Bell tolls for Moyfenragh men as Boyne make another Final

BOYNE VALLEY…2-12

MOYFENRAGH…0-12

It doesn’t happen too often but it is nice when judgments arrived at through the one seeing eye here get vindicated. In the case you will read hereafter, the class of David Bell as a footballer and why the St Colmcille’s clubman is worthy of a call up to the Meath senior panel.

Quite often, players that are exceptional talents as Minors don’t ‘train on’ as they say in horse racing. Put simply, they don’t go on to fulfill anywhere near the potential it was thought they were possessed of as youngsters. Off the top of my head there are at least three in my own club who fall into that maddening bracket.

David Bell from beside the seaside, though, is not one such candidate. However, if memory serves me correctly, the gifted citog forward has had his (un)fair share of injury setbacks since he was indeed a prodigiously talented Minor because how he has not made a county senior panel to date is beyond me.

He has certainly been knocking out a serious tune throughout the season entering its final furlongs and that continued on Sunday last on Pitch 6 in Devenish Park.

Twice winners Boyne Valley were out of the blocks at Bolt-esque pace as Donaghmore/Ashbourne’s Sean Tyrell repeated his trick of last week, opening the scoring with a two pointer 90 seconds after the throw in.

Following on from Tyrell’s teaser, Bell’s St Colmcille’s compatriot Aaron Grant hoisted a white flag score before their opponents eventually awoke from their slumber with a brace of points apiece from Liam Jennings of Blackhall Gaels and Summerhill’s Conor Frayne flipped the contest on its head.

Ballivor’s Brendan McKeon then stretched the Moyfenragh lead with one swing of his boot from downtown but again the men from the place with a variety of honey named in its honour rallied before a third seasider, Eoghan McCloghan, added to his burgeoning reputation when sending Adrian Corcoran’s umpires for the orange flag once again.

Now, I know you’re probably thinking the needle is stuck on the record here, but no, the next pivotal phase of play also involved critical contributions from the St Colmcille’s club as firstly Aaron Grant capitalised on a major malfunction in the Boyne Valley rear-guard before offloading to Bell who drew a great tune out of the O’Neill’s Size 5 when planting it past Sean Muddiman.

From there, there was a frantic burst of scores between both sides with Muddiman and Andrew McWeeney nabbing oranges at one end that were cancelled out by Bell chiming in with a pair of singles. Thus it was the east county ensemble who took a 1-07 to 0-09 advantage with them to the red brick dressing rooms.

Both defences most definitely held sway in the early stages of the second half, with only two scores before the contest entered it’s final furlong. Most significantly however, one of those was Bell’s second ‘major’. Which essentially equated to game, set and match for Joe Cowley’s side.

That said, a somewhat unlucky amalgam from Meath West – whose cause certainly wasn’t helped by losing totems Conor Ennis and Ethan Devine through injury within minutes of each other – kept plugging away with scores from Jennings, Frayne and custodian Evan Connor of St Vincent’s Ardcath.

Fittingly, though, it was Bell who had the final scoring say. Ringing his own tally up to 2-3, while a sumptuous Dylan Keating double – in the fashion of Lee Keegan or Kieran McDonald left a half dozen between the sides when ‘Corky’ called full time.

Scorers – Boyne Valley: D. Bell (2-3), S. Tyrell (0-3, 1x2PT), E. McCloghan and D. Keating (0-2 each, 1x2PT), E. Connor and A. Grant (0-1).

Moyfenragh – C. Frayne and L. Jennings (0-3 each), S. Muddiman, A. McWeeney and B. McKeon (0-2 each, 3x2PT).

BOYNE VALLEY – E. Connor (St Vincent’s); S. Rooney (Seneschalstown), D. Waters (Seneschalstown), J. O’Hare (Rathkenny); L. Stafford (St Colmcille’s), S. O’Hare (Rathkenny), C. Harford (St Vincent’s); J. Brown (Donaghmore/Ashbourne), E. McCloghan (St Colmcille’s); E. Quinn (Donaghmore/Ashbourne), D. Keating (Seneschalstown), S. Tyrell (Donaghmore/Ashbourne); D. Bell (St Colmcille’s), A. Grant (St Colmcille’s), D, Curtis (Rathkenny).

Subs – A. Mulvany (Seneschalstown) for Curtis, K. Cully (Donaghmore/Ashbourne) for Harford, C. Carton (Donaghmore/Ashbourne) for Rooney, C.  Hegarty for Brown, L. Lynch (St Mary’s) for O‘Hare, R. Finnegan (Seneschalstown) for Tyrell, D. O’Brien (Seneschalstown) for McCloghan.

MOYFENRAGH – S. Muddiman (Summerhill); D. Finnegan (Longwood), B. Moran (Summerhill), C. Ennis (Ballinabrackey); S. Jordan (Na Fianna), A. O’Brien (Ballinabrackey), M. Brady (Moynalvey); E. Devine (Na Fianna), D. Lernahan (Trim); A. McWeeney (Kilbride), N. Smullen (Ballinabrackey), B. McKeon (Ballivor); L. Jennings (Blackhall Gaels), J. Harford (Kilbride), C. Frayne (Summerhill).

Subs – A. Murphy (Moynalvey) for Devine, J. Hayes (St Peter’s, Dunboyne) for Ennis, D. Lynch (Trim) for Smullen, N. Potterton (Ballivor) for McKeon, F. White (Kilbride) for Harford, L. Carolan (St Peter’s, Dunboyne) for McWeeney, V. Walsh (Moynalvey) for Jennings, H. Hogan (Longwood) for Lernahan.

Referee: Adrian Corcoran (Drumbaragh Emmets)