St Anne’s played with fire, and they got burned.
Sitting back, trying to run down a clock and attempting to close out a lead is a dangerous thing to do, as St Anne’s found out to their cost in their final group game of the Dublin SFC last weekend.
In a dramatic encounter against Naomh Mearnóg, Anne’s won and scored a penalty to give themselves a 1-13 to 1-12 advantage over their opponents with the clock ticking.
So they attempted to shut this game down. It was a case of win at all costs for them as they resorted to the dark arts of the game to stem the St Anne’s tide.
They tried to delay the resultant kick-out, and when they eventually won a soft free from it, their number 6 lay on the floor as if he was after getting seriously injured.
He was quick to get back to his feet, when the possibility of a quick free arose. But their number 22, who was taking the free didn’t seem to hear the call.
So, instead of playing the ball forward, he booted it down the other end of the field, presumably trying to make sure that his teammates would gather possession and waste time again.
But it all went to pot when the free was intercepted by a Naomh Mearnóg forward, who went onto lob the keeper from 30 yards out.
That put the score at 2-12 to 1-13 and the referee blew his final whistle before Anne’s could kick the ball out. And with that, the Portmarnock crowd went wild.
Footage of the crazy final few minutes emerged on Monday morning, and you can watch them here.
Naomh Mearnóg are now into the quarter finals, where they will play Cuala while St Anne’s were knocked out.
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