Westmeath Senior Football County Final: Mullingar Shamrocks 2-12 St Loman's 1-11.

And so the Westmeath stage of the journey ended in triumph with the Flanagan Cup (minus a handle) destined to reside in Springfield for the twelfth time in its history. The general agreement was that this was the sweetest victory of the lot for many reasons. Winning the first all-Mullingar county senior football is a record that can never be beaten and defeating a very fine St Loman's team in the process added to the sweetness. In doing so Mullingar Shamrocks preserved their record as the last club to achieve the difficult four-in-a-row championship titles. The group of three will remain small for at least five more years. The county final programme read it right: it's hard to win four-in-a-row.

After the formalities, ended wind assisted Mullingar Shamrocks repeated their scoring pattern of their previous matches. Courtesy of Dean Moore two points were added to the scoreboard in the opening three minutes. A Denis Corroon free provided the opening opportunity and Dean pointed. The second began with a great Paddy Joyce interception who delivered to Micheál Curley who released Paddy Fagan for one of his surging runs through the centre. The inevitable foul followed and Darren once again clipped over the free. Two minutes later Seán Lancaster's county final ended when he was introduced to a red card by referee Niall Warde for his contribution to an off the ball incident. St Loman's reacted to this setback by scoring three unanswered points, a long range effort from David Windsor and two from John Heslin. Before the interval Heslin added four more points some of them outrageous efforts that showcased the Loman's man's talent at its brilliant best. A glorious Alan Cashman point scored from near the sideline and deep in the corner levelled matters; this outside of the boot curler began deep in the Shamrocks defence when Tye Adamson kicked what seemed to be the riskiest of high back passes to Philly Shaw who confidently fielded the ball for what was his most difficult save of the afternoon. Tye went on to feature in the resultant move on a number of occasions. Dean Moore added his third point to send Shamrocks into the lead. A piece of high fielding by Dónal O'Donoghue released Paddy Fagan for another surging run through the middle and another foul resulted. This time Denis Corroon pointed from the medium distance free (0-5 to 0-3). This was quickly followed by one of the crucial scores of the match and one of the great goals of the championship. It began with a mark by Kieran Gavin who delivered a long pass to Jordan Warde who was forced over the sideline giving possession back to St Loman's. Alan Cashman recovered possession who found Dónal O'Donoghue on the break. O'Donoghue released the ball to Paddy Fagan who volleyed the ball past Stephen Gallagher with a brilliant piece of improvisation and individual skill from the man who was on offer at 33/1 from the generous bookies to score the first goal. Dónal O'Donoghue, in his nineteenth season in senior championship football (he played every minute of every game), has rarely played better and his fitness management and game management were critical to Shamrocks successful season as he went about his business in each game with the absence of fuss as he moved around the field to make the critical interventions that his wonderful game sense allowed him to anticipate. Denis Corroon added a sixth point to the Shamrocks interval total after he was fouled and he knocked over the resultant free himself (1-6 to 0-7).

