U21 East Cork  A Football Final Aghada 2-15 v Glenville 2-6

Our u21 footballers retained their title in some style last Friday night and in the process made it 5 A grade East Cork titles in a row, when they defeated Glenville by 9 points in this year’s final. Played in Midleton, Glenville were out of the blocks quicker on the night and opened the scoring after a minute with a pointed free. The opening 5 minutes was all Glenville , with Aghada barely managing to mount any meaningful attack, but after that the reigning champions settled into their stride and took over proceedings. First, after the Glenville ‘keeper made a good save, Aghada worked the rebound to Danny Creedon who equalised. Centre back Jordan Tynan would now thunder into the game. He caught the resulting kick out and after a surging run, off loaded to Creedon who kicked his and Aghada’s 2nd point. Aghada won the next kickout as well, this time Marcus Leahy with a fine catch and he then popped to Cork minor captain Diarmaid Phelan who pointed smartly. 2 minutes later impressive wing back Cal Bawden drove forward for a fine score. And when Creedon pointed his 3rd from a placed ball on 12 minutes Aghada had raced into a 5pts v 1 pt lead. Next however the game swung totally on its head as Glenville rallied and laid siege on the Aghada goal. 3 times in 4 minutes they created goal chances. The 1st was brilliantly saved by Ciaran O’Shea in the Aghada goal. The 2nd was buried from the penalty spot and the third also found its way to the back of the Aghada net after a bit of a scramble that could have been defended better. So Glenville were two points to the good and the question was how Aghada would react to this setback. The answer to that was quick and emphatic. 1st Glenville conceded a very soft penalty which Kevin O’Hanlon goaled from the rebound of his original kick. Next Leahy earned a free which Creedon again pointed. A minute later Charlie Terry rattled the post, the rebound came the way of Aaron Berry, but again the Glenville ‘keeper was able to save. Again the rebound fell Aghada’s way and this time Alan Hogan finished to the net from close range. Aghada were back in front by 5 points and while that completed the scoring for the half, significantly Glenville lost their centre back before half time to a straight red card.

Despite the numerical advantage in Aghada’s favour, the opening 20 minutes of the second period was an even enough affair. Both sides hit 3 points apiece. Glenville hit 3 super points from play. On the Aghada side, 2 of their scores were Creedon frees, while the 3rd was a fisted effort from Terry after a mazy solo run from O’Hanlon. From here to the end however Aghada dominated. With Captain Kalen O’Donoghue bossing the defence from full back, ably assisted by Kyle O’Shea and Aaron Butler, the scores dried up from Glenville. At the other end, on 22 minutes Diarmuid Phelan and Alan Hogan combined to set up Berry for a point off his right leg. A minute later a fine move involving Kalen, Charlie, O’Hanlon and Marcus, saw O’Hanlon point well to finish the move. Kevin was really in the grove for the 2nd half and set up Berry for his 2nd on 27 minutes. In between Glenville pointed a free, but the momentum was well and truly with Aghada by now. Terry hit the next two scores after being put in by Hogan and then Tynan. Both sides had men very very harshly sent off in the closing stages. Glenville kicked another super score in injury time, but it was fitting that Kev O’Hanlon had the last say with his 3rd score of the night after being set up by another surging Tynan run from centre back. When the final whistle sounded it was Aghada that were celebrating, having turned the tables on their opponents from the 1st encounter last February. On that night it was Glenville who won by a 9 point margin and it was ironic, that a much improved Aghada, in both performance and attitude should win the final by the same margin. Ironic too that Aghada would not have even made the final, but for Glenville scoring a dramatic goal 7 minutes into injury time in their final Round Robin game against Glanmire. Glenville’s consolation is that both teams now advance into the County competition, and were the teams to meet again, such is the quality in both sides that the result could go either way again. For now Aghada can celebrate the 5 in a row (6 in a row counting a B grade title way back at the start of this run) and can look forward to playing St. Michaels in the county 1st round next Saturday. Congrats to all involved in this great win.

Aghada team and scorers – Ciaran O’Shea, Arron Butler, Kalen O’Donoghue (capt), Kyle O’Shea, Cal Bawden (0-1), Jordan Tynan, Ben Stafford, Paul Daly, Marcus Leahy, Danny Creedon (0-6,4f), Charlie Terry (0-3), Diarmuid Phelan (0-1), Aaron Berry (0-2), Kevin O’Hanlon (1-2), Alan Hogan (1-0). Subs Used – Luke O’Connell, Vince Rohan, Stephen Daly.