Mayo champions Crossmolina reach All-Ireland IFC final
Mayo and Connacht champions Crossmolina have cruised into the AIB All-Ireland Intermediate Football Championship decider following a 1-12 to 0-6 victory over Caragh in their last four encounter at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, Longford, writes Brian Gillespie.
A dominant third quarter really turned the game in favour of Brian Benson's men, but in truth they looked the better side for the majority of the contest against the Kildare and Leinster winners.
The game was locked at 0-2 apiece towards the end of the opening quarter when referee Kieran Eannetta pointed to the penalty spot as an errant Caragh hand scooped the ball off the ground with Crossmolina threatening a goal. Conor Loftus confidently dispatched the spot kick past Caragh 'keeper Michael Behan, and from that stage on the Deel Rovers rarely looked like being troubled.
In fairness to the Kildare men, there was just a goal between the sides at the break (1-4 to 0-4) as Darragh Swords and Ryan Burke, their standout player, scored two points in a row, but they needed a strong start to the second half and it just never materialised.
Instead it was Crossmolina who went for the jugular, pushing up on Behan's kick-outs to such good effect that they landed five points in a dominant opening seven minutes of the new half, and that eight-point cushion (1-9 to 0-4) had them as good as home and hosed.
Crucially, while the scores dried up thereafter, the Mayo men kept Caragh from closing the gap over the next 15 minutes.
On a difficult surface (the game wasn't certain of proceeding up to 45 minutes from throw-in due to the icy pitch), Crossmolina produced some slick passages of play that just didn't quite have the conversion at the end that the build-up deserved.
Still, with Loftus and his fellow county player Jordan Flynn in exquisite form, aided by the likes of Diarmuid Fox, Matthew Gordetskyy, James Maheady and Fionán Duffy, among many more, they rarely looked in trouble of suffering a late collapse.
Caragh managed just two points in that second period – a free from Eoghan O'Haire and a score from play by Jake Corrigan – while Crossmolina finished with two of their own from captain Mikie Loftus (who started the game in place of the injured Darragh Syron) and Conor Loftus, putting the seal on a fabulous display on a frosty afternoon in the midlands.
Reacting to the result after the full-time whistle, the captain stated: “As a young fella, you dream of playing in Croke Park. I never thought I'd see the day after the last few years but to be there now, I'm really looking forward to it.”
The final against Derry and Ulster champions Ballinderry is due to be played on Sunday, January 12, at 4.30 p.m. in Croke Park. Interestingly, both clubs are former senior All-Ireland club winners, with Crossmolina earning their success in 2021 and Ballinderry claiming the title just a year later.
*See Tuesday's print edition for a full report and reaction