation now. This was a match that hadn't been expected to be played on Mullinalaghta's terms, tight and low-scoring but that's how it evolved and with their 1-6 in an hour's play, the task for Kilmacud in retrieving a two-point deficit looked immense and their lethargic response suggested that they realised as much.

In the dying minutes before the penalty they had tried to play down the clock, despite the danger of being just two ahead.


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"For whatever reason we reverted back to type, which we had been doing probably for the last three years, more of a defensive game," said manager Robbie Brennan afterwards, "keep ball, go backwards with it. We reverted back to that for some strange reason and it caught us."

Mullinallaghta started well. They had plenty of possession and in Rian Brady the outstanding forward, buzzing around the attack and shooting with commendable accuracy on a cold windy afternoon for three points from play but also dropping deep to cover the typically counter attacking opposing backs.

They also shut down their opponents' attack effectively with Paddy Fox quickly finding All Star Paul Mannion for company on the edge of the square where the Longford county defender played a stormer, giving his decorated prey hardly any room and expertly anticipating – albeit the not always laser-guided – through balls.

At one point Mannion was frustrated into invention and tried to play the ball to himself in the corner of the attack but possession was gobbled up.

Since the tortoise and the hare it hasn't always been to the benefit of favourites to strike early and after a fifth-minute goal by Pat Burke, finished after a good move between Shane Horan and the lively Callum Pearson, the pick of the Kilmacud forwards. Instead of being a launchpad, the score appeared to anaesthetise the favourites and ended up bank rolling their somewhat aimless play for the remainder of the half during which they managed just two more points.

It wasn't as if Mullinalaghta were making them pay top dollar for the lassitude and at times they looked nervous, as mistakes abounded on both sides. Liam Flatman, the Kilmacud corner back, got a black card in the 17th minute for hauling down Jayson Matthews.

James McGivney's presence caused trouble for the favourites but he was too often bottled up on the sideline where his frustrations got him an early yellow card – a cause of controversy when a second was added at the end of the match but referee David Gough omitted to show the follow-up red although the player left the field shortly afterwards.

Cian O'Sullivan also saw red for a second yellow of his own in the 64th minute, an unhappy end to a difficult provincial campaign for the six-time All-Ireland winner.

Winning manager Mickey Graham said that being level at half-time re-emphasised to his team that they were in contention but the third quarter saw the favourites inch ahead with points from Craig Dias – who worked hard on the ball from centrefield although there was no clear winner in the zonal battle – and Pearson.
Tom McElligott sets off a firework on the pitch after the game. Photo: Oisin Keniry/Inpho Tom McElligott sets off a firework on the pitch after the game. Photo: Oisin Keniry/Inpho   
The outcome was still up for decision but the sense was that if Kilmacud could add a few scores, there would be no way back. Burke's cancelling out of Rian Brady' 50th-minute free within seconds appeared to nudge the match in that direction before the late charge shifted the Leinster club championship on its axis and breathed some seasonal romance into the football year.

ST COLUMBA'S MULLINALAGHTA: 1. Patrick Rogers; 2. Simon Cadam, 3. Patrick Fox, 4. Conan Brady; 6. Shane Mulligan, 7. Dónal McElligott (0-1), 5. Francis Mulligan; 9. John Keegan, 15. Aidan McElligott (0-1); 10. Gary Rogers (1-0), 11. James McGivney, 12. Brendan Fox; 13. Jayson Matthews, 14. Rian Brady (0-4, one free), 8. David McGivney (0-2, one free).

Subs: 18. Michael Cunningham for F Mulligan (48 mins).


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KILMACUD CROKES: 1. David Nestor; 2. Liam Flatman, 7. Ross McGowan, 3. Andrew McGowan; 5. Cian O'Connor, 6. Cillian O'Shea, 4. Cian O'Sullivan; 8. Craig Dias (0-1), 9. Conor Casey; 12. Shane Horan, 11. Paul Mannion (0-2, frees), 10. Shane Cunningham; 13. Pat Burke (1-1), 25. Stephen Williams, 15. Callum Pearson (0-2).

Subs: 17. Aidan Jones for Flatman (black card, 18 mins), Kevin Dyas for Williams (48), Mark Vaughan for Pearson (56), Nathan Nolan for Ross McGowan (66).

Referee: David Gough (Meath).

[seafoid]

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/eamonn-sweeney-mullinalaghta-miracle-the-greatest-club-story-ever-told-37610027.html

Eamonn Sweeney: 'Mullinalaghta miracle: The greatest club story ever told'

This is not just a win for Longford champions, this is for all of the country's forgotten places

Eamonn Sweeney 


December 10 18

It's the greatest club story ever told. That the champions of Longford, population 40,810, could beat the champions of Dublin, population 1.35 million, is unlikely enough. But that these Longford champions would represent the smallest club in the GAA's second-smallest county brings the tale into the realm of fantasy. Or maybe even science fiction.


