St Mary’s 0-10 Drumconrath 0-08

On September 16th, 2023, St Marys travelled to Ardcath to face neighbours Slane in the Championship quarter final, a comprehensive and demoralising defeat there ended their season for 2023. A year later they were back in the quarter final, their qualification this year certainly suggested significant improvement, however could they go one further and beat their nemesis of recent years and beat Drumconrath?

The Drums were without doubt quickest out of the blocks and led 2 points to no score after 5 minutes. St Marys then registered their first point when Liam Lynch pointed an free excellently from the ground. However, Drumconrath remained in the ascendancy and converted 3 frees to led 5 points to 1. St. Marys did grow into the game in the second part of the opening period, but it had now become an exercise in lock picking as Drumconrath retreated en-masse behind their 30 yard line and the Mary’s men were now playing the game on the Drum’s terms and were finding it difficult to get their running game going. St Marys narrowed the gap to 3 with a pointed free from Cormac Victory.

Half Time: St Mary’s 0-02 Drumconrath 0-05

St Marys were now facing a second quarter final defeat in consecutive years if they could find their rhythm, they had played within themselves for the opening 30 minutes and credit must go to Drumconrath for containing them so effectively. A fast start to the second half was required and get go it, another pointed free from Cormac Victory. Drumconrath soon restored the 3-point lead with a pointed free. However, St Marys were now beginning to control the game and although Drumconrath were still asking questions of the Mary’s defence they weren’t getting the change from them they had gotten in the first half, some excellent tackling and turnovers across the Mary’s team including, the always impressive Ben Loughran, Dylan Bagnall, Sam Victory and an excellent AJ Bradshaw. St Marys dominance started to bear fruit and soon there was the minimum between the teams when Cormac Victory and Dylan Bagnall scored superb points from play. With 13 to play could the Boynesiders now push on and drive for home? But to their credit Drumconrath kept pushing and pushed the gap to 2 with a pointed free. This however didn’t dampen the Mary’s belief and following an excellent second pointed free from the ground from Liam Lynch and a monster point from play from Cormac Victory the sides were level for the first time. At 7 points apiece, the nerves of both sets of supporters were shred to pieces at this stage.

Could St Marys find the score to lead for the first time or would the Drums recapture it, unfortunately it was the latter, they went 1 up again when they pointed their 7th free of the game but thankfully their last. The Mary’s once again dug deep into the reserves of resilience and drew level once again another pointed free from Cormac Victory. Despite losing talisman Sam Victory to a hamstring injury in the closing stages while still at level pegging, Marys continued to press for home. This time the deadlock was broken by a fine point from impressive sub Cathal Sheridan. With less than 2 minutes to go St Marys now led for the first time, could they hold on? They did better than that when centre back Dylan Bagnall popped up to score an excellent point off his left boot, his second of the day. With time almost up the Drums realised that a goal was required, however St Marys defended stoutly to see out the 4 minutes of extra time. The final whistle sounded to a mixture of relief and unbridled joy from the Donore/Rosnaree men and devastation for the Drum’s lads who had contributed so much to the game.

Huge credit must go the Mary’s players and management, having shipped a number of heavy defeats in last year’s championship. They remain unbeaten in the Championship, 2 wins and a draw in incredibly tight games, games they would have almost certainly lost in previous years. We now have a semi-final to look forward to, our first in 11 years, against Moynalty on Sunday October 6th. 

St Mary’s: A. Byrne, L. Lynch (0-02,2f), C.O Brien, J.  Spain, A. Craven, D. Bagnall (0-2), AJ Bradshaw, S. Victory, J. Greene, C. Victory (0-05, 3f), T. Dixon, S. Nulty, L. O Brien, W. Mc Sweeney, B. Loughran.

Subs:  C. Sheridan for L. O’ Brien, J. Lynch for W. Mc Sweeney, R. Everard for S. Victory, T. Lynch for A. Craven, Gary Slevin, Neil Floyd

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