No-one even dreams like this.
Honesty, who the hell would ever grow up and think, ‘I’d love to score 3-7 in an All-Ireland final’?
You think of the winning point, a screamer of a goal but Kevin McCarthy has the sort of balls to say he wants 3-7 and he wants to score more than the opposition, even if the opposition rack up 15 points.
All-Ireland IFC final
Kilcummin (Kerry) 5-12 Naomh Eanna (Antrim) 2-9
It’s an amazing club story and a valuable lesson that life not only goes on after relegation, but memories and rich history can be made.
Kilcummin were relegated to intermediate football in Kerry at the tail end of 2017 and, just over 12 months ago, they didn’t even have a manager as 11 boys dragged themselves to training, organised by themselves.
A year later and they’re the All-Ireland intermediate football champions.
From trying to get enough to train to winning Kerry, Munster and national titles, anyone or any club who’d ever contemplate giving up, they needn’t look any further than the example of Kilcummin.
The club that started the year with no manager and ended up in an All-Ireland final
It’s heartbreaking for Naomh Éanna, the inspirational Antrim outfit who fought against their own adversity – mostly off the field – to get to where they’ve gotten and, despite the diamond that is Odhran Eastwood nailing seven points of his own for the Ulster champions, there would be no stopping Kevin McCarthy who kicked 3-7 and kicked them all from play.
McCarthy was joined by Matt Keane and Kieran Murphy on the goal scoring list whilst Eoin Nagle and Kristian Healy raised green flags at the other end but it was to be Kilcummin’s day.
Scorers
Kilcummin: K McCarthy 3-7, K Murphy 1-1 (1-0pen), M Keane 1-0, G O’Leary 0-2, N Duggan (f), I Devane, J McCarthy 0-1 each
Naomh Eanna: E Nagle, K Healy 1-0 each, O Eastwood 0-7 (5f), R Scott 0-2
Teams
Kilcummin: B Kealy; S O’Leary, D Maher, D Moynihan; P Casey, C O’Leary, W Maher; K Murphy, K Gorman; S McSweeney, G O’Leary, P Nagle; N Duggan, I Devane, M Keane. Subs: J McCarthy for Nagle (43), D O’Leary for Maher (43), I Devane for Duggan (53), D O’Leary for G O’Leary, K Teahan for Murphy (57), M O Se for Keane (60)
Naomh Eanna: P Flood; K Jennings, D Gault, M McNamee; C Lyttle, J McAuley, C McAuley; P Curran, J Maskey; P Healy, R Scott, K Healy; E Gibson, O Eastwood, E Nagle. Subs: C O’Neill for Curran (19), M Morgan for Flood (BC 22), C Thompson for McAuley (24), C Eastwood for Gault (42), N McKeown for Gibson (52), R Kenedty for Scott (57), D Walsh for K Healy (59)
