Feature
Daniel Carey
1 Robert Hennelly
(Mayo minors v Tyrone, 2008)
THE Breaffy man made three superb saves in the 2008 All-Ireland Minor Football Final Replay. The best of them came in the 52nd minute. The game was level, Tyrone’s Ciarán Gervin shot from point blank range, and Hennelly had to make a miraculous adjustment.
Michael Foley of the Sunday Times described the stop as ‘easily the save of the inter-county summer’, and Michael Duffy said it was ‘Gordon Banks-esque’. He may have been at fault for the Tyrone goal during extra-time but, praising his ‘outstanding’ performance, Seán Rice said simply: “Hennelly owes the game nothing”.
2 Seán Warde
(Mayo minors v Kerry, 1978)
BACK in the era when RTÉ ran a ‘Save of the Year’ competition, the award for 1978 went to Seán Warde, who kept goal for the All-Ireland-winning Mayo minor team.
The Achill man played a leading part in the final victory over Dublin, but it was his heroics in the semi-final against Kerry that really caught the eye.
“The game could not have been won” without him, said The Mayo News correspondent, who highlighted his ‘most striking save’ 12 minutes into the second half, when he ‘fought off the efforts’ of Ambrose O’Donovan ‘to gain a goal’.
3 Peter Burke
(Kiltimagh v An Spidéal, 2009)
PETER Burke made many great saves for club and county – on both good and bad days. He denied Johnny Crowley in the 1997 and 2004 All-Ireland finals, and made two super stops against Cork in 2002.
But perhaps his best of all came more recently, during Kiltimagh’s Connacht club final against An Spidéal last November,
The Galway side made hay early on, but twice in the opening quarter, they were kept at bay by what Seán Rice called ‘outrageously daring’ saves. Our columnist had four words to describe Burke’s intervention in denying Tomás Ó Fatharta: out of this world.
4 Barry Heffernan
(Crossmolina v Nemo Rangers, 2001)
TEN years after his heroics for Mayo minors proved in vain, Heffernan ran Ciaran McDonald close in the man of the match stakes in the 2001 All-Ireland club final against Nemo Rangers.
He pulled off what Stephen O’Grady in these pages called ‘three first-class saves’ during the first half. “The first denied [Colin] Corkery a certain goal, granting him a point as he drifted in behind the cover”. His reaction to David Niblock’s chance soon after was ‘remarkable’, and the ‘inspirational’ Heffernan also proved equal to the task when Nemo’s Seán O’Brien found himself in front of goal.
5 Denise Horan
(Mayo ladies v Meath, 1999)
“DENISE Horan may well win the ‘Save of the Year’ (even if it’s open to both of the sexes.” So said Kevin McStay in his Mayo News column after the 1999 All-Ireland Ladies Football semi-final, in which Mayo defeated Meath.
While Seán Warde got a trophy from Mick Dunne in early 1979, the save of the year was no longer an honour bestowed by the time the Ballinrobe woman pulled off her super stop in Parnell Park. But the ladies’ fairy-tale had begun, and a month later, Diane O’Hora had climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand.
6 Declan Prendergast
(Ballyglass v Abbey United, 1996)
A wonderful strike by John Noonan gave Ballyglass a 1-0 win over Abbey United in the 1996 Connacht Junior Cup semi-final. The result was something of a surprise, given that the Sligo side had beaten Manulla 6-2 the week before.
It couldn’t have happened without Ballyglass goalkeeper Declan Prendergast, who was in inspirational form at Seán Fallon Park. Top of the list was an outstanding save – at full stretch – from David McManus’s 14th-minute snapshot. For good measure, he also two very good stops from Derek Farran in the second half. Sadly, Calry Bohs won the final.
7 Gerry Moran
(Westport United v Castlebar Celtic, 1969)
ON St Stephen’s Day 1969, Westport United beat Castlebar Celtic to clinch the 1968/69 Mayo League title.
“United’s keeper, G Moran, brought off some fantastic saves and won prolonged applause from the spectators as Celtic were held scoreless,” The Mayo News reported, referring to Gerry Moran, who had replaced the more experienced Tommy Gibbons.
Moran was eventually beaten by a Greg Earls penalty, but late goals from Johnny McNally and Tony Browne – added to McNally’s opening strike – gave United a 3-1 win. Moran later played for Sporting Club, a Westport side which enjoyed success in the early 1970s.
8 Mick Corkery
(Mayo v Dublin, 1958)
AS Mayo goalkeeper, Mick Corkery had a key role in what GAA journalist John D Hickey (coining a now-common phrase) called ‘the meanest defence in the game’. Willie Casey, Brendan Keane, Gabriel Kelly, Frank Fleming, John McAndrew and Eddie Moriarty lined out in front of Corkery in the 1958 Connacht Championship.
Five of those six played in that year’s League semi-final against Dublin, when Corkery made ‘two wonderful saves’, according to Martin Connolly in The Mayo News. The goalkeeper kept a clean sheet and Mayo had ‘great backs’, but their attack was criticised after a 10-7 defeat.
9 Gabriel Irwin
(Mayo v Tyrone, 1989)
“THE undoubted man of the match”. That was Pádraig Burns’s verdict on Gabriel Irwin in The Mayo News after Mayo bridged a 38-year gap to qualify for the 1989 All-Ireland final.
The Glenamoy man – ‘faultless’ since replacing Eugene Lavin – gave a ‘brilliant performance’. In the second half he played like a sweeper, but his shot-stopping in the first half was top class too. Three minutes after stretching brilliantly to turn a Damien O’Hagan shot away, he went full length to keep out Seánie Myler’s 20-yard effort. “How decisive that turned out to be,” Burns reflected.
10 Colm Leonard
(Ballina Stephenites v Ballagh’, 2007)
THE only non-goalkeeper in our list gets the nod for a vital stop in the closing stages of the 2007 county semi-final. Ballaghaderreen were two points down in the final moments, but might have snatched victory at the death when Andy Moran got through on goal.
The Stephenites captain ‘had instinctively fallen back to cover his goal’, Seán Rice wrote, and took the full brunt of Moran’s shot in the head. Fortuitous intervention or the best goalkeeper Ballina never had? Either way, the North Mayo side wouldn’t have won the county title without his input.
