Kilbride’s domino effect has desired impact

To dilute an Eamon Dunphy quote, it was a good game, not a great game.

Yet it could, very easily, have turned into another classic. All it needed was one more of Pearses’ goal chances to have hit the net. Then it would have really erupted into another titanic battle. And boy, there were plenty of those chances.

Coming away from Saturday’s county final replay in the Hyde, it’s fair to say that St. Brigid’s are deserving champions. They were the more efficient team on the day and that, just about, got them over the line.

In talking to others throughout the day, there seemed to be a general consensus in the ground that Brigids were the better team throughout the game. I wasn’t in agreement.

I reckon these two teams are really evenly matched. If they played each other ten times, I’d expect it to be five wins each. On Saturday, the bit of luck went more Brigid’s way than Pearses’.

We could look at the first half and say Brigid’s were slicker in attack and more accurate. They were indeed more accurate, but they were aided by a few soft enough frees, and, from my viewing on it, I didn’t think Conor Carroll got a hand to Ronan Daly’s two-point effort, which was reduced to just one.

The small margins went Brigid’s way, just as they did for Pearses in last year’s quarter-final between the sides.

Pearses got a lot right. They must have, as they created four really good goal chances in the first 20 minutes alone. Over the course of the hour, I counted six clear goalscoring opportunites for them, to just one for Brigids. Had Pearses hit just 50 per cent of those goals, they’d have won the game.

Could have, should have, would have. It’s all idle talk now. Pearses will rue those misses. Their shooting efficiency was just a touch off where it needed to be. This was illustrated in some of their point efforts too, particularly from frees.

That’s enough about where Pearses lost it. Where did Brigid’s win it? I think the decision to start Senan Kilbride had a serious domino effect, which essentially was the winning of the game for them.

With Senan starting inside, it meant Bobby Nugent played a bit further out the field. I wrote last week that Brigid’s would need more from their half-forward line and that’s definitely what they got. Nugent revelled in that extra space playing out towards the top of the arc and was excellent.

Ciarán Sugrue and Conor Hand seemed to be the other two members of the half-forward line and both had much improved displays from last week. Hand carried the ball with much more purpose and from deeper, drawing in defenders at will.

The final domino effect from the reshuffle with Kilbride starting was the movement of Paul McGrath to wing-back. He was outstanding. I lost count of the amount of turnovers he was involved in. He was on the ball way more than in the drawn game and his influence was massive. So much so, I’d have given him the Man of the Match award.

I'd always be slow to give such an award to a goalkeeper, but it’s fair to say Conor Carroll had a huge bearing on this result too. Of those six onion bag attempts for Pearses, he made three really good saves. His restarts were also excellent. Brigid’s superiority on kickouts owed a lot to his accuracy. His transfer really has been a massive coup for them.

Would the Fahy Cup be in Brigid’s now had he not moved down to Brideswell?

QUALITY MATCH-UPS

They had other strong performers too. Eddie Nolan was good throughout, as was Seán Trundle who had a really good battle with Paul Carey.

Just like in the drawn game actually, there were good battles all over the field. It felt in some ways like a trial game for the county team, such was the level of quality on display in every position.

Look at the match-ups. Robbie Dolan on Eoin Colleran. Quality on quality. Ruaidhri Fallon on Jack Tumulty. Same again.

While I had Paul McGrath marked down as the game’s leading performer, his influence was almost matched by Conor Ryan for Padraig Pearses. I spoke last week about how impressed I’ve been with him and he took another leap forward on Saturday.

I think not going long to him on kickouts often enough is something Pearses will regret. I hate when I hear — and I hear it all too often — that teams don’t want to be predictable on kickouts.

Predictable isn’t always a bad thing. If you’ve a strong fielder who’s dominating in the air, lump the ball out to him and get numbers in around him on the breaks. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Declan Kenny did well again, although I think he’s more impactful playing from a wing position than midfield. Adam McGreal did well in the half-back line. He's typical of the serious progression we’re seeing from the youngsters in the Pearses’ ranks.

The likes of McGreal, Conor Lohan and Sean Canning have all jumped on to new levels this year.

Mark Richardson, similarly to last week, did well against Ben O’Carroll, even though O’Carroll did wriggle free for a couple of points from play this time.

Hubert Darcy was superb for Pearses, particularly in the opening half when he was making things happen every time the ball came his way. Unfortunately, they didn’t get enough return for his endeavours. On another day he could have ended up scoring 1-3 and laying on another two goals.

It wasn’t to be for Pearses. One thing you can be fairly sure of is that they’ll be back again. We could well be treated to another five or six years of these two powerhouses going head to head. Going on these two games, it’ll make for great viewing.

For Brigid’s, it’s onward and, I expect, upward. Of course it’s never too clever to expect anything but strong opposition coming from a Mayo team, but I think Brigid’s are very well-placed to push on and have a really good rattle at the Connacht championship.

They’ve the profile of a team you’d expect to do well at that level. It’s not like it’s their first county title in 50 years and the emotional release of that will have taken its toll on them. No, these lads have done it at county and provincial level before, and they’ll be quick to get the heads down and refocus on the next task.

Hopefully, they’ll continue far with this journey and shorten the winter for all of us.