Mullinalaghta's urban hub consists of a church, two pubs and a community centre. There is no shop. The entire parish is three miles long and has 440 inhabitants.

A club from this 'half-parish' beating the epitome of a city super-club, one which breezed through Dublin and Leinster with an average winning margin of seven points, is the kind of scenario Hollywood might reject on plausibility grounds.

But it's really happened. The club championship has never witnessed a result like it.

All week Mullinalaghta were praised for their achievement in reaching this final. But deep down you feared for them.

Even when they got to half-time on level terms the prevailing emotion was, 'phew, at least they shouldn't get too big a beating now.'

The outsiders faced a strong wind in the second half against opposition who, after a rocky spell early in the second quarter, controlled possession expertly in the 10 minutes before the break.

You waited for Kilmacud to open up and move away. But Mullinalaghta, as they've done throughout their history, hung in there against the odds.

Still, when Pat Burke put Crokes three up with 10 minutes left there seemed an inevitability about the result.

Mullinalaghta kept hanging in there. And when, with five minutes left, David McGivney kicked a massive point to close the gap to two, an alternative ending suggested itself. They couldn't, could they?

The Longford men won a free around half-way. John Keegan quickly slipped it to James McGivney who played a pass to Jayson Matthews.
   
Matthews transferred the ball perfectly to David McGivney who hurtled down the middle like a man feeling the hand of destiny at his back.

McGivney found Aidan McElligott who was about to pull the trigger when Cian O'Sullivan committed a professional foul.

In the semi-final Crokes goalkeeper David Nestor saved a last-minute penalty from Portlaoise's Craig Rogers to win the game.

Another Rogers stepped up to take this kick. Wing-forward Gary, cool as a man kicking around on the beach, wrote his name into the history books by sending Nestor the wrong way.

In that glorious moment the little club's hard history was celebrated and redeemed.

Now the favourites buckled while the underdogs rampaged.

McElligott added another point and Mullinalaghta could have scored a couple more. It didn't matter. Mission impossible had been accomplished.

Disbelief reigned. "Oh my God, didn't they deliver," said winning manager Mickey Graham, wearing the merrily stunned expression of a Lotto winner.

"No-one ever dreamed that this day would come," said captain Shane Mulligan who seemed close to tears as he began his victory speech.

You didn't need to be from the half-parish to know how he felt.

This was 2018's quintessential GAA moment. Because it's not big Croke Park finals which make the Association unique.

Plenty of other sports have days like that. What seems exclusive to the GAA is the perpetual connection between top and bottom.

Players like Paul Mannion and Cian O'Sullivan who've performed in front of 80,000 spectators still have to prove themselves at club level against players who've never played in front of 8,000.

Mannion's duel with Patrick Fox epitomised this. When the Dublin superstar won the first couple of balls he seemed to have too much pace and class for the Mullinalaghta full-back. Yet that was it for Mannion.

Policing him diligently and honestly, sticking close and reading the game superbly, Fox blotted out his man and held him scoreless from play.

Clubs like Mullinalaghta illustrate why the GAA matters so much.

There are places where the club is important to the local community. But in the Mullinalaghtas of this world, the club is the community.

Without the club what identity would a place like Mullinalaghta have? Only the GAA can do this.

We woke up yesterday morning to headlines emphasising the ugly side of sport as the fans of a team based in a huge city, owned by an oligarch and staffed by millionaires dragged their club's name into the gutter.

Today's headlines should be about a little club from a little place who showed the beauty of sport, part of which is that it can neither be scripted nor preordained.

Miraculous

The miraculous is always possible.

This was a win not just for Mullinalaghta but for small clubs everywhere.

The triumph of such clubs is often just staying the course when they might long ago have opted for the comforts of amalgamation with some larger entity. Days like yesterday reward their courage.

It is also a victory for the country's forgotten places, where the broadband is slow, the post offices have been closed and the youngsters are leaving.

Were it not for the club, said star player James McGivney during the week, most of Mullinalaghta's team would have emigrated.

Instead they have travelled back from all over the country in pursuit of a dream. Corner-back Conan Brady has paid his way home from Leeds for eight years to be part of the quest.

People like this deserve everything. Mullinalaghta's underdog story is the one to beat them all. They've shown us no club is too small if its heart is big enough.

[seafoid]

Hard luck Laurel. There's legs in ye boys yet so third time lucky next year.

Slashers, Clonguish, Killoe all champing at the bit. No-one's won 3-in-a-row since the 1990s.

As I was being told that Vincent's were out and Portlaoise were out, all the time watching us try for an equalizer that you knew was not going to come, and then seeing the wind carrying our last effort away from the upright, it felt like God was laughing at us for our carefully unspoken ambitions.

https://youtu.be/px9_MNmTsWM

https://youtu.be/qxtgMS0dx0I

[seafoid]

Itchy
Re: Official Cavan GAA Thread

« Reply #15398 on: 21/1/2019 at 08:21:33 AM »

Seniors beat Kildare in a challenge game Sunday by 4 points, a 2nd string lost to Mullinnaughta by 1 point.

