St Vincent’s put Rhode behind them in Leinster

St Vincent’s 1-13

Rhode 0-6

A disappointing AIB Leinster club football final played out in Navan with little to intrigue the disinterested or, for that matter, Rhode supporters either.

On a chilly afternoon in mid-December, Dublin champions St Vincents took another step towards retaining their All-Ireland title, although next February's All-Ireland semi-final against Corofin will be a much more demanding ocassion.

The winning margin was 10 points but that was padded out with another six goal chances in the first half.

Three fell to lively full forward Ciarán Dorney, who squeezed the ball wide within 15 seconds and soon after hit the post, before being shut out with only Ken Garry to beat.

The game went through a somnolent period that lasted a quarter of the match when St Vincent’s appeared to have declared on 1-5.

Fired over

In fact, that total would have won them the match but they re-engaged in the second half and fired over a sequence of points that meant by the end seven of their forwards had scored.

Rhode have been finalists before in the last 10 years but, although the team has been refreshed in the meantime, it struggled badly to compete.

Some exemplary football played with a tempo and sharpness that the opposition couldn't match pushed St Vincent's eight points clear within 20 minutes – the goal coming after Diarmuid Connolly had set up Tomás Quinn in the 11th minute – and it took Rhode all of 23 minutes to raise a flag when veteran corner forward Niall McNamee kicked a lovely point from the left.

The elements of their game that had been so successful earlier in the campaign didn't work. They kept Niall McNamee and Paul McPadden up front as a stripped-down inside line but Vincent's simply kept all of the full-back line at home, with captain Ger Brennan playing a stormer and the whole team secure in what they were doing.

As opposed to the semi-final against Moorefield, very little decent ball made it to McNamee and Padden, and curiously Rhode also appeared to leave themselves largely one-on-one in defence. This facilitated their fast, skilful opponents to cause havoc.

Marksmanship

Former Dublin player Quinn has been instrumental in the club’s achievements in recent years and his marksmanship was again excellent.

He won the man-of-the-match award but there were a few others who had equally good shouts.

Brennan was solid in defence and orchestrated attacks. Brendan Egan’s well-judged breaks from wing back were also impressive, and at centrefield – where Alan McNamee had ruled the roost in the semi-final – Daithi Murphy was exceptional in the air and calm and precise in his use of the ball.

In the middle of all of the this, Footballer of the Year nominee Diarmuid Connolly was breathtaking in the early exchanges, threading balls through into the forwards and strong enough on the ball to glide past defenders like they weren’t there.

His list of assists included 1-2 of the opening 1-3 and, if there was a cavil, it was that he might have taken scores himself rather than always looking for the killer ball.

In the second half he was involved in a few flare-ups, including the second yellow card that saw Rhode captain Páraic Sullivan sent off – his manager Tommy Conroy said that he hadn't considered taking Connolly off; many others in the crowd of about 4.500 would have disagreed, but opposition manager Pat Daly paid the gifted Dublin forward a generous tribute.

“He takes a lot of hits and he takes a lot of everything and it’s very frustrating for him at times too. From what I saw Páraic didn’t start that. He was just unlucky. I’m not saying anything – that we would have won the match if Páraic was left on…but I’m not going to say a bad word about Diarmuid Connolly either. He’s a super footballer.”

Levels drop

Rhode were forced into trying to get goals during a period of ascendancy in the 10 minutes before the break but could only score two points.

Initial pressure after the break yielded nothing and the winners had rattled over three further points before Rhode struck again. From there it was a canter, rounded off in style with three later grace notes from Shane Carthy, Cormac Diamond and Quinn.

Conroy also acknowledged the role of Connolly. “Diarmuid has [matured] not alone on the pitch; he’s been immense in the dressing room around younger guys and he’s had a long, long year – in fact, probably two or three years. For amateur sportspeople to be doing that, it’s a credit to them. When you’re getting a bit of success and you’re winning another county title, their professionalism is that they want to be better, they want more.”

The Vincent’s manager also had his say about the proposals to conclude the All-Ireland club championship within the calendar year rather than have to wait around for another three months in the New Year.

“Yeah, absolutely, for sure you would like to be playing it earlier. I think it’s going to be done in 2016, how they are going to do it is going to be interesting but it would be great if the year was finished within the calendar year.”

ST VINCENT'S: M Savage; K Bonnie, J Curley, H Gill; B Egan (0-1), G Brennan, M Concarr; E Fennell, D Murphy; G Burke (0-2), D Connolly (0-1), S Carthy (0-1); R Trainor (0-1), C Dorney (0-1), T Quinn (1-4, two points frees). Subs: Cormac Diamond (0-2) for Burke , T Diamond for Trainor (52 mins), Cameron Diamond for Fennell (56 mins), A Baxter for Dorney (60), M Loftus for Murphy (60).

RHODE: K Garry; J Kavanagh, E Rigney, J McPadden; E Byrne, B Darby, C Heavey; A McNamee, C McNamee (0-1); N Darby (0-2, one free), P Sullivan, G O'Connell; P McPadden, A Sullivan (0-1), N McNamee (0-2, one free). Subs: S Sullivan for Kavanagh (18 mins), R McNamee for P McPadden (41 mins), S Hannon for Byrne (44 mins), D Murphy for O'Connell (50 mins). Referee: Anthony Nolan (Wicklow)