DIT claim first Sigerson title in impressive style | Stephen Barry
DIT 3-8UCC 0-7DIT won their first ever Sigerson Cup title on Saturday as they hammered UCC in the Athlone IT GAA grounds. They did it the hard way too as they strangled the reigning champions DCU in the semi-final before killing off the UCC challenge with a pair of first half goals which set them on the path to a comfortable victory.The Dublin Institute were in UCC’s faces from the first minute to the last, giving them no time on the ball and pressurising every kick. This incessant pressure limited UCC to fifteen scoring chances across the sixty minutes while full-back Bryan Menton won the man of the match honours. It was fitting that this award would go to a defender in such a low-scoring decider as Menton kept UCC’s major threat Conor Cox scoreless from play only a day after he did the same job on All-Ireland winning captain Michael Murphy. Thus UCC, who had blasted 1-20 past the hosts in Friday’s semi-final even without the injured Paul Geaney, were left to feed off of crumbs for the majority of the decider.Indeed DIT could have won by more had they converted some of their nine first half wides before shutting up shop in the second period.Mayo midfielder Aidan O’Shea led the way for DIT in the opening minutes. After winning the throw-in he set up David Givney for the opening score of the game inside the first ten seconds before playing in the run of Ciarán Reddin for another point. Seán Mellett had to show strong hands under his crossbar twice in this period as DIT rained early shots on top of the UCC goal.In the seventh minute Peter Acheson found the endline run of Tom Clancy who fisted the Leesiders’ opening score from close range. Then a brilliant UCC move started with Eoin O’Mahony winning possession at one end of the field before Brian Coughlan wrong-footed his marker at the other to tap over the leveller.However UCC would be on par with DIT for barely even thirty seconds. UCC won the subsequent kick-out, an area they did well in, but Givney blocked down the ball before passing to Jason Doherty on the wing. Doherty found the thunderous run of Darran O’Sullivan who passed to Reddin. Instead of returning the ball, Reddin’s low snapshot caught UCC off guard and was perfectly placed in the far corner of the net for the lead goal.The game went without a score in the next ten minutes with DIT registering five wides in this spell while at the other end Robert Lambert did well to defend a dropping ball on his goal-line under pressure from Conor Sweeney.Thomas O’Connor battled to feed corner-back Gary O’Hare for a point before DIT added two more wides to take their total to nine.Sweeney made it a one-score game again with a 26th minute free but a minute later DIT had the ball in Mellett’s net again. Reddin fly-hacked the ball forward, O’Connor rose above O’Mahony and palmed down for the anticipating Doherty who put it low into the corner of the net.Doherty added an easy free which was cancelled out by Cox’s last minute conversion to leave DIT 2-4 to 0-4 ahead at the break – the difference was only two goals but it could have been much more.It only took the Dubliners thirty seconds to add to their first half lead as the excellent Givney dummied before swinging over a kick with the outside of his boot and aided by the crossfield breeze.Sweeney got an excellent score from play, starting from a stationary position before side-stepping his marker and curling over, but minutes later the same player had a shot blocked by a wall of three DIT players, indicative of the defensive pressure they were exerting on the college.38 minutes in, Gavin O’Grady got one-on-one with his marker but Nicky Devereaux got back to block O’Grady’s handpass across the goal for a 45. Luke Connolly converted that kick but DIT had snuffed out what would be the closest UCC would come to a goal chance.A diving block by Mark Collins, who won the Sigerson with UCC in 2010, pevented a Niall Daly score as DIT went down the field for an excellent O’Connor point, 2-6 to 0-6.O’Grady hit the post from the next UCC attack before Doherty and Sweeney traded frees as the game petered out.DIT were aimlessly holding possession and winding the clock down until a high ball in from Doherty was only puched as far as Givney, who buried it off of the far post in the 57th minute.To make matters worse for Billy Morgan’s side, Paul Maguire struck a good point off of the outside of his boot before Darragh O’Sullivan seemed to be harshly red-carded in the final minute.It was long over by then and DIT captain Colin Walshe lifted the Sigerson Cup to make it a memorable league and cup double for the Institute.DIT: R Lambert (Wicklow); K O’Brien (Dublin), B Menton (Meath), G O’Hare 0-1 (Louth); R Sheridan (Cavan), N Devereaux (Dublin), C Walshe (Monaghan); A O’Shea (Mayo), D Givney 1-2; M Reilly (both Cavan), M Collins (Cork), D O’Sullivan (Kerry); C Reddin 1-1 (Dublin), T O’Connor 0-1 (Kildare), J Doherty 1-2, 2fs (Mayo).Subs: B Allen (Offaly) for Reddin 41, A Nestor (Meath) for Sheridan 50, P Maguire 0-1 (Dublin) for Reilly 51, S O’Connor (Dublin) for O’Sullivan 52, J McGrath (Wicklow) for T O’Connor 59.UCC: S Mellet (Cork); P Galvin (Kerry), E O’Mahony (Cork), P Crowley (Kerry); J O’Sullivan (Cork), N Daly (Roscommon), T Clancy 0-1 (Cork); P Acheson (Tipperary), JB Spillane (Kerry); K O’Driscoll, B Coughlan 0-1, L Connolly 0-1 ‘45 (all Cork); G O’Grady, C Cox 0-1f (both Kerry), C Sweeney 0-3, 2fs (Tipperary).Subs: D O’Sullivan (Kerry) for Coughlan 47, P Murphy (Kerry) for Clancy 47, E Buckley (Cork) for O’Grady.(Photo: Former UCC student Mark Collins reaches the ball ahead of Tom Clancy)