OTooles win their first Adult Trophy

  • Sep 29,2011

OTooles 5-7
Ranelagh Gaels 2-13

Tesco Junior D Championship final

The Dublin ladies football championship season saved some of the best to last as an incredibly youthful OTooles claimed the final county title in style, denying Ranelagh Gaels back-to-back successes.
The Gaels were E championship winners in 2010 and looked to have the edge in experience over a wholly teenage OTooles side whose major final experience, for the most part, was confined to a recent U-16 B shield success.
But the fearlessness of youth guided the way for a panel featuring three U-14 players and with an average age of 16.
Heroines abounded; Sara Gibbons produced a stunning hat-trick of goals inside nine minutes in a relentless opening period while Erika Behans second half major was one for the ages.

But Ranelagh kept the scoreboard ticking as Barbara Whooley and Karen Coughlan hustled to nudge their side briefly in front despite the early setbacks and were well in the mix at 4-4 to 2-9 at the interval.
The second half was more circumspect, both defences tightening up. With chances now scarce, each score was vital and it was Beehans effort which put OTooles just that bit further out of harms way to hold off a spirited Ranelagh comeback at the death.
Manager Brendan McLoughlin was quick to hail his young side for their achievements: "They just have the belief to keep going no matter what is thrown at them. Theyre a credit to themselves, their club and their families. Its the first senior adult achievement weve had.

"An awful lot of work has gone into it and hopefully we can move up again into an even better championship and league next year."
The tie started at break-neck speed, the sides level at 2-5 to 3-2 after just 15 minutes as both sides launched into battle.
The northside outfit responded to an early, neatly worked, Karen Coughlan point with a trio of Gibbons goals from distance to go with a Tara Fitzgibbon point. The wing-forward seemed to find just the right trajectory to pick the top corners each time to propel her side into the ascendancy.

The Gaels approach was more measured, the full and half-forward lines working neat patterns which Barbara Whooley was able to finish off, ticking the scoreboard along nicely, before cracking home her sides first goal in the 15th minute off the back of Aine Breahnachs well-judged pass.
Whooley had earlier served notice of her threat when she bounced a prior effort over the bar but this time her sweet strike rattled the underside of the metalwork and dropped in for an emphatic score.

Within a minute, Breahnach - subsequently named player of the match - fired in another excellent goal and the sides were on terms after a rip-roaring first quarter. Breahnach was dictating the flow at this stage and her quick free to Coughlan earned Ranelagh the lead for a second time.

It did not last for long, though, as Dublin U-16 Sandra Moloney found a narrow angle to pop over from while Lara McManns loping kicking style was causing plenty of havoc as she boomed in ball from midfield.From one such effort, Niki Kearney was the most alert, snapping up possession and rolling across Brenda McEvoy to reassert a three point lead. It was a lead that Ranelagh etched away at, getting to within one at half-time before tidy points from Breahnach and Geraldine Connolly pushed them back in front.

But, over the next 28 minutes, OTooles kept the Dublin 6 side scoreless with the games defining shift in momentum. It was a wonderfully composed spell, offering little room to manoeuvre and winning the breaks to pen the Gaels in their own 40.
Over the course of this spell, they conjured up 1-3, Beehan arrowing in an unstoppable rising left-foot shot for the goal. U-14 star Diana Farrell was a dynamo when introduced and, from the right baseline, impudently cleared the bar for a five-point advantage in the dying minutes.

Ranelagh were further hampered by a sin-binning but rallied with gusto, as Geraldine Connolly kicked the only free of the night and Whooley tapped over.
And they camped around the OTooles box for all of the four minutes of injury time but could not force the goal as Aoife OHanlon and Alison Nolan performed heroics to confirm a championship title for the club at the first attempt for this group of young tyros.
 
OTooles: A OHanlon, A Nolan, A Campbell, Sarah Moloney, L Barry, C Moloney, A McHenry, E Beehan (1-0), L McMann (0-2), S Gibbons (3-1), Sandra Moloney (0-1), K Fitzgibbon, T Fitzgibbon (0-1), L Shannon, N Kearney (1-1)
Subs/panel: M OHanlon, D Farrell (0-1), E Moloney, A Kane, A McMann, R Douglas, A Kelly, B OReilly, S McLoughlin, T Burch, F Dwyer

Ranelagh Gaels: B McEvoy, A OKeeffe, C Gleeson, M Dwyer, L Barrett, L Whooley, C Malone, E Brennan, A Long, K Coughlan (0-3), A Breahnach (1-2), M Connolly, G Connolly (0-2, 0-1f), B Whooley (1-5), E OBrien (0-1)
Subs/panel: D Hilliard, E Power, D Lydon, L Donohue, L Connolly, M Foxton, M McGee, J Larkin, C Larkin, M ONeil, P McShane, C Galvin, S Walsh
 
Stephen Findlater

Freelance Journalist

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