Douglas retain the Seandún U21A Football Championship beating Nemo Rangers for the second year running

Douglas 0-18 (0-3-12)

Nemo Rangers 0-11 (0-1-9).

Douglas have retained the PharmaCare Seandún U21A Football Championship, as they defeated Nemo Rangers for the second year running. 

This year’s decider was played before a sizeable attendance at MTU. 

Douglas will meet Muskerry Champions Éire Óg in the quarter finals of the County Championship.

Douglas, who were aided by a slight breeze in the opening half, played an open game as all their scores were from play. 

In the second half, they restricted the Trabeg side to four points, including a two-pointer.

Within two minutes of the throw-in, Nemo Rangers’ Dara O’Sullivan opened the scoring with a pointed free. 

This was followed by the game’s first point from play by Cian Power, which gave the Trabeg side a two-point advantage.

Eoin O’Flynn replied with Douglas’ first point. This was followed by the game’s first two-pointer by Harry Quilligan. 

Chris O’Keeffe added a further point, to give Douglas a lead of 0-4 to 0-2.

Conor Yelland responded for the Trabeg side, to reduce the margin to a single point. 

Douglas replied with a point by Sean Coakley and a two-pointer by O’Flynn.

Yelland tagged on his second point for Nemo Rangers, but Coakley landed a third two-pointer for Douglas, to increase his side’s advantage to 0-9 to 0-4.

Nemo Rangers’ Morgan Corkery exchanged points with Coakley. O’Sullivan scored two points, including a free for the Trabeg side.

This left Douglas leading by 0-10 to 0-7 at the break.

O’Flynn scored Douglas’ first point of the second half. Nemo Rangers replied with two unanswered points by Dave Callanan and Daniel Mellerick.

Douglas had the Trabeg side pinned back for most of the second half. 

Coakley slotted over two points. Quilligan, Jamie O’Brien and James Burke each added further points, to stretch Douglas’ lead to 0-16 to 0-9.

With the game effectively over as a contest, Yelland got Nemo Rangers’ only score of the final quarter, courtesy of a two-pointer.

In the game’s dying minutes, Coakley got two unanswered points for Douglas.

Scorers for Douglas: S Coakley 0-8 (2pt); E O’Flynn 0-4 (2pt); H Quilligan 0-3 (2pt); J Burke, Jamie O’Brien, C O’Keeffe 0-1 each.

Scorers for Nemo Rangers: C Yelland 0-4 (2pt); D O’Sullivan 0-3 (0-2); C Power, D Callanan, M Corkery, D Mellerick 0-1 each.

Douglas: J O’Flaherty; D O'Donoghue, J O’Callaghan-Maher, J Mouret; C Mac Pháidín, L Dwan-D Fogarty, O Barry; J Burke, D Mac Pháidín; E O'Flynn, Jamie O’Brien, D Reddington; S Coakley, C O’Keeffe, H Quilligan.

Subs: Jack O’Brien for D Mac Pháidín (43-51, temp), P McGrath for O’Flynn (45), D Mac Pháidín for Reddington (51), D O’Connor for C Mac Pháidín (60+).

Nemo Rangers: J Lyons; N O’Shea, D Quinn, T O’Brien; C Power, C O’Neill, D Coughlan; E Kelly, D Callanan; M Keenan, C Yelland, D Mellerick; L Healy, D O’Sullivan, M Corkery.

Subs: B O’Neill for Coughlan (43), B Twohig for Keenan (51), M Scott for Healy (51), L Butler for Callanan (60+).

Referee: Mark Maher (St Finbarr’s).