Marys deservedly claimed the 2019 junior b championship but 2mins into the second half it did not look like their day. However they put the shoulder to the wheel and kept Gaels scoreless for the last 28 mins.
The game started with a whimper as the shower that fell just before the throw in made it extremely slippy for players and was a God send for defenders who only had to get a tap in to knock the ball from an attacker. Marys opened the scoring through man of the match Michael Munnelly from play and followed this up with another from play by Gareth Blake. In the 12th minute Gaels got on the scoreboard with Adrian Egan scoring a free. Shane Moran equalised the scores from play. Blake scored again and this was followed up by an impressive score from Luke Middleton who drove just over the crossbar. Patrick Maher replied from play. There then followed 12 minutes of scoreless play but in his last action Egan pointed a free but had to leave the field after a collision in the next play. Blake finished the half with a free to have Marys up by 1 0-5 v 0-4.
Gaels got off to a whirlwind start in the half with a free from Glen McCormack after a ball in from sub Michael Casey. Casey was the man to provide the ammunition 2 minutes later to McCormack who cut inside Murphy but went down in a heap and won a penalty. Perhaps he could have shot but Dessie Flynn stepped up and put the ball into the back of the net. Very few in the crowd thought that that would be Gaels last score. Aaron Bennett got a lovely score from a free on the ground to get Marys back into it and on the 8th minutes Munnelly took the game by the scruff of the neck to score a wonderful individual score. It took to the 15 minute for the next score and again Bennett was flawless from the ground and he followed up by winning the break from the kickout and curling over another from play. Munnelly scored again from play this time after throwing two dummies with his right and kicking over with his left. Marys drove on in the last ten as Gaels emptied their bench and a brace of points each from Bennett and Munnelly saw them out as winners.
Scorers
Marys, Michael Munnelly 0-5, Aaron Bennett 0-5 (4f), Gareth Blake 0-3, Patrick Maher 0-1
Gaels: Dessie Flynn 1-0 (1pen), Adrian Egan 0-2 (2f), Shane Moran, Luke Middleton 0-1 each, Glen McCormack 0-1 (1f)