Congratulations to the St Benildus College Senior Footballers who won the Dublin Senior Colleges A Final for the first time yesterday. It was a great day for the school, its teachers and pupils – past and present, to see the Senior A Football title finally come to Benildus.
Naomh Olaf players played a prominent part in the game and we congratulate them all on this momentous victory.
Match reports from today’s papers are reproduced below
Irish Times
St Benildus College1-13 St Declan’s CBS 0-15 (AET – 1-9 to 0-12 after normal time)
IT WAS third time lucky for St Benildus as they captured the county title at Páirc Barróg on a sunny afternoon at the north Dublin venue. Driven on by Craig Dias, who assumed the captaincy following an injury to Brian Hanamy in the first half, Benildus, having lost the last two finals, finally got their hands on the cup, with Fergal Duffy’s late free sealing the issue.
Certainly Benildus, who were chasing a first ever title, must have thought fate was conspiring against them as Declan’s rallied in the last 15 minutes of normal time to take the game into two additional periods.The two teams had been tied at four points apiece when Benildus struck for the only goal of the game on 23 minutes. Conor Haskins, having just replaced Hanamy, took the ball on the run before delivering a low shot past the goalkeeper. The two teams then pegged on a point apiece to leave it 1-5 to 0-5 at the interval and although Declan’s prolific free taker, Niall Murray, was to put just two points etween the sides shortly after the restart, Benildus then upped their game. Successive points inside a minute from Glen Whelan and Duffy saw Benildus surge ahead, a subsequent free from Duffy leaving the south Dublin team up by 1-9 to 0-6 going into the final quarter.
But following back to back frees from Murray, Declan’s came close to a goal with Diarmuid Shields’ fisted effort just clearing the bar. Now in the ascendancy, Declan’s piled on the pressure and following another two frees from Murray, the same player then sent over a point from play to leave it 1-9 to 0-12 at full-time. Benildus outscored their opponents by two points to one in the first period and after the turnaround, Declan’s goalkeeper Darragh Carolan tipped away an effort from Dias after the two teams had exchanged a point apiece. And with Murray then tying the game with two minutes to go, the destination of the game looked uncertain before Duffy sent over a free from the left to win the game in the most dramatic of circumstances.
Irish Independent
Having fallen just short in their two previous attempts, St Benildus should have known that the coveted Dublin Colleges Senior Football title would not simply drop into their lap. And so it proved on a bright sunny afternoon at Pairc Barrog with Fergal Duffy’s late free required to hand the south Dublin boys the cup they have been chasing for so long.
The previous meeting between these two sides came in this year’s Leinster Championship quarter-final when Benildus prevailed by a point. That this one went right down to the wire was down to the fortitude of Declan’s who hauled themselves back into contention in the second half. And although Niall Murray was to tie the game for Declan’s with two minutes to go, Benildus dug in to win a free on the left-hand touchline. Up stepped Duffy to curl over the winning score and in doing so hand Benildus their very first title.
ST BENILDUS COLLEGE: M O’ Connor; S Fitzsimons, M Coen, J O’Connor; D Reilly, P O’Curry, C Kyne-Delaney; B Hanamy, J Dunning; C Dias (0-1), C Roe, F Duffy (0-4, two frees); S Horan (0-4, two frees), L Murphy, G Whelan (0-3). Subs: A Clabby for Reilly, C Haskins (1-1) for Hanamy, J Quinn for Roe, D Byrne for Whelan.
