They just weren’t going to be stopped.
Ballyboden St. Enda’s are Al-Ireland champions. Deservedly.
In fact, we could be playing long into the weekend and Castlebar wouldn’t have enough to wrestle control back of this game. It was Ballyboden’s – it would always be Ballyboden’s.
That was for two reasons. One: The Mayo outfit were wasteful. They kicked more wides than they did points – way, way more. And St. Enda’s were just on it. They were sharp, they were purposeful, they were raging hot.
And, from the moment Colm Basquel opened the scoring with a sublime goal off the top of his laces, the Dublin champions never looked back.
It seemed to shell-shock the red jerseys who really never got going. In fact, the ‘Boden stormed their way into a nine-point lead before the men from the west could even react.
A cool Andrew Kerin penalty put the Leinster outfit 2-3 to 0-0 ahead and that was all the damage they really needed.
That stuttered run up from Andrew Kerin was reminiscent of a young @Cristiano! 2-03 to 0-00 #TheToughest pic.twitter.com/HwuvCIzMgY
— AIB_GAA (@AIB_GAA) March 17, 2016
The Mitchel’s did threaten to raise their own green flag soon after but they had the incredible reflexes of Paul Durcan to contend with whenever they tried to make any kind of inroads.
With Bob Dwan putting in a man of the match shift in the Ballyboden full back line, the Dubliners were simply relentless. The intensity with which they tackled, the ferocity of their turnovers and the pace with which they attacked on the counter was simply breathtaking.
And when they did attack, by God did they attack.
It seemed that you couldn’t look up without Darren O’Reilly striding through the Croke Park grass. Conal Keaney was finding pockets of space and dictating play like a master conductor and, with Andrew Kerin and Ryan and Colm Basquel running absolute bloody riot, there was no way back for the men from the west and they eventually succumbed to the serious momentum of the opposition.
Today was Ballyboden’s day. This season was Ballyboden’s. The St. Patrick’s Day stage only proved that they merited it.
Final score: Ballyboden St. Enda’s 2-15 Castlebar Mitchel’s 0-7.
