Round 2 of the Go Ahead Junior 1 Club Championship took place in Longmeadows on Sunday.  

One of the new initiatives that the Dublin GAA bought in, in order to avoid dead rubbers in Round 3 of the Championships is that the Round 1 winners will face each other in Round 2 and likewise the Round 1 losers pair off in the second Round 2 fixture. 

After losing their Round 1 fixture to St Finian’s Swords two weeks ago. The St Brendan’s Football 1st XV, Sponsored by Dynamic Safety Solutions, bid to get their Championship campaign back on track against Robert Emmets, who lost to Crumlin two weeks ago. 

Before we see what happened in Longmeadows, here is another round up with what happened to other St Brendan’s teams during the week. 

Last Sunday, The Hurlers, Sponsored by Bodibro, had a tall order against a high flying Clontarf side in Round 4 of the Go Ahead Junior C Championship. Indeed, Clontarf showed why they are the team to beat in the Championship with a routine 4-19 to 0-7 victory. 

Last Monday, both the Ladies 2nd and 3rd XV’s were in Junior Shield Action. While the 3rds were beaten 3-14 to 2-2 against Round Towers Clondalkin in the Junior N Shield, the 2nds on the other hand, defeated Clanna Gael Fontenoy 5-13 to 4-4 in their Junior G Shield Semi Final and will go on to face St Finian’s Swords next Wednesday the 27th at 7.15pm in the Final. 

The Ladies 1sts sponsored by McGowans of Phibsborough, opened their bid to win the Junior B Championship at the fourth time of asking with a fixture in Longmeadows against Erins Isle, However, it was the Finglas outfit who ran out 3-13 to 2-7 winners and The Female Dark Force will try and get the show back on the road next Wednesday at Mobhi Road and a fixture against Na Fianna. 

So onto the Football 1sts Championship fixture against Robert Emmets. John Tuffy, Shane Feeney and Cian Walsh were so irate over losing to St Finian’s Swords two weeks ago that they told all players in the squad that anyone who had tickets for the Oasis and Robbie Williams concerts in Croke Park, or tickets for any other event, were asked to sell them immediately and 100% focus on getting the Championship back on track. 

The Dark Force started the match in typical St Brendan’s fashion with the opening score after 25 seconds thanks to Eoin ‘Quinn Roux’ Fallon after Washington Sean Whelan won the opening throw in. After the Walkinstown outfit got their opening score, Fallon was on hand to make it a brace with another point from play after collecting a pass from Stephen Durcan who in turn collected a sideline ball from The Shoeman Brendan Brogan. 

Robert Emmets made it a Desmond (0-2 0-2) with a free in, and then took the lead momentarily with a point from play. Kevin ‘76’ Berry, who was forced to sell this ticket for the College American Football match in the Aviva Stadium yesterday, supplied the final ball to Brogan, who saw his path for goal blocked and settled for the point instead. 

Diarmuid ‘Dempsey’ Cooney gave St Brendan’s the lead again with a point from play after excellent play from The Nemo Ranger Tadhg O Brien and Scott ‘Ramor United’ O’Rourke. The two combined again this time for Conor ‘Tattenham Corner’ McGeough for the fifth point. Then those three combined again and it was McGeough’s pass to Fallon who opened the Emmet’s defence with a super well taken goal, 1-5 to 0-3. 

The away side score two points on the spin, Whelan had a two pointer bid that went wide, but he  redeemed himself by winning the Emmets kickout with a Mark and in the end it was Brogan who got his second point and his sides 6th. 

Despite being forced to sell his ticket for John Cena’s retirement tour at the WWE Smackdown event in the 3 Arena on Friday, The Golden Mullet Conall Morgan won a turnover and passed to The Nemo Ranger Tadhg O Brien to score his first Championship point, 1-7 to 0-5. 

Cooney managed to get his second point after Kevin Berry won the Emmets kick out. The Lumberjack Liam Atkinson ensured that Eoghan ‘The Bridge’ Clogher wasn’t beaten for goal with a super goal line clearance while Bryan ‘The Passenger’ Marley played a long diagonal ball to Morgan, who was in a battle with his marker for possession close to the sideline, but the Emmets player kicked the ball into the bushes in disgust after conceding a free, which the referee moved 13 meters straight in front of goal, and Cooney could not miss from there and he didn’t and his third point. 

McGeough also got his second point of the first half with a point from play. Then Emmet’s got a free in with the last kick of the first half to ensure a seven point lead for St Brendan’s at half time. 1-10 to 0-6. 

The Second half started exactly the same way as the first, with Whelan winning the throw in and it was Cooney who got the point. The next point had ‘Made in County Sligo’ written all over it with Durkan passing to Brogan who made it 1-12 to 0-6. 

Stephen Durkan could have ended the match as a contest 6 minutes in the second half, after a shot from McGeough was half parried by the Emmets goalkeeper only as far as Durks, but went for power instead of placement and blasted the ball wide.  

After Emmets made it 0-7, Cooney made it 1-13 with a 20 meter free in, which was moved up after a foul on O’Rourke. Eoin Fallon won Clogher’s kick out with a Mark and played the ball to Tadhg O’Brien and the Corkman broke clear and bury the ball in to the net, 2-13 to 0-7 with 15 minutes to go. 

The away side went down to 14 players for the next 10 minutes with Emmets getting a black card after a reckless foul on Scott O’Rourke, Cooney promptly converted the free in, 2-14 to 0-8. 

Cooney was scorer in chief during the second half and scored another free in after a foul on Sean Whelan, as soon as the black carded Emmets player re-entered the field of play, Kevin Berry was black carded himself with a tackle that could only seen in College American Football. The free in from Emmets increased their tally to 0-11, but then Emmets made things really interesting when beating Clogher for goal and then O’Rourke got a red card for an alleged stamp in the build up to the goal. 

Cooney steadied the ship with another free in after a foul on Scatman John Dorrian. However, it appeared that St Brendan’s were treading water with the finish line in sight. First, Liam Atkinson was sent off for an incident not seen by this writer, and secondly, Robert Emmets first got a two pointer, then another goal and suddenly a 10 point lead was reduced to 2. 

But after Clogher’s kick out after the second goal, the referee, in essence, rescued St Brendan’s by whistling up for full time and who knows what would have happened had there been an extra two minutes played. 

While there was relief to get a championship win, there was anger over the manner St Brendan’s almost lost it with the finish line in sight, but no doubt this will fire up the squad for the Round 3 Championship fixture against Crumlin in two weeks’ time. 

Final Score from Longmeadows, St Brendan’s 2-16 Robert Emmets 2-14.