St Vincent’s won their seventh Leinster SFC title, and their third crown in four years, with a 1-16 to 0-11 victory over Rhode at O’Moore Park this afternoon. And one player in particular earned a lot of praise.
Diarmuid Connolly’s early goal in the first half set Vincent’s on their way but they found it difficult to shake off a determined Rhode side.
Connolly drilled an excellent shot into the bottom corner of the net with just six minutes on the clock and Vincent’s never looked back.
His performance today came in for a lot of love.
Diarmuid Connolly is so good it's sick🏐#TheToughest
— Cathal McEvoy (@Maka_997) December 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/Ronan_530/status/807965020848062466
Diarmuid Connolly's accuracy is just unbelievable!! 😱🙌👌
— Nic Walsh (@nicnicwalsh) December 11, 2016
This did not deter Rhode however, the kept in touch with the Dublin champions in the first half with some breaks from Brian Darby and Niall McNamee injecting a sense of urgency in the Rhode attack.
One of the major incidents of the match came just before the half-time whistle.
Ger Brennan ran across McNamee’s legs in the square and was shown a black card.
Ruairi McNamee stood up to take the kick but Vincent’s keeper, Michael Savage, gets down very well to save.
https://twitter.com/Woolberto/status/807957297242767365
The teams went in at half time with five points between them and the feeling around the ground was that Rhode had blown a huge opportunity.
Throughout the second half, Rhode did well to stay in contention as they went toe-to-toe with the Dublin side.
Brace of scores exchanged for both sides @StVincentsGAA1 1-10 @RhodeGAA 0-8. #TheToughest
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) December 11, 2016
However, Vincent’s finally pulled away with around 10 minutes remaining to put any doubt surrounding the final result firmly to bed.
Brace of scores exchanged for both sides @StVincentsGAA1 1-10 @RhodeGAA 0-8. #TheToughest
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) December 11, 2016
It was a heroic effort from Rhode, who have now suffered a fifth Leinster club final loss in 11 seasons. They might wonder what the result might have been if they had Anton Sullivan and Jake Kavanagh available for this match.
It takes a village to raise a trophy #TheToughest @AIB_GAA @rhodeGAAhttps://t.co/TuLvM5vleV
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) December 10, 2016
For Vincent’s, they claim their sixth Leinster crown and will face Slaughtneil in the All-Ireland semi-finals in February.
Diarmuid Connolly makes his long overdue GAA Hour debut and talks to Colm Parkinson about everything from the black card to his rivalry with Lee Keegan and how he honed the ability to kick accurately with either foot.
