Coach McEvoy puts baby(face) Leon in the corner(-forward)
Realt Dearg 1-11 O’Dwyers 0-4 Junior F Hurling Championship, Sunday, 7th May 2017 The long anticipated Championship debut of the now famous Leon Flanagan took place on a glorious Sunday afternoon in Drimnagh Castle. Both teams were greeted by a season-high spectator attendance (at least 5 and a dog) and freshly cut grass for a top o' the ground hurling encounter. The C-men were making their maiden appearance in championship hurling. Expectations were kept in check all week and the cognoscenti were of the opinion pre-match that a victory in their first taste of championship may be a bridge too far for this fledgling outfit. Coach McEvoy imparted some sage advice pre-match and there was a palpable sense of giddy anticipation in the home dressing room. Those fans and that dog weren't necessarily there to see the Cs birthing in to the molten hot heat of Junior F Championship hurling. This was but a sideshow to the media circus that surrounded a quinquagenarian and his much vaunted championship debut. Leon played the media game well all week, declining interviews and keeping a low profile aside from a rake of pints at the Terenure Inn on Friday night. He cared not one jot for the effects of two day hangovers and sauntered up to the field of Drims with a strut of the weekend rock star that we know and love. Some play better suffering when ‘in ribbons’ and some are just genetically superior but either way Flanagan opted to sweat it out rather than binge watch his re-runs of Glenroe and Candid Camera. He opted against the guard of honour as is his selfless wont and cruised onto the field to take his place at corner-forward and into the pantheon of greats with other masters of the game of yore who have graced the fields of the Dublin Championship. Both teams started strongly as they traded early blows in the opening twenty minutes. O'Dwyers meant business from the off and were typically combative; tackles weren't shirked and quarter wasn't sought. The scores were tight in the early stages and Realt Dearg were given a let-off in the opening quarter when an O'Dwyer's forward crashed the sliotar against the crossbar. Luckily, Gavin Deacon was the first to pounce on the rebound and heroically clear the ball to safety. Some say the 9 mile stare of rookie goalie Caoimhín Concannon was enough to dissuade the ball from having the temerity of bulging his net. On such moments games can turn and it must be noted that the stars started to turn the screw straightaway; by half time they had built up a three point lead in a low scoring match. Little needed to be said at the break aside from ‘steady as she goes’ as it looked increasingly unlikely that O'Dwyers would prove to be party poopers as their challenge wilted in the summer sunshine. Flanagan had seen enough at half time and decided to exit stage left and prime himself for another ‘skin-load of creamy-ones’ contented in the knowledge that the day belonged to him. He confessed to this writer when interviewed that he had a ‘mixed-bag but happy enough’ which amounts to promising debut for this callow tyro who was later reported to have said that he ‘had the time of his life, never felt this way before’. Some statement from a fifty-four year old. However, Ray ‘speedy’ Cahill decided that he was in an iconoclastic mood. He pissed all over Leon's chips, metaphorically at least and grab all of the headlines with a return of 1-3 from wing-forward. Ray thought better of setting up the man of the moment and instead opted to pick off some outrageous long range scores to send at least one of those fans into raptures. Moment of the match came from the impressive Westmeath man, when he 'got on his bike', gliding by opponents ‘like the wind’ and emphatically burying a low bullet on his wrong side past a stranded 'keeper. Pirlo Ryan enjoyed a running battle with his opposite number in midfield that irked the referee enough to ignore them both by the end. The opposing midfielder must have read a previous match report and planned to nullify the stars man. The running tete-a-tete was reminiscent of a quote from all-round hero and much-missed Patrick Swayze in his seminal role of Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing: ‘Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine.’ David Sheehan put in another high-scoring display notching 6 points, 4 of which were from play. The unabashed Corkman’s movement around the forward line created pockets of space for his fellow forwards and kept the defence guessing. As the Realt Dearg scoring machine started to tick into overdrive, one forward; Gary W(I won’t name him for fear of some dressing room beatings) decided that another goal would be an unfair reflection of the game and decided to scoop the sliotar over the bar from a full 230 centimeters out. G. Walsh decided that the he would hold off until another occasion and get his first goal ever ‘when it really mattered’. Other notable performances from Eoin Ryan and Caoimhín Concannon who brought some nous and guile to an otherwise inexperienced line-up. Multiple championship debuts were made on Sunday and it the progression of this squad is a sight to behold. It was a game in which everything clicked and where O’Dywers will be disappointed to have faded so badly in the second half. Focus now turns to the league where McEvoy and the brains-trust will no doubt be planning to keep the winning streak going and for that, these C-men will need hungry eyes... or something. Just to be clear, I’ve never actually watched Dirty Dancing. Realt Dearg Team: Caoimhin Concannon, Gavin Deacon, Cian 'Wazu’ O’Brien, Gavin ‘ball & chain O’Connell, Domhnaill Carberry, Eoin Ryan, Michael Butler, Cillian Thornton, Paddy Ryan, David Lynch, Ray Cahill, Gary Walsh , Ross Kelly , David Sheehan, Leon Flanagan Subs: Shane Murphy, James Brooks, Keith Murphy, Colin Devereaux, Aodán Hurley (All used)
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