Impressive Duffy leads Sion to county final victory over Colligan
Mount Sion captain Mikey Daykin holds the Intermediate Football Cup high following the presentation by Neil Moore, Chairman Co. GAA Board much to the delight of his team mates.
Mount Sion will play in the second tier of the Waterford Football Pyramid in 2026 after they proved too strong for Western Champions Colligan in this year’s JJ Kavanagh & Sons County Intermediate Football Final at Cappoquin Logistics Fraher Field on Saturday afternoon last.
The win for Mount Sion is their first at this level for the famous city club, who clearly have benefited from the split club season which operates in Waterford, but more importantly for football in the county, Sion’s win means that the winners of this competition going back to 2021 have all come from the East of the County, following on from Portlaw, Roanmore, De La Salle and Tramore in the last four playing of the competition.
The Monastery men were always the better of the two sides in this competition, with Colligan never showing the ability they have shown in their two most recent wins against Affane in the Western Semi Final and Sliabh gCua in the Western Final, where, over the two games, they scored eight goals.
The winners had the perfect start to this game. With over a minute played, PJ Fanning in the middle of the field played the ball to Martin O’Neill. He found Adam O’Regan, who in turn picked out Ian O’Regan, who played the ball back to Adam O’Regan, but it looked as if his return pass was played too high. However, it was brought down, and he slotted low into the corner of the net for a very early goal.
Jamie Gleeson followed up with a point for the winners before John Wall and Ross Dunford played a one-two in front of the Mount Sion goal, and Wall shot over Colligan’s first score on nine minutes.
Mount Sion were very unlucky not to have struck for a second goal on ten minutes. Emmanuel Adebayo caught a lovely played ball and, after finding Jamie Gleeson with a fine pass, Gleeson played a ball across the goal where Austin Gleeson was lurking. He had more time than he thought, but hindsight is always a great thing, and sticking out a hand, he got too much on the ball and it rose over the crossbar. Had he caught the ball and kicked, maybe the game would have been over for Colligan.
David Butler and Jamie Gleeson swapped scores before Johnny Wall got his second of the game to leave three between the sides.
Gareth Duffy and Austin Gleeson helped extend Mount Sion’s lead. Duffy pointed again from a free only for it to be wiped out with a Ross Dunford effort from play at the other end.
The impressive Duffy again split the posts from a free to give his side a 1-7 to 0-4 advantage, but a brace of scores late in the half, both from Johnny Wall’s free, gave the Western Champions hope going into the second half.
Colligan started the second half brightly as Gavin Whelan and Ross Dunford both landed early scores to leave two between the sides. However, for Colligan, they would not score again for another 18 minutes, and this would cost them dearly at the end.
Gareth Duffy scored the game's first goal in 39 minutes when he put over a fine score from outside the 45-metre line to put his side 1-9 to 0-8 in front.
After 12 minutes without either side scoring, Dan Booth pointed for the Western Champions on 51 minutes to leave three between the sides. They would not score again, however, as Mount Sion began to make their dominance count.
Four minutes from time, Mount Sion worked the ball up the stand side of the field, and when Ian O’Regan found himself on the end of the move, he fired to the net to give his side a 2-9 to 0-9 advantage.
Gareth Duffy put over a free before Austin Gleeson showed what he is capable of using the big ball when he shot a nice two-point score.
Sion decided to use up their subs in the time that remained, and it was one of these, Ian Galgey, who stuck the last score of the game deep in stoppage time.
Gareth Duffy 0-6 (4F, 1 tp), Austin Gleeson 0-4 (1tp), Adam O’Regan, Ian O’Regan 1-0 each, Jamie Gleeson 0-2, Ian Galgey 0-1.
Johnny Wall 0-4 (3f, 1M), Ross Dunford 0-2, Gavin Whelan, David Butler, Dan Booth 0-1 each.
Richie Roche; Barry Ryan, Peter Penkert, Donal Power; Mikey Daykin, PJ Fanning, Tadhg Corcoran; Martin O’Neill, Jamie Gleeson; Emmanuel Adebayo, Stephen Roche, Adam O’Regan; Ian O’Regan, Austin Gleeson, Gareth Duffy.
Michael Gaffney for Emmanuel Adebayo (39), John Kennedy for Mikey Daykin (BS 39-44), John Kennedy for Adam O’Regan (44), Ian Galgey for Gareth Duffy (62), Evan Mackey for Martin O’Neill (62), Aaron Coughlan for Ian O’Regan (62).
Seanie McGrath; Ceiran McCabe, John N. Fennell, Dan Booth; John Power, Reece Stringer, Richie Kiely; Joe Booth, Loughlin Walsh; Gavin Whelan, David Butler, Ross Dunford; John Wal, Michael Tobin, PJ Coffey.
Mark Power for John N. Fennell (24), Darragh Hallinan for Mark Power (55).
Anthony Fitzgerald (Gaultier).
