Mullin was cute. Naas were naive.
Cathal Daly took too many steps and, like the referee would have wanted him to do, the Naas corner back put the ball down for the free. It was the biggest present Dara Mullin will ever get in his life.
What Daly must have forgotten was that, behind him, his goalkeeper Luke Mullins had left his station but Dara Mullin was alive to it. He sensed his opportunity.
The Kilmacud Crokes corner forward picked the ball up and, with shades of Mikey Sheehy scoring past Paddy Cullen back in 1978, he kicked the ball into the empty net.
Free kick taken quickly…pic.twitter.com/9Llxola0FX
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) November 6, 2022
The goal came as a real body-blow for Naas who were motoring well otherwise. Darragh Kirwan and Alex Beirne were really impressing for the Kildare champions but goals win games, and Kilmacud got two of them in that first half of this Leinster championship clash.
In fairness, little could be done about Craig Dias’ thunderbolt but both Daly and Mullins will be disappointed about Mullin’s effort. Daly should have stood over the free and Mullins should have shown more urgency to get back but hindsight is 20:20 vision and, realistically, most of the credit should go to Mullins for his quick-thinking and anticipation.
