Ahane Juniors conclude season with Championship final win

Last Saturday saw Ahane finish off their season with a resounding 17 point win in the East Limerick Junior Championship Final versus Fedamore. On a beautiful evening in Mackey Park, perfect for football, Ahane duly delivered with an exceptional all-round team performance that showcased how the game can be played with movement, work-rate and a healthy dose of skill thrown in.

Ahane started the brighter and with Tristan O’Sullivan knocking over some early scores, an early gap appeared. This lead was emphatically doubled midway through the half when a quick free played into John Kennedy was laid off to Jimmy Feerick, who after making a perfectly timed run to beat the cover, calmly slotted the ball home past the keeper’s despairing dive. This goal helped to energise the team further and with the inside forward line making some great runs and linking up superbly, a number of other great goal scoring chances were created but ultimately missed, as the post and the keeper denied Ahane a second goal that their pressure deserved.

Fedamore did manage to collect themselves and as half-time approached came back into the game with some excellent long range points, but the feeling and the half-time team talk was that this was a game and a trophy there for the taking.

The second half began similar to the first with some early scores shared before Ahane took control to go 3 points ahead through some great points from David Kennedy before the moment that seized the game for the home team came along. It was a case of experienced heads showing the future stars how to create and finish a flowing move as Mark O’Keefe carried the ball wonderfully through the heart of the defence before laying it off to Jimmy Feerick, again timing his involvement to near perfection. Eschewing an easy point, he drew the full-back and keeper to the near post before playing a simple hand-pass to an unmarked Gearoid Hussey who had the handy task of stroking it home to an empty net.

Again it energised the team and supporters but this time, Ahane drove on and through the tiring Fedamore defence. With some great runs from Clifton Carey and Andrew Minehan in mid-field, long and short-range points continued to extend the lead to the obvious delight of the junior umpire, Donncha. David Kennedy continued the rout with a well-drilled finish and a late fortuitous lob added gloss to the scoreline. Dean Lillis in goal, making a great save to preserve his clean sheet, and the 6 backs, led by their ageless captain Tony Cross, deserve a special mention – not only for their workrate and foraging runs in this game but throughout the season as well when their backs were to the wall and results were required. It was a great team performance from 1 to 18 and when the final whistle went with the scoreline reading 4-16 to 0-11 in favour of Ahane, both the team and their supporters basked in the glory of a job well done and an evening to be savoured.

Tony Cross as captain received the trophy and gave a speech thanking his teammates for their efforts and also thanking Fedamore for their involvement in a well-played final and extending wishes from Ahane to them for the remainder of their season with some upcoming playoff matches.

The team would also like to thank the staff of Bradshaw’s for their hospitality afterwards.

Ahane team v Fedamore –

D. Lillis, G. O’Keefe, T. Cross (capt), K. Grant, J. McDermott, K. Carroll, S. Ryan, A. Minehan, C. Carey, J. Kennedy, T. O’Sullivan, D. Laing, J. Feerick, M. O’Keefe, G. Hussey, K. Keenan, D. Kennedy.