It was debatable whether this 0-2 interval lead was sufficient given the strong breeze blowing towards the Harbour Court apartments and within three minutes of the resumption it seemed as if the Flanagan Cup was destined for Lakepoint Park. John Heslin pointed a free; he followed this with a quickly taken free that for the only time found the Shamrocks defence in standby mode and Ronan t O'Toole was the beneficiary and raced clear to set up a goal chance for Ken Casey. The Offaly man doesn't miss these gift wrapped chances and shot to the net and suddenly St Loman's were in a two point lead. Shamrocks quickly rebooted and Dean Moore pointed a free (with the left foot it should be noted) following another foul on the strong running Patrick Fagan. The Shamrocks defence was stretched again directly from Stephen Gallagher's restart but a brilliant piece of defending by team captain Eddie Moore prevented what seemed to be a certain goal and Shamrocks had survived a potential critical moment. Shamrocks responded with a superb Denis Corroon goal that established a lead for that was never subsequently lost. Daragh Daly made the crucial interception as St Loman's began a passing movement deep in their own half. Daragh extended his massive 6'6" frame to knock the ball down to Dean Moore who transferred to Ciarán Curley, he in turn found Daragh Daly on the loop who created the goal chance for Denis Corroon. Denis still had some work to do but remained unruffled and picked his spot and crashed the ball to the Loman's net (2-7 to 1-8). John Heslin pointed another free but this was neutralised by a lovely Denis Corroon left-footed effort. The move began in the Shamrocks goalmouth when Philly Shaw and Daragh Daly combined to defend a shot that rebounded from the goalpost. The resultant free began a move that included Daragh Daly, Simon Quinn (who had a superb second-half and covered acres of ground and always made the right decisions on the ball), Alan Cashman (who also covered miles of Cusack Park in executing his role as a modern wing-forward0, Paddy Joyce, Alan Cashman again, Billy Flynn, Ciarán Curley and Kieran Gavin before Denis swung his left foot for a glorious point. John Heslin again pointed a free; Simon Quinn responded with a point that again resulted from several passes with the Curley brothers, Dónal O'Donoghue and Kieran Gavin and an Efe Siode block down contributing. At this stage, Billy Flynn who again had to retire injured and was replaced by Ross Corroon, Efe, Ciarán Curley and Aaron Purcell were on the field and all four had a significant impact on the game and injected new energy to the Shamrocks effort. T. J. Cox pointed to reduce the deficit to the minimum as the final entered its closing stages (2-9 to 1-11).

Mullingar Shamrocks, battle-hardened by their four previous must-win championship encounters retained their composure for the final vital minutes, which transpired to be some of the most important in the club's history. A Shane Dempsey scoring opportunity to level the match dropped short and was safely collected by Philly Shaw who transferred to Aaron Purcell and a sequence of ten passes later ended with Denis Corroon pointing a difficult free; Stephen Gallagher's restart was intercepted by Ciarán Curley who transferred to Dean Moore for another point, his fifth of the day to bring his championship total to 1-20 in what was a great championship campaign for the skilful full forward. The resultant kick-out was again claimed by Mullingar Shamrocks this time collected by Micheál Curley who burst forward with the ferociousness that has characterised his play all season. Paddy Fagan continued the move, Micheál Curley continued his run and with his left foot secured the last point of the 2018 Westmeath senior championship. Micheál was the eighteenth player to score for Mullingar Shamrocks this season and it could hardly have been more appropriate as Micheál had a superb season for Shamrocks and his great play at centre-back set the standard for championship winning performances. There was still time and the final minute was decorated by a brilliant shimmy from the Shamrocks equivalent of the great Paul McGrath, Efe Siode (he glides through matches without overtraining!). Efe's last fifteen minutes contributed substantially to the Shamrocks victory. And then a high delivery into the Shamrocks goalmouth was fielded by Daragh Daly (his return from injury was invaluable) in what was the last action of the 2018 senior football championship.

Denis Corroon was a worthy winner of the Man of the Match award with his midfield and full-forward play and his 1-4 brought his championship total for the year to 1-23. Denis with his collection of football skills was superb all season. County Champions! The sweetest words in the GAA dictionary. The improbable journey and at the end of a magnificent county final, Eddie Moore was the one climbing the steps of Cusack Park to accept the Flanagan Cup from a delighted Football Committee Chairman, our own clubman, Des Maguire. It was a superb team victory founded on hard work and commitment and some superb pieces of individual play. Congratulations to all twenty-eight players concerned and especially to manager Ned Moore, his fellow selector and team trainer Enda Monaghan, selectors Barry Maguire and Gerry Nohilly, Gary Corroon (strength and conditioning) and logistics manager Ross Brady. Ross's attention to detail was evident on the eve of the final as he parked his car stocked with the essential equipment outside the entrance to Cusack Park early on Saturday evening.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore, Kieran Gavin, Killian Daly; Paddy Joyce (Aaron Purcell) Micheál Curley (0-1), Tye Adamson (Billy Flynn) (Ross Corroon); Denis Corroon (1-4), Patrick Fagan (1-0); Daragh Daly, Dónal O'Donoghue, Alan Cashman (0-1) [Efe Siode]; Jordan Warde (Ciarán Curley), Dean Moore (0-5) Simon Quinn (0-1).