St Peters, Dunboyne 1-14 St Pat's, Stamullen 0-9

Dunboyne’s U19 Footballers took home the 2025 Div1 championship cup this afternoon in front of a good crowd in Pairc Tailteann. This talented group of footballers almost had the clean sweep of Div 1 titles through their underage career with the U13, U17 and now U19 wins. The one title that eluded them was the narrow loss to Navan O’Mahonys in the U15 final.
Today’s opposition, St Pats of Stamullen, were very much the surprise packets of this year’s championship but having beaten last year’s champions, Seneschalstown, in the semi-final, they were always going to give this game a good rattle.

Eoghan McDonald got the first score of the game on 2 minutes with a right foot beauty just inside the 2-point arc and this was followed up 4 minutes later with a tidy James Lonergan score.  St Pat's were guilty of some poor shooting during the first half, and this did not help their cause. In this first half the Dunboyne play was direct, and they benefitted from early ball into the forwards. Cillian Felle got his first score of the game in the 10th minute while Sean McNulty gathered possession and finished sweetly shortly after to leave the score on 12 minutes Dunboyne 0:04 St Pats 0:00.
Cillian Felle added one more from a placed ball in the 14th minute before Conor Murphy ripped through the Stamullen defence and blasted one over in the 18th minute.

The Stamullen side got their first point of the afternoon in the 23rd minute from a placed ball to inject a bit of life into their cause. But the response to this from Dunboyne was emphatic, when three of the experienced heads combined to raise the only green flag of the day. Conor Murphy chipped a clever pass to Sean McNulty and took two defenders out of the game, McNulty could have gone himself but spotted Cillian Felle on the far post. Felle received a perfect weighted pass, still had a little bit of work to do before blasting the ball to the net. 

Sean McNulty, who was having his best game of the championship, got his second point of the day 4 minutes later and this was added to by Eoin McCrudden almost immediately. Stamullen got their second of the the half in the dying minutes to leave the score on the half time whistle: Dunboyne 1:08 (1f) St Pats 0:02, (1f)

Sean Delaney, who had gone off injured in the 7th minute of the first half with what seemed like a nasty enough head injury, came back on for Sean McNulty for the second 30 minutes. Two minutes into the half St Pats pointed another free but the pacey Jack Doyle got the first score of the half for Dunboyne shortly afterwards. Scores for the Black and Amber dried up after that and a lot of the game was played in the middle third. To their credit the Stamullen lads never gave up and began to dominate for the next ten minutes and were rewarded with the next 3 scores (2f). This left the scores at the halfway point of the second half: St Peters 1:09 St Pats 0:05.

Delaney chipped over from a placed ball before team captain Ciaran McCormack tore up the pitch to point after an extended period of possession for the Dunboyne men. (1:11 to 0:05). But St Pats responded again with the next 4 points of the game (1f, 1X2pf) to reduce the margin to 3 points. Again, Dunboyne responded positively with Josh Felle chipping over in the 26th minute. Two tap-over frees concluded the scoring to leave Dunboyne winners on a scoreline of 1:14 (4f) to 0:09 (6f)

So, the year comes to a close for the adult section of the club in a season that was bookended by our U19s winning the League (back in the spring) and following it up with a championship this afternoon. In a relatively low scoring game today Dunboyne had 10 different scorers which is always hard to defend against and a great trait of any team. Paul Dempsey and Cian Tobin were again outstanding today in the Dunboyne rear guard and were probably the standout players throughout the U19 championship. Well done to John Delaney and his management team on all they have done with this group of players over the last 2 months. There was a panel of 37 players who all contributed to the success here today by pushing the standards at training. Credit also to Shane McEntee who, as main team coach, brought a freshness and professional structure to the sessions. With this competition moving to U20 from next year who would bet against this talented group of players to win one more cup for the mantle-piece?

Dunboyne: Jamie McCormack; Paul Magee; Cian Tobin; Paul Demspey; Cian Rohan; Ciaran McCormack (0:01); Andrew Norman; Eoghan McDonald (0:01); Eoin McCrudden (0:01); Jack Doyle (0:01); James Lonergan (0:01); Josh Felle (0:01); Cillian Felle (1:02, 1f); Sean McNulty (0:02); Sean Delaney (0:03f);

Subs: Conor Murphy (0:01) (For Delaney, 8m); Sean Delaney (for Sean McNulty, HT); Cian Duggan (for Norman, 39m); Harry Healy (for Cillian Felle, 49m); Ronan Kelly (for Doyle, 58m); Tadgh Brennan (for Murphy, 60m); Shea Mooney (for Rohan, 60m)

Referee - Thomas MacLeod (Ballivor)

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