2023 AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Junior Club Championship Semi-Final – Listowel Emmets (Kerry) 1-11 Lahardane MacHales (Mayo) 0-3

Listowel Emmets (Kerry) defeated Lahardane MacHales (Mayo) by 1-11 to 0-3 in the 2023 AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Junior Club Championship Semi-Final on Saturday January 6th at Glenisk O’Connor Park Tullamore.

Bryan Sweeney strike helps send Listowel Emments through to All-Ireland Club JFC final after seeing off disappointing Lahardane from Mayo@Emmetsabu @Kerry_Officialhttps://t.co/GrQRiWiQBQ

— The Kerryman (@kerryman_ie) January 6, 2024

Listowel ease past Lahardane into All-Ireland Junior final

Report by Michael Gallagher for the Irish Examiner newspaper

All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final

Listowel Emmets (Kerry) 1-11 Lahardane MacHales (Mayo) 0-3

A town renowned 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 Connacht king-pins Lahardane McHales in sun-splashed Tullamore and were well-worth their 11-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 10-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.

LISTOWEL: C Keane; C Pierse, N Collins, E Healy (0-1); S Keane, E Browne, M Kennedy; JJ Grimes, D Leahy; G McCartrhy, J McVeigh, J McElligot; B Sweeney (1-1), C Mulvihill (0-3), D Keane (0-5, 4fs)
Subs; D Lynch (0-1f) for Sweeney, S Tarrant for S Keane, A O’Rourke for McCarthy, J Moriarty for McVeigh, C Holly for D Keane

LAHARDANE: J Queenan; B Leonard, C Finnerty, K Lynn; A Murphy, Jarlath Maughan, C Rowland; K Jordan, S Finnerty; S Loftus, James Maughan (0-1f), M Noone; M Maughan, D Walsh (0-1f), A Leonard (0-1)
Subs; B Joyce for Rowland, K Dyran for Lynn, M Murphy for Loftus, D Langan for S Finnerty, E Fergus for B Leonard

Referee: K Faloon (Armagh)

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