Damien Cahalane leads way through downpour as Castlehaven take title after chaotic match

Munster club SFC final: Castlehaven 0-13 Dingle 0-13 (after extra-time — Castlehaven win 4-3 on penalties)

A couple of minutes after he broke their hearts, Damien Cahalane hobbled half the length of the field to shake hands with as many Dingle players as he could find. In the end, a long story had come down to the things Cahalane did: two penalties scored in the shoot-out, one saved. Did you ever think of him as a goalkeeper or a goal scorer? Madness reigned.

It was an astonishing end to a chaotic match. Castlehaven won their first Munster title since 1997 without ever leading in the game. They trailed by a point deep into stoppage time at the end of normal time, trailed by two points in stoppage time at the end of extra-time, and somehow found the scores to survive.

The penalty shoot-out though was dominated by Cahalane. Growing up he had been a soccer goalkeeper, on the same schoolboy team as the Irish international John Egan. In training during the week Castlehaven discussed the possibility of penalties and they thought that putting Cahalane in goal might “put a spanner in the works.”

The Castlehaven sub goalie, Anthony Seymour, handed him notes he had prepared on the Dingle penalty takers and in the spilling rain Cahalane stepped up to take the first kick. Without blinking he smashed a penalty down the middle and just under the cross bar.

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By the time the fifth penalty came around Castlehaven had missed two and the Kerry corner back Tom O’Sullivan had a kick to win the match. Cahalane queried where the ball was being positioned and did his best to gate-crash O’Sullivan’s concentration, and whether it worked or not, O’Sullivan’s gentle kick was saved by Cahalane.

In sudden death Cahalane stood up to the first penalty. “I’ve been practising them all along,” he said. “I suppose keep doing what you’re used to. Going into the second one in particular I was thinking the goalie might be thinking I’d hardly go to the same spot again. I just went to the same spot again.”

Mikey Geaney’s kick to extend the shoot-out flew right and wide, 142 minutes after the ball had been throw-in.

Dingle will wonder how they lost. Castlehaven had been reduced to 14 men five minutes from the end of normal time, and when Dingle took the lead in the 60th minute it was only a matter of holding possession and killing the clock. In the conditions, though, even close range hand-passes were not certain to reach their target, and when Castlehaven mustered one last attack the outstanding Brian Hurley brought the teams level with his seventh point.

In extra-time, neither team managed to score against the wind. Dingle had first use of the elements and were three points clear the break. Paul Geaney kicked two beauties, and O’Sullivan scored the third on one of his familiar bursts from defence. But his fisted effort could just as easily have gone into the net, and a goal then would surely would have been the last word.

In worsening conditions players were going down with cramp all over the field. Castlehaven held tough. Their captain Mark Collins reduced the deficit with his second point, before the outstanding Cathal Maguire levelled the game with magnificent kicks in the 81st and 82nd minutes.

Penalty shoot-outs are always characterised as lotteries but the wind and rain had already introduced elements of chance to this game that neither team could mitigate. For the guts of an hour before throw-in ground staff with pitch forks tried to drain standing water from the Mackey Stand wing, which has always been the softest part of the pitch; but the rain kept falling and the puddles were replenished.

The wind was blowing so hard from the Ennis Road End that every kick into those goals was like a trigonometry problem. Jack Cahalane attempted one shot from just outside the 13 metre line that steepled towards the goals until it was gathered up by a gust of wind and fired out beyond its starting point. Later in the game two other kicks met a similar fate.

The Cork champions did well to trail by just a point at the break, 0-6 to 0-5. They didn’t kick a wide in that period and Hurley’s finishing was terrific in the conditions. Dingle extended their lead to three points with a fast start to the second half, and they looked relatively comfortable for a while. Castlehaven, though, refused to yield and Dingle couldn’t put a stake through their hearts.

Castlehaven: D Cahalane, J O’Regan, R Maguire, R Walsh, T O’Mahony, D Cahalane, C Maguire (0-4), C Cahalane, C O’Sullivan, J O’Neill, B Hurley (0-7, 0-4 frees, 0-1 45), S Browne, M Collins (0-2), J Cahalane, M Hurley. Subs: Jamie O’Driscoll for Michael Hurley 24 mins; A Whelton for Conor Cahalane 30 mins; Conor Cahalane for Browne 37 mins; C O’Driscoll for C O’Sullivan 53 mins; M Maguire for O’Neill 63 mins; R Minihane for Wheldon for 70 mins; R Wheldon for O’Neill 77 mins; M Maguire for O’Regan 82 mins. Red card replacement for extra time: Jack O’Neill

Dingle: G Curran, Tom Leo O’Sullivan, D O’Sullivan, Tom O’Sullivan (0-1), N Geaney (0-1), C Flannery (0-1), B O’Connor, B O’Sullivan, B O’Connor, M Geaney, P Geaney (0-4, 0-3 frees), Matthew Flaherty (0-1), Micheal Flannery, C Geaney (0-4, 0-3 frees), D Geaney (0-1). Subs: C O’Sullivan for Darragh O’Sullivan 47 mins; T Browne for Micheal Flannery 52 mins; P Devane for C Geaney 69 mins; Brian Devane for M Flaherty.

Referee: Derek O’Mahoney (Tipperary).