Back to back c’ship titles for Boden inter footballers

For the second year in a row Ballyboden St Enda’s faced off against northside rivals, Na Fianna in the Intermediate All-County Championship Final. Almost a year to the day in 2022, Ballyboden had secured their first intermediate title in fifty one years, and were now bidding for a second in two years.

And they achieved this with a superb 2-8 to 0-7 victory over Na Fianna in O’Toole Park with former Dubs Conal Keaney and Declan O’Mahoney part of the Boden team.

Both teams started brightly with the Firhouse Road men having the best of the opening exchanges despite failing to score.

The deadlock was eventually broken when Cian Grew declined a mark and put the ball over the bar from a tight angle.

Boden responded quickly from the boot of midfielder Ciaran Duggan.

At this stage Boden were applying more pressure and, playing with the aid of a slight breeze, tagged on a couple of points from the boots of Conal Keaney and Mikey Dunne.

In the fifteenth minute a kickout from the Ballyboden goalkeeper Josh Kane was deftly flicked on by the towering Mark Walsh in midfield.

The ball was gathered by Colly Dunne who raced towards the goal. Ignoring the unmarked player to his right, he played a one-two with his brother and deftly slid the ball under the on-rushing goalkeeper, Ciaran McHugh.

The huge crowd witnessed a gem of a score from Mikey Dunne who dummy soloed on his left side and slotted the ball over off his right foot.

Minutes later Luke Byrne hit a monster free with his right foot out on the angle of the sideline and the 45 metre line.

Conal Keaney finished the Boden scoring in the first half while Fiachra Potts notched one for Na Fianna to leave it 1-6 to 0-2 at the break.

The second half running of Robbie O’Reilly and Davy Keogh at wing forward maintained huge pressure on the Na Fianna defence.

One of the Boden substitutes, Eoghan Gannon, introduced at corner back, found himself careering through the centre of the Na Fianna defence with ball in hand and, spotting the keeper off his line, casually lobbed the ball over the hapless McHugh in the Na Fianna goal.

The halfback line of the two Oisins, Carolan and Byrne and Johnny Murphy continued to do trojan work while Declan O’Mahony who replaced Mark Walsh just after the break put in a big shift roaming the length and breadth of the pitch Boden added points from the boots of Colly Dunne and Conal Keaney to see out the game.

Na Fianna scored a few frees to keep close but not close enough to trouble the southsider’s dominance in this competition in recent years by playing a good brand of open attacking football.

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