AIB All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final: Knocknagree 2-9 Naomh Colmcille 0-7
THE people of Knocknagree can finally utter the two words banned by John Fintan Daly since December. After a Munster final win over Dromid Pearse’s, Daly insisted there be no mention of ‘Croke Park’.
But following Saturday’s defeat of Donegal’s Naomh Colmcille, Knocknagree are off to the Jones’ Road and an All-Ireland club junior final against Multyfarnham, who defeated Lahardane 1-14 to 2-9 in the other semi-final at Dr Hyde Park.
“We’ll play in Croke Park now anyway,” Daly said after goals from James Dennehy and John F Daly paved the way.
“I banned those two words in Knocknagree for the last month. They weren’t allowed to be used.
“To be talking about going up there, you may as well be a million miles away, down trekking in the Himalayas for all the good that does.
“It is nonsense to talk about stuff like that, but they can talk about it now.”
Knocknagree took just six minutes to blast ahead as Dennehy deftly lobbed over John Roulstone.
Naomh Colmcille managed to stay in sight, but it was lights out when Daly tucked home after being teed up by Dennehy.
The excellent Eoghan McSweeney arched over two excellent points in the first half when Knocknagree took control and moved 2-4 to 0-3 clear by the break. And Daly was quick to heap praise on his heroes.
“Eoghan McSweeney is one of the finest young forwards in Cork. I challenge anyone to argue with that,” he said.
“He would be on most senior inter-county panels. He is one day over 20 and the Cork U20s are pretty sad about that.
“Hopefully that performance will inspire him to move on because the boy has everything.
“James Dennehy is our Brian Dooher. I always said Dooher was the best right half-forward in the game for a long time.
“It isn’t pretty what James does, but he gets the dirty stuff done so well. He stands up to everything.
“He came back from Toronto a year ago. He went out there a boy and he came back a man.”
Willie Gillespie’s frees kept the scoreboard ticking for the Donegal side, but they finished with 13 men following the late dismissals of William and Michael Lynch.
Naomh Colmcille took some time to find their way and were effectively out of the game before they had a chance to be in it.
“We never performed in the first 20 or 25 minutes,” Naomh Colmcille manager Ryan McKinley said.
“We couldn’t get to the pace of the game. There were personal mistakes and 2-3 out of the 2-4 they got in the first half were personal errors.
‘At half-time, we just wanted a performance. The two goals were the killers, especially the one before half-time.”
Fintan O’Connor (2), Moynihan and substitute Chris White drilled over points to seal the passage to Croke Park for Knocknagree.
Manager Daly believes headquarters will suit his men.
“I genuinely believe that Croke Park will suit us. We’re a kicking team and a skills team,” he said.
“We will play the right kind of football. People want to watch us because of the way we play.”
Knocknagree: P Doyle; M Mahoney, P O’Connor, G O’Connor; K Daly, K Buckley, D Moynihan (0-2); D Cooper, P Collins; J Dennehy (1-0), J Daly (1-0), E McSweeney (0-2); M Dilworth, A O’Connor (0-2, 0-2 frees), F O’Connor (0-2).
Subs: A Sheehan for K. Daly (black card 25), C White (0-1) for Cooper (43), T Cooper for McSweeney (57), T Long for J Daly (60).
Naomh Colmcille: J Roulstone; R Hegarty, A Devenney, P Friel; G Curran, C Devine, K Gallagher; M Lynch, D Clarke (0-1, 0-1 free); J Fullerton, R McErlean, O Hilley; M Crossan (0-2), W Gillespie (0-4, 0-4 frees), W Lynch.
Subs: M Friel for Curran (h-t), E Gillespie for Gallagher (37).
Referee: J Gilmartin (Sligo)