Fag an bealach

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/with-mullinalaghta-and-cavan-mickey-graham-has-every-plate-spinning-1.3769530

I went to the Mullinalaghta players when I was offered the Cavan job and the one thing I said to them was that nobody was to use it as an excuse if things go pear-shaped. Let's finish the year on a high. But sure we never thought it would be still going this long!"

He may even indulge himself and catch a glimpse of the family once in a while. But hectic and all as it has been, he wouldn't change it for diamonds. Winning a Leinster title with a team from a half-parish of 400-odd people is the kind of thing that will outlast him, regardless of what happens from here. It'll outlast them all.

The boys were blown away by it," Graham says. "They didn't expect it at all. When the whole thing happened, when we won, everything was new. RTÉ came down and did the whole live thing for the news the next day and we basically thought that was that.
"But then The Late Late came along and that was mad. And then clubs and schools within Longford started asking for the boys. And then clubs and schools within Cavan started doing it too, asking the boys to come down with the cup and talk to students and do medal presentations and all that stuff. It went out of all proportion.

"Letters, postcards, cards coming from everywhere – America, England, Kerry, Cork, everywhere. You were getting people writing to you telling you how much you inspired them, how small their club was and how little they had to work with but how they could see something to aim at in Mullinalaghta.

That's what I said to the boys going into the Leinster final – people weren't looking at what we had done, they were just looking at where we were from. Like, going down to Tullamore and beating Rhode there was a hell of a result. I honestly thought after doing that, our element of surprise would have been gone. But it wasn't!

[LaurelEye]

*maintains radio silence*

[seafoid]

*maintains radio silence*

Official Laureleye later in the year :

2019 is going to be very tough with Clonguish  and Abbeylara plus Mostrim like so it will be  strictly one game at a time

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/dr-crokes-very-much-on-our-guard-for-mullinalaghta-1.3791627

The reality about it is, with Mullinalaghta, there is form line there, if you do your homework," says Fitzgerald, for former Kerry captain. "Because they beat a Dublin club, Kilmacud Crokes, in my opinion the public perceived it as beating Dublin as such.

"The Mullinalaghta story of being from a smaller parish is a big part of it too. But they are a very good team, very well coached and they have been knocking on the door for a few years now and will be around. This is not a fluke or anything. It is serious stuff at this stage. Sometimes you look at the opposition but then you bring it back to yourself. So we are very much on our guard.

[LaurelEye]

Déanfaimid ár ndícheall.

[LaurelEye]

Rinneamar ár ndícheall, leanamar leis an comhrac go deireadh, ach níor leor dúinn é.

Congratulations to Crokes who were deserving winners and whose speed and accuracy will be difficult for any adversary to deal with, and we wish them all the best on St. Patrick's Day. All we can do is try to learn from today and see what improvements we can make if the chance ever comes again.

It was a sad evening not only because of the result itself but because it meant the end of Mickey and JD's time as our management team. We will always gratefully remember these last three years and we wish them all the best with Cavan.

[Shamrock Shore]

Hope there are no regrets about...if only....maybe we should have......

Anyhoo great to see the whole county and most of Ireland unite behind Mullinalaghta. Life may never be the same again.

Can I have a wee role in the movie?

[seafoid]

Beidh cuimhne orthu go fóill

Mick Mackey could bring Limerick people to a Munster final.
Mullinalaghta brought the parish to the Leinster final. The previous Langford best was semi
And they bate the champions of Dublin. So they went 2 tips better

They broke the mould

In the age of Brexit and Trump the way it was done was important
They are an inspiration

[LaurelEye]

Hope there are no regrets about...if only....maybe we should have......

No. I suppose in some ways it might have been easier if there were. (In case David Brady is lurking, they were back training the Friday night after the Leinster final.) The big regret was that it was Mickey and JD's last match with us and that it wasn't a better outcome.

Anyhoo great to see the whole county and most of Ireland unite behind Mullinalaghta. Life may never be the same again.

Can I have a wee role in the movie?

Thanks Shamrock and Seafóid.

[Billys Boots]

Congrats on the great run Laureleye, ye kept the whole country enthralled.

[seafoid]

This was some tribute


Abbeylara GAA Club

@AbbeyGAA
·
Dec 10

Massive congratulations to our near neighbors Mullinalaghta on an outstanding achievement today in Tullamore - it was no more than you deserved and you never gave up which was the difference at the end.


And this from the Irish Times

Winning a Leinster title with a team from a half-parish of 400-odd people is the kind of thing that will outlast him, regardless of what happens from here. It'll outlast them all.