Allen Gaels banish the ghosts of 2024 to storm to Smith Monumentals IFC crown in style

Living up to their billing at the hottest of favourites, Allen Gaels also managed to banish the ghosts of last year’s traumatic final loss when they brushed aside a battling St Patrick’s Dromahair to claim their second ever Smith Monumentals Intermediate Championship title on Sunday in Heartland Credit Union Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada.

The Drumshanbo men were red hot favourites before a ball was even kicked this year and they delivered in style, a 15 point victory putting an exclamation point on a season that has seen them go through League and Championship unbeaten and also reinvigorated the club for the future.

It is impossible to analyse their 3-16 to 1-7 mauling of Dromahair without reference to the trauma they suffered last year when Melvin Gaels conjured three goals out of the air to snatch a one point victory. But it is safe to say that in the horrors of that loss, the seeds of this triumph have been forged.

The closest any team has got to the Drumshanbo men in this year’s championship was Gortletteragh’s eight point loss in the first round but the Gaels have gathered steam like an unstoppable locomotive engine since then, bulldozing any team that stood in their way on their way to an emphatic win.

St Patrick’s Dromahair were the latest to fall victim to the Allen Gaels redemption tour - the Dromahair men would have stood a good chance to victory against the usual Intermediate teams that have reached the finals in recent years but not this year, not this Allen Gaels side who were driven to heights they haven’t reached in years.

CHECK OUT WILLIE DONNELLAN'S GALLERY OF ALLEN GAELS SMITH MONUMENTALS IFC FINAL CELEBRATIONS

Incredibly, this year’s Intermediate crown was the first Championship Allen Gaels have won since their last Senior success in 2002 - they did win a Junior title in 2008 with their second string side but this is a potential stepping stone to competing with the big boys of Leitrim Club football once again.

They certainly have the raw material - Man of the Match Radek Oberwan was outstanding, the driving force of this Gaels outfit but he could have been pipped for the honour by anyone from Caleb Duffy to Karl Foley to Shane Walsh, Brian Mulvey or Kieran Kilcline, Arek Oberwan or Adrian Sorohan in an awesome display of strength.

Next up is a Connacht IFC Club clash, away from home, against a strong Strokestown on the weekend of November 14-15, but as they have demonstrated all year, the Gaels shouldn’t fear anyone if they maintain this sort of form.Perhaps nerves were on show with the game slow to get going, both teams wasting two chances in the opening five minutes before a foul on Ciaran Walsh allowed Kieran Kilcline to open the Allen Gaels’ account from a free. 

The former Roscommon player put a free badly wide but after enormous pressure on a Dromahair defender, six Allen Gaels players around him on his own endline, Shane Walsh fisted the ball over the bar.

The Allen Gaels team who defeated St Patrick's Dromahair in the Smith Monumentals IFC Final Picture: Willie Donnellan

Walsh then turned provider in the game’s first major moment, his perceptive pass finding Radek Oberwan almost unmarked in front of goal. The former Leitrim player brushed through a challenge before planting a great shot in the Dromahair net after just 11 minutes with his brother Arek adding a point seconds later.

Kilcline then showed all his smarts as he burst in along the endline to fist the ball over the bar. 

Dromahair were rattled but they got their first score when Leon Harte burst through a tackle to fist the ball over the bar on 14 minutes. Harte followed up with a wide while Declan Fowley drove a shot over the Gaels bar, a goal maybe on, after Adam Gethins’ quickly taken free.

But the Gaels response to those scores was telling with four points in five minutes from Ciaran McMorrow, Shane Walsh, Caleb Duffy and Kyle Flynn with a Gethins free in response, the gap now eight points after 23 minutes.

A Dromahair attack broke down and, starting on his own 50, Kieran Kilcline outpaced three Dromahair players before firing the ball over the bar, adding a free a minute later while Shane Walsh’s clever shot forced Dromahair keeper Noel Hynes to tap the ball over the bar as Allen Gaels now led by 11 points.

The St Patrick's Dromahair team who were defeated by Allen Gaels in the Smith Monumentals IFC Final Picture: Willie Donnellan

But just on the stroke of halftime, Dromahair were handed a lifeline - a sublime Martin Feeney pass was superbly fielded by Gary Fowley, he went to go round Adrian Sorohan but was impeded and after consultations with his umpires, referee Kevin Mallon awarded the spotkick, expertly converted by Adam Gethins.

That was the lifeline Dromahair needed as they trailed 1-11 to 1-3 at the break but whatever hope existed, it was brutally extinguished barely 20 seconds into the second half, Radek Oberwan’s pass releasing Caleb Duffy who broke through a tackle, seeming unstoppable, before firing a rocket to the Dromahair net.

Points from Radek Oberwan and Shane Walsh extended the lead but the urgency was gone from the game, Dromahair’s first score on ten minutes from a Gary Fowley effort from an acute angle immediately matched by a Kilcline point.

Kilcline almost got a goal when a turnover saw him put clean through but Noel Hynes made a superb save in the one on one. Sub Jake Tobin hit a point before Jamie Conlon landed a two pointer that looked, to his observer at least, as if it was well inside the arch. Dromhair's final score came on 48 minutes, Adam Gethins landing a free.

There was only two more scores but one of them was a palmed goal for Kieran Kilcline, Radek Oberwan’s strong run and pass leaving him with an easy task while Kilcline, after a second yellow card for Dromahair’s Declan Fowley, completed the scoring in added time to spark wild Allen Gaels celebrations.

ALLEN GAELS

Scorers: Kieran Kilcline 1-6, 3f; Shane Walsh 0-4; Radek Oberwan & Caleb Duffy 1-1 each; Arek Oberwan, Kyle Flynn, Ciaran McMorrow & Jake Tobin 0-1 each

Team: Daniel Egan, Adrian Sorohan, Mark Gunning, Mark Raftery, Kyle Flynn, Karl Foley, Brian Mulvey, Arek Oberwan, Radek Oberwan, Shane Walsh, Caleb Duffy, Thomas Mulvey, Kieran Kilcline, Ciaran Walsh, Ciaran McMorrow. Subs: Oran FOley for Raftery (HT); Jake Tobin for C Walsh (41); Conor Flood for Egan (45); Colin Moran for T Mulvey (56); Alan Wynne for Flynn (59)

ST PATRICK’S DROMAHAIR

Scorers: Adam Gethins 1-2, 1-2f; Jamie Conlon 0-2, tp; Leon Harte, Declan Fowley & Gary Fowley 0-1 each

Team: Noel Hynes, Declan Fowley, Michael Clancy, Jamie McLoughlin, Keelan McLoughlin, Jamie Conlon, Cian McMorrow, Shaun Conlon, Adrian Fowley, James Clinton, Martin Feeney, Leon Harte, Adam Gethins, Gary Fowley, Jamie Cawley. Subs: Oisin Conlon for A Fowley (25); James Clancy for K McLoughlin (HT); Jason McKenny for J McLoughlin (37); Michael Clancy & Darragh McMorrow for C McMorrow & J Cawley (45)

Referee: Kevin Mallon