Footballers through to Munster Semi in two weeks

This evening Millstreet footballers brushed aside the challenge of Clare Champions Naomh Eoin on a scoreline of 3-14 to 0-9. Today has been a day of dreams for Millstreet GAA. The Camogie Minors win a County, followed by the lads moving to the next round of the Munster Junior Football Championship.

Below is the full commentary of the game (click here if it won’t play for you below), photos and more:

Millstreet will play Brosna at a Kerry venue on the weekend of November 22nd/23rd. Brosna beat favourites Glenbeigh/Glencar by 1-8 to 0-10 yesterday with a last minute goal in the Kerry semi-final [match report]. They play Dromid Pearses in the final at 2:30pm Saturday 15th November in Fitzgerald Stadium.

Also in the other quarter final, Glin (Limerick) 1-12 beat Inane Rovers (Tipperary) 2-8.

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Naomh Eoin were simply no match – As opening statements of intent go, this was fairly compelling. Apart from some erratic shooting in the first half, Millstreet’s performance left little to be desired as they smoothly dispatched Clare kingpins Naomh Eoin to make a winning debut in the Munster club junior football championship at Mallow last Sunday. The quality of the opposition has to be taken into account, of course, when it comes to assessing Millstreet’s future prospects, and it can be taken for granted there are stiffer assignments ahead for the Rebel standard-bearers … (the Corkman 13th Nov)

Bring on the Kerry champs says O’Leary – That was the message delivered by Millstreet coach William O’Leary following their emphatic victory over Naomh Eoin of Clare last Sunday. While teams from the Kingdom have dominated the Munster club junior football championship since 2008 and Millstreet must travel across the county bounds for their next assignment, O’Leary appears to be brimming with optimism about their prospects of making further progress … (the Corkman 13th Nov)

 

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Fair play to the big Millstreet crowd that turned up again today. 16th man again today from the very start of the game !

2014-11-09 Munster Quarter Final - Match Programme - cover-800

Comment of the day has to go to Denis McCaul for his comment on FB (#WhatWouldYouDoForYourClub):
2014-11-09 Denis McCaul's quote of the day
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It was really hard to take much from the game today, but here’s a few of the things that mattered:

  • Physically a mismatch: From the off it looked like men against boys. If they were faster than us and better on the ball they’d have had a chance, but they weren’t. It was really emphasised by Patrick Coleman’s shoulder which floored their wing back in the second half, there was no physicality coming coming in the other direction.
  • We won probably 90% of the primary posession in the middle of the field, which allowed us to dominate the possession of the game. We did well enough with it and moved the ball well much of the time.
  • Naomh Eoin did not set up to defend … or maybe they couldn’t because they readjusted after a while trying to use a sweeper, but were still being overrun. Tadgh and Mike got as much ball in the full forward line as they could wish for, and frequently got past their man or got a chance to shoot, while we waltzed up the field to their 21 yard line as often as we liked.
  • Wides: We normally have a good scoring ratio. We had 8 wides in the first half and only two in the second half (both goal shots that flashed wide). Setting aside the two goals, six points from a first half we completely dominated and where we found it easy to get into scoring positions was a poor return. Need to be more clinical when the opportinuties arise.
  • The few times Naomh Eoin managed to go forward they looked very dangerous. They scored 9 points from 10 chances. (similar to their 9/11 in the county final). Their full forward Michael Liddane (former Clare senior) was superb … but our usual tight defence was not tight, they were left exposed much of the time, and were twisted inside and out. Is it because the game was being played in the opposite end of the pitch and help was slow to arrive back?
  • Black cards … apparently at this level the referees want to climb to the top and are being assessed, so they are going to apply the rules of the game to the letter of the law. Following the rulebook he was probably right but the yellow for the lad when Mark was clean through really annoyed the crowd (it would have left Naomh Eoin down to 14 men, so maybe that was a factor)
  • Six of the Naomh Eoin nine points were from frees. We managed one pointed free.
  • We were at times shy of supporting the man on the ball. At times we ran too far with the ball and into dead ends, and there was no support when the man was caught on the ball.
  • We didn’t lose the ball in play much, but when we did we didn’t handle the counter-attack very well. maybe the half back line was too far up the pitch at times … but we were definitely exposed and much of the time they made it fairly handily to their full forward line.
  • Our hand and kick passing was superb … but there was no pressure on us, or on the man receiving the ball.

I’d say it’s the worst kind of game we could have played. It was too one-sided, and hopefully it won’t give us a sense that we’re brilliant or something. It will be hard and dirty from here on in. Brosna apparently are big strong men, and will love a dirty wet winters day (look at their team photo … their goalie is the smallest in the back row 🙁 ). Hopefully, four weeks of championship in a row will have worn them down a bit. There will be nothing easily had from here on in. At least we’ll be able to have a look at the opposition next Saturday (2:30 in Fitzgerald’s Stadium, Killarney)

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Tweets:

https://twitter.com/Rocheeffe/status/531373913423765505

and we got a small mention on sky sports!

…. even after they had kind of messed up earlier

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Score card from the match. must figure out if there were only 2 wides in all the second half !

2014-11-09 Millstreet v Naomh Eoin - score card-800
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Photos from the Newspapers:

2014-11-09 Millstreet v Naomh Eoin 03-800

2014-11-09 Millstreet v Naomh Eoin 04 - Oisin Murphy-800

2014-11-09 Millstreet v Naomh Eoin 05 - Evening Echo-800

2014-11-09 Millstreet v Naomh Eoin 01 - Paul Sheehan-800

2014-11-09 Millstreet v Naomh Eoin 02 - Tadgh Collins-800

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We’ll add more bits and pieces here as they becomes available

2 thoughts on “Footballers through to Munster Semi in two weeks”

  2. Congrats to everyone involved.
    Drive on step by step in your quest and win the All-Ireland.
    The adventure continues….

    Reply

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