Rathvilly earn final stalemate with late, late show
Carlow Senior Football Championship Final, Netwatch Cullen Park, Carlow 6/10/2024 Palatine vs Rathvilly Barry John Molloy of Rathvilly and Jamie Kenny of Palatine challenge for the ball Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Tom Maher
A pont each from Rathvilly’s Eric Molloy and Liam Gavin from a free ensured the Carlow senior football final would go to a replay after the sides played out a nerve-jangling draw at Netwatch Cullen Park on Sunday.
In front of a big crowd, Palatine got off to a great start when they raided down the right and Jamie Kenny off-loaded to Josh Egan who tucked it past the advancing Robbie Molloy between the Rathvilly posts.
Palatine, the champions of two years ago were the better side in the first 20 minutes. A Conor Crowley point and a 45 from Craig Kearney increased their advantage. Their rivals hit back with a converted mark from Conor Doyle and a Kevin Murphy free.
Palatine began losing grip on the game and when a ball was thrown up Liam Gavin was on hand to raise a white flag for Rathvilly. In a two minute spell, Rathvilly scored 1-2 with Eric Molloy’s run bisecting the Palatine defence before finding the bottom left hand corner of the net.
From there, Rathvilly took over and led 1-5 to 1-3 at the break. On the resumption, Egan took up where he had started the first half when he fired over a point. Andrew Kehoe followed up with a point and with the sides level, the signs of a drawn game took shape.
Rathvilly were holding on to a one point lead when Palatine found a goal after Stephen Reilly’s speculative effort found its way to the Rathvilly net. Substitute, Bryan McMahons point posed a further question of Rathvilly. The champions of three years ago had the answer with those vital points which ensured the sides will have to do it all over again.
E Molloy 1-1, K Murphy (1f), L Gavin (1f), C Doyle (1-mark) 0-2 each, B Kelly, J Elliott, B Murphy 0-1 each.
J Egan 1-1, S Reilly 1-0, C Crowley 0-2 (1f), S O’Neill (f), A Kehoe, C Kearney (f), B McMahon 0-1 each.
Robbie Molloy; Colin Byrne, Dara Curran, Paraic Deering; Barry John Molloy, Josh Moore, Eric Molloy; Brendan Murphy, Adam Burgess; Brandon Kelly, Conor Doyle, Ed Finnegan; Jake Elliott, Kevin Murphy, Liam Gavin.
Brian Smith for Burgess (43), Darragh Murphy for Elliott (50)
Craig Kearney; Conor O’Doherty, Cian Cashman, Jack Deacy; Stephen O’Reilly, Ciaran Moran, Cillian Duff; Finbarr Kavanagh, Jason Kane; Josh Egan, Shane O’Neill, Brandon Cassidy, Jamie Kenny, Conor Crowley, Andrew Kehoe.
Bryan McMahon for Cassidy (39), Conor Lawlor for Kane (46), Gavin Healy for O’Doherty (50), Tom Sheehan for O’Reilly (53).
John Hickey (Fenagh)
