ADULT FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE ROUND-UP: MARCH 1
By Daire Walsh
By virtue of their 2-14 to 0-8 victory against Naomh Mearnog at Portmarnock on Sunday morning, Kilmacud Crokes lead the way after round one of the new Adult Football League Division One season.
The top-flight was initially set to get underway two weeks earlier, only for Storm Dennis to bring a complete halt to competitive action. While Storm Jorge claimed a number of fixtures over the weekend, 12 teams got their respective campaigns up and running amidst some testing conditions.
League champions as recently as three years ago – 12 months before securing a Senior Football Championship crown – Crokes are aiming to leave their mark on 2020. Despite being without their Sky Blues contingent, they had the measure of the newly-promoted Mearnog.
Elsewhere, last year’s league finalists – and reigning Dublin SFC champions – Ballyboden St Enda’s displayed the midas touch in front of goal to record a 3-10 to 0-14 victory over Na Fianna. Tom Hayes, Ross McGarry and Darren O’Reilly recorded second half majors to ensure the hosts came away with the two points on offer.
An outstanding individual performance from Chris Carthy helped Naomh Maur to overcome the challenge of another divisional newcomer. Having suffered relegation in 2018, Castleknock responded by sealing the Division Two title in fine style last year.
They edged up front during a low-scoring opening in Rush, before Carthy rattled the net on the stroke of 20 minutes. The dynamic attacker continued to lead by example for the remainder of the half and the hosts ultimately brought a 1-5 to 0-5 buffer into the interval.
It remained finely-balanced on the restart and Castleknock twice trailed by a single point in the closing moments of the contest. However, Maur’s struck a brace of late points to register a 1-12 to 0-12 success.
There was greater joy for Clontarf on their return to the top-tier as they emerged with a 2-13 to 1-11 triumph at the expense of Ballinteer St John’s in St Anne’s Park. ‘Tarf reached the quarter-final of the 2019 Senior Football Championship and are expected to push strongly on both fronts over the course of the next few months.
At Russell Park, a Stephen Smith wonder goal propelled Skerries Harps towards a hard-earned 1-6 to 0-8 win against St Brigid’s. Though the all-weather surface in the Navan Road venue aided both set of players to a degree, the presence of a heavy sleet shower on the third-quarter mark certainly didn’t.
Before then, the visitors had offered themselves an encouraging platform at the midway point. After breaking through a retreating Brigid’s defence, Smith angled a superb strike into the top corner of the net.
This gave the Thomas Hand Street men a slender 1-2 to 0-4 advantage and following a tight and tense second period, they held out for a morale-boosting victory.
It was another tentative affair at Kiltipper Road but thanks to a two-goal opening half salvo, Cuala emerged triumphant against 2019 SFC finalists Thomas Davis on a scoreline of 2-3 to 0-5.