Great start seals it for St Vincent's

Leinster Club SFC Semi-final/St Vincent's 3-13 Portlaoise 1-8:This match was notable for the contrasting impacts of a 17 and 37-year-old. Talented Portlaoise teenager, Zach Tuohy, will rue yesterday's impetuousness as it resulted in an early dismissal. The older bull, St Vincent's Pat Gilroy, can reflect on yet another 60 minutes of graft to lodge in the football bank.

For all St Vincent's strides these past 18 months, at their core they remain a fairly raw team and they were expected to crumble when faced with cuter opposition. Portlaoise, remember, won the Leinster club title two years ago. They have an abundance of underage All-Ireland winners and then there is Tuohy - a young man seemingly destined for a career in Australian Rules.

Vincent's shredded this theory by exploding out of the traps, leading 2-2 to 0-1 within eight minutes thanks to a fine individual goal from Brian Maloney and a tactical alteration from the Mickey Whelan playbook.

Gilroy has featured in the media recently as part of the shortlist of three to become the next director general of the GAA. That esteemed position in Irish sporting life went to Páraic Duffy this week but the 1995 All-Ireland winner could at least console himself with a rare start for the club.

Gilroy's impact was immediate and sustained. He provided a Donaghy-esque target, breaking ball before supplying Tomás Quinn for the second goal.

All Portlaoise had was a mammoth 45 from Tuohy. Prompted by Craig Rogers, Colm Parkinson began the revival with a point (before disappearing), while Barry Fitzgerald's accuracy from placed balls and his goal a minute to the interval kept it tight.

The corner forward finished well but his waltz through the home defence seemed to happen in slow motion.

That is the scoring information of the opening half but there was a significant subplot unfolding.

For whatever reason, referees occasionally attempt to overshadow football games with their pencils.

Granted, cheap shots are more prevalent at club level but in a fastidious display of maintaining order, Longford referee Derek Fahy flashed 13 yellow cards, splashed by two red in what was a physical but never a dirty encounter.

The inevitable took 26 minutes. Tuohy picked up his first yellow for a needless trip. The second and subsequent red card followed after the linesman spotted something similar off the ball.

A player soon to be lost to the GAA departed the national stage. Laois football might get one season out of him before the Carlton Blues (the present home of the Ó hAilpín brothers) call him over. However, Portlaoise had only to wait 20 minutes for a levelling of the playing field when Vincent's full back Eoin Brady took his leave of proceedings on 46 minutes. At that stage it was a two-point game but the Dublin champions pressed on the accelerator and refused to relent until the final whistle.

Quinn had found his groove, eventually finishing up with 1-5, including a sublime long-range point, while Diarmuid Connolly's stylish performance makes his off days even more inexplicable. He landed four gems here, seemingly taking too much out of the ball each time, when really he was just tormenting his marker.

Hugh Coughlan and Michael O'Shea lorded it over the Portlaoise midfield (all four of them) much like they did the Magee brothers in the county final. Whelan even sprang Dublin's hurling rock Ronan Fallon from the bench for a late cameo.

Ger Brennan deserves a paragraph all on his own for the manner in which he directed the defensive performance in yet another example of what he can bring to the inter-county party in 2008.

One week off and then it's down to either Westmeath or Kildare for the Leinster club final on December 9th.

"I'll be here, please God," said Whelan, who missed last week's quarter-final replay due to an award ceremony at a former stomping ground in America.

"I could die you know. I'm so old, anything could happen in between. I just take one day at a time, you know?"

ST VINCENT'S: M Savage; P Conlon, E Brady, H Gill; T Doyle, G Brennan, P Kelly; H Coughlan, M O'Shea; K Golden (0-1, free), T Diamond, B Maloney (1-1); D Connolly (0-4), P Gilroy (1-1), T Quinn (1-5, four frees). Subs: R Fallon for T Doyle (37 mins); C Brady (0-1) for K Golden (45 mins).

PORTLAOISE: M Nolan; C Healy, E Bland, A Fennelly; B Mulligan, T Fitzgerald, Z Tuohy (0-1, 45); S McManus (0-1), S Cotter; C Parkinson (0-1), B McCormack (0-1), C Rogers (0-1); P McNulty, K Fitzpatrick, B Fitzgerald (1-3, three frees). Subs: B Glynn for S McManus (44 mins); D Reddin for P McNulty (45 mins); J Fennell for S Cotter (51 mins).

Referee: D Fahy (Longford).