MUNSTER CLUB SF FINAL Drom-Broadford 0-6 Kilmurry-Ibrickane 0-5: ON AFTERNOONS like this, it seems fitting that the last word in the vast, roaring GAA year should fall to the club players.
This tense and absorbing Munster club final starred two clubs who have dragged themselves up from the fringes of the game and, in the grand tradition of cliche and drama, it came down to the last kick of the game.
As Mark McCarthy prepared to take a free in the 61st minute, there were signs of frost around the edges of the field and most of the 3,214 people who showed here sat huddled and cold in the cavernous Mackey Stand. This was a different world from the teeming colour and magnitude of September's All-Ireland final. But it was no less important.
In fact, for the players and families here in the old Limerick stadium, it was their days of days, intensely local and bound up in years and years of effort too complicated to fully articulate.
Last year, Drom-Broadford lost their county final by 13 points and yet here they are, officially the best club in Munster. They have just four county titles to their name but now join the elite southern clubs on the provincial honour role. Just one other Limerick side - Thomond College back in '77 - have been to this place before and Drom-Broadford become the first parish club to win it.
They produced just two points from play in the entire hour of football and looked slightly star-struck for the first 15 minutes after the brass band parade and the pure emotion of being here. And they had to endure those endless seconds before little piece of history was confirmed as McCarthy, Kilmurry's substitute prepared for an acutely angled free that would have given the Clare champions another day out at least.
It was a desperately tough kick and his attempt to curl it through the posts never really worked: the ball was still ballooning wide when the Drom-Broadford men began wheeling away in celebration while poor McCarthy fell to the ground, inconsolable but hardly to blame.
In many ways, Drom-Broadford executed a perfect winter coup here. They sucked up everything Kilmurry threw at them in the first 15 minutes which - fortunately for them - was a series of costly wides. Kilmurry, trading on the memory of their successful passage through Munster four years ago, looked confident and business-like during the opening quarter.
But fatally, they couldn't put the ball over the bar despite some fine build up play and able ball-winners in Odran O'Dwyer and Noel Downes up front. They could have been four points up but instead found themselves trailing to a Patrick Donnelly free after 13 minutes and for the rest of the half found the Limerick side to be sticky customers.
The sides tied at 0-3 apiece at the interval but Drom-Broadford came out in different mood, stretching the Clare team with their swift passing game and opening up a two point lead with Michael Reidy's 56th minute free.
In a match like this, that gap seemed almost insurmountable. Jason Stokes had a commanding second half at midfield and in Reidy and Ray Lynch, they had two smart and plucky operators in attack. Lynch, short, quick and nimble, was a refreshing contrast to the current vogue for full-forwards cut from the cloth of Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain.
Eoin Barry and Tommy Stack had terrific games in the Drom-Broadford defence and Seán Buckley kicked a huge point just after half-time to set the Limerick champions on course.
It was a devastating half hour for Kilmurry, who suffered their first defeat of the year here. After bossing the first half, they found it hard to get possession at all after half-time and even though they were there on the scoreboard, the game seemed to be slipping away from them. Odran O'Dwyer landed a fine point from play, their first, after 48 minutes. As their early profligacy came back to haunt them, with five minutes left and trailing by two, they began hunting for a goal, trying to play through a packed Drom-Broadford defence. Corner back Declan Callinan whipped a ball over the bar after taking possession in around the goalmouth. By now there were only seconds left and Jason Stokes made a huge catch at midfield to secure possession for the Limerick team again.
Kilmurry had one last chance, which resulted in that late foul on McCarthy. The almost impossible angle proved too much for him and so the Munster football year ended on the traditional GAA note of joy and disappointment and a passionate speech that tested the amplification system carried far into the cold evening.
DROM BROADFORD: E Scollard; D O'Leary, T Stack, M Clancy; N Conway, T McLoughlin, E Barry; P Donnelly (0-2, two frees), J Stokes; D McCarthy (0-1), M Reidy (0-2 frees), S Buckley (0-1); G Egan, R Lynch, G Noonan. Subs: J O'Kelly for G Noonan (57 mins),
KILMURRY IBRICKANE: I McInerney; M McMahon, M Kileen, B Maloney; S Hickey, D Callinan (0-1), E Coughlan; P O'Dwyer, P O'Connor; M Hogan, M O'Dwyer (0-2 two frees), S Moloney; N Downes, O O'Dwyer (0-2, one free), J Daly. Subs: M McCarthy for N Downes (42 mins), D Hickey for P O'Dwyer (45 mins), P O'Dwyer for M O'Dwyer (57 mins).
Referee: A Mangan(Kerry).
