Whyte points Joseph’s back into final

Doora-Barefield 0-7   Doonbeg 0-6

WHEN they lost their opening Senior Football Championship game to Cooraclare last August, St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield’s chances of contesting consecutive county football finals looked extremely remote. Fast forward roughly 10 weeks and the 2011 finalists are back where they finished 12 months ago. Hammered a year ago in Cusack Park, St Joseph’s now have two weeks to prepare and make sure they don’t experience déjà-vu.

Since that early August defeat they have beaten Kilkee, Cooraclare and now Doonbeg, the latter for the second successive season.

While Sunday’s semi-final in Miltown was very tight and didn’t feature much quality football, particularly in the opening half, St Joseph’s deserved to win. They played more controlled football all through, held onto possession much more effectively than Doonbeg and had a man in Ivor Whyte capable of kicking a superb winning point, two minutes into injury time.

Referee Barry Kelly took the phrase ‘let the game flow’ to new heights, especially in the opening minutes. Throughout the game when a player was a awarded a free, he had definitely earned it. Players know that the Miltown referee will do his best to let the game flow and most of the time that works well. However, if a player has been clearly fouled and there is no clear advantage accruing to him, the whistle should be heard a bit more often.

Doonbeg, who had Enda Doyle red carded following an incident with David O’Brien two minutes from time, kicked 11 wides, including some frees that David Tubridy would normally tap over without a second’s thought.

Sunday wasn’t one of those days for Tubridy, however. For example, he under-hit a free 12 minutes into the second half from 35 yards and kicked another crucial wide a minute into injury time from roughly the same distance. That score would have put Doonbeg a point up but the wide kept St Joseph’s alive and led to Whyte winning it for them a minute later, after superb build-up play from Greg Lyons.

Interestingly, Colm Dillon had kicked Doonbeg level from a 21-yard free eight minutes from time, following a foul on Tubridy. However, the latter assumed the responsibility for that injury time dead-ball opportunity.

Doonbeg played with the wind in the opening half but it was St Joseph’s who dominated possession and bossed the middle third of the field. The county finalists kicked eight first-half wides into the wind though, while Doonbeg managed to miss the target six times. The first half wasn’t too memorable, with the wide count one of the sole items of interest.

Doonbeg started with Tubridy at wing-forward, Colm Dillon at full-forward and Brian Egan in the corner. The latter looked sharp there and kicked two of his side’s three first-half points, with Tubridy scoring the third from play, five minutes before half-time.

Luke Brannock, after Padraig Gallagher spilled the ball, Cathal O’Sullivan with a magnificent point and Cathal Duggan from a free just before half-time ensured the teams were tied 0-3 each at the interval.

Three minutes into the second half, David O’Brien kicked the winners a point up from play. From the stand, it looked as if the ball was definitely wide but the umpires were nearer and were certain it was a legitimate score. Three minutes later, an excellent St Joseph’s move, again involving O’Brien, culminated with Enda Lyons kicking his side 0-5 to 0-3 ahead.

The next eight minutes were scoreless but, in the interim, Doonbeg’s wide count increased with Tubridy kicking a trio off target from a 45’, play and a free.

Doonbeg’s Shane Ryan and Ivor Whyte traded points to leave the winners 0-6 to 0-4 ahead 16 minutes from time. Whyte’s next score was his injury-time winner but, in the mean time, Ryan pointed a superb effort, receiving a popped pass on the run from Jamie Whelan.

Colm Dillon equalised from that 21-yard free eight minutes from the end. St Joseph’s, with wides from David O’Brien and Cathal Duggan, had chances to go ahead, as had Doonbeg in the closing minutes. Ivor Whyte took his chance with aplomb, however, and sparked joyous scenes from the entire panel and their group of small yet committed supporters.

St Joseph’s looked better drilled in the art of keeping possession and had good displays from Kevin Dilleen, Stephen Collins, who marked David Tubridy, Ivor Whyte and Mark Hallinan at midfield, David O’Brien, Cathal O’Sullivan and Greg Lyons up front.

Shane Ryan worked exceptionally hard for Doonbeg, while Brian Egan kicked two nice early points. Elsewhere, on a very disappointing day for the Magpies, Joe Blake and Conor Whelan did their utmost for their team.

The task for St Joseph’s now is to ensure they will deliver on Sunday week. Their priority will be to ensure a performance first and foremost and let the result be the product of that.

Doora-Barefield: Declan O’Keeffe; Paudie Nugent, Stephen Collins, Martin Brooks; Seán Flynn (captain), Kevin Dilleen, Declan Malone; Ivor Whyte, Martin Hallinan; Greg Lyons, Cathal O’Sullivan, Enda Lyons; David O’Brien, Luke Brannock, Cathal Duggan.
Subs: Paul Dullaghan for Luke Brannock (47) and Chris O’Brien for Enda Lyons (57).
Scorers: Ivor Whyte (0-2), Cathal Duggan (f), Luke Brannock, David O’Brien, Cathal O’Sullivan and Enda Lyons (0-1 each).
Wides: 14; frees won: 20; 45s: 0.
Yellow cards: Kevin Dilleen, David O’Brien and Cathal O’Sullivan.
Doonbeg: Eamon Tubridy; Joe Blake, Padraig Gallagher, Conor Whelan; Richie Vaughan, Paraic Aherne (captain), Eoin Conway; Frank O’Dea, Enda Doyle; David Tubridy, Brian Dillon, Shane Ryan; Jamie Whelan, Colm Dillon, Brian Egan.
Subs: Conor Downes for Brian Dillon (41).
Scorers: Brian Egan, Shane Ryan (0-2 each), Colm Dillon (f) and David Tubridy (0-1 each).
Wides: 11; frees won: 21; 45s: 1.
Yellow cards: Joe Blake and Brian Egan.
Red card: Enda Doyle.
Referee: Barry Kelly (St Joseph’s, Miltown).