Lahardane's great journey ends in Tullamore

ALL IRELAND CLUB JUNIOR SEMI-FINAL

Listowel Emmetts 1-11

Lahardane MacHales 0-3

Michael Gallagher in Tullamore

A wonderful run which generated the best of times ended in Tullamore on Saturday afternoon when Lahardane were beaten by the much superior champions of Munster. The men from Nephin were no match for the Listowlel men who played with power and panache from first whistle to last.
Listowel, a town renonwed for wit and wordsmiths will echo to the beat of football fever for the next week as locals prepare for a pilgrimage to Croke Park to watch their young men in the All Ireland final.

The Kerry and Munster champions cruised past Lahardane McHales in sun-splashed Tullammore and were well-worth their eleven-point winning margin. They were never in any real danger once they generated a head of steam and travel plans for next weekend were being hatched in the crowd long before the finish.

There was a yawning gulf in class in the opening half as the Kerry men dominated possession and territory while Lahardane struggled in almost every department. Listowel went to the dressingroom with a healthy ten-point lead, 1-8 to 0-1, and they fully deserved the advantage given the standard of their display.

Enda Murphy's men were faster, stronger and much more decisive than the Connacht champions who became more frustrated with every passing moment. The Mayo men also fell foul of referee Kevin Faloon who moved frees forward on numerous occasions after his decisions were questioned.

Listowel ruled the airways around the middle with Eddie Browne, Joe Joe Grimes, and Darragh Leahy winning much more than their share of the ball. There were times in the first half when Lahardane were cleaned out on their own kick-out and the decisive score of the match arrived after 19 minutes when a short-kick out was gobbled up by Bryan Sweeney and he calmly chipped retreatinig goalkeeper Joe Queenan to puit his side seven clear, 1-4 to 0-0.

At that stage, Lahardane had been restricted to just one effort at the posts, a speculative shot from Adrian Leonard which drifted wide, an in truth the result was almost decided at that stage.

Listowel were just vastly superior in every dimension and prevented Lahardane from building even the slightest sense of momentum. David Keane was very accurate from frees and Sean Keane looked dangerous every time the ball came his way in attack.

Niall Collins was powerful, composed and comfortable behind midfield for the Munster men and with Eddie Healy racing forward from the half-back line Lahardane were pinned back consistently.

Full-forward Cormac Mulvihill used the ball well when it came his way and kicked three fine points to leave the men in amber and black more than comfortable at the interval, leading 1-8 to 0-1.

They stretched the lead to 12 early in the new half when Sweeney and David Keane split the sticks but, amazingly, the scores dried up after that and despite dominating matters the leaders went 21 minutes without raising a flag.

Listowel still owned the ball and refused to give Lahardane a sniff of a revival in their fallow period, but will look to be more productive in the final next weekend against Ulster champions Arva from Cavan.

The leaders found their shooting boots again momentarily in the run-in when substitute Darragh Lynch converted a free but they had been dree-wheeling home long before hand.

Lahardane finished on the front foot with pointed frees from Darragh Walsh and James Maughan but the Mayo men were crestfallen at the end, having never once found their feet at the end of a season which yielded so many great moments. The Connacht champions couldn't be faulted for their efforts but were blown away by a much superior team who will grace Croke Park with their presence next weekend.