Arva comfortably secure passage to Croke Park

All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final

Arva 2-16

Milltown 1-9

Arva were ruthlessly efficient in attack and mean in defence in Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final as they made light work of the Kildare and Leinster champions in the Downs club grounds in Westmeath. Despite very poor underfoot conditions, Finbar O’Reilly’s side registered less than a handful of wides in a turnaround from the Twinnings final against Wandsworth.

The score line indicates a one-sided game which is accurate for the vast majority of it with a lucky goal nine minutes into the second half closing the gap to four points, which was as close as Milltown got. At that stage, Barry Donnelly, Triston Noach Hofmann and Ciaran Brady took back control of the game, leading to a goal and five points for the men in blue without reply in the final quarter.

The margin of victory came as a surprise given that Milltown came through Leinster with relative ease, winning their four games by an average of five points. Defensively they were solid in Leinster also with the nine points they conceded in their first round against St Mary’s Rosslare the highest number of scores against them.

The victory did come at a cost as Arva lost star forward Conal Sheridan during the warm-up to a muscle injury. They may also be without Thomas Partington who was brought to hospital after the game after an incident in injury time. Milltown full forward Ronan O’Shea received a red card with time almost up.

Inside the first minute Arva were off the mark as Jonathan McCabe finished off a counterattack with a right-footed point from 40 metres. Two minutes later, the Milltown keeper Alan Dignam booted over a free off the ground from 46 metres to level the match for the first and last time.

Arva quickly went through the gears and hit a level Milltown couldn’t match. Ciaran Brady was fouled running through the middle and Hofmann did his duty with the free. After a wide from Milltown, Cian O’Hara picked out Partington on the far 65 with a kick-out and the ball was quickly transferred to Kevin Bouchier for his opening point of seven.

Arva’s pace on the counter-attack resulted in Paul Cassidy becoming their fourth different scorer after 11 minutes of play and from the resulting kick-out, Peter Morris left Arva with a four-point lead as he added his name to the scoresheet. A really well-hit point from Patrick Donohoe briefly stalled Arva’s momentum but when Stephen Sheridan was given a small window to get them back on track, he calmly raised Arva’s sixth white flag.

A 13-metre free on the quarter hour mark by Conor Sheerin left three points between the sides but Arva were in complete control thanks to their impressive work rate. The work rate was matched by no shortage of skill as Kevin Bouchier brilliantly picked out Barry Donnelly’s run in behind the defense with a 40-metre kick pass. Without breaking stride, Donnelly gathered the ball on his chest, side-stepped the keeper and rolled the ball to the back of the net with his left foot.

With 10 minutes to go to the break, Arva led by six but were reduced to 14 players when Stephen Sheridan was shown a black card. Displaying their superiority, Arva held Milltown scoreless while down a man and even extended their lead thanks to a Bouchier free.

Milltown racked up five missed chances from dead balls in the first half but Patrick Donohoe made no mistake in the 30th minute with a 25-metre free after their sweeper-keeper Dignam was fouled. A dangerous run by Hofmann was halted with a foul two minutes into injury time and Bouchier easily converted the free to leave Arva 1-8 to 0-4 ahead at the break.

After a short break, Arva landed the first blow of the second half with Donnelly pointing from the throw-in. Milltown, energised by their half-time team talk, began to win more of the ball and mid-fielder Kevin Byrne made it count in the second minute with a 40-metre point on his right foot.

Cian O’Hara was then called into action a minute later as Sheerin went short with a free to Byrne who blasted a shot goalward before it was pushed over the bar by the Arva number one. The speed and fluidity of the Arva attack was a noticeable feature of the game and Jonathan McCabe’s second point was a perfect example of this strength in the Arva team.

With nine second-half minutes played, Milltown, trailing by seven, were handed a lifeline. The surface of the goalmouths was a firmer synthetic grass than the rest of the pitch. A green flag was raised for Milltown as a shot dropped short to the square and the ball seemed to take a wicked bounce, catching out the Arva shot stopper - although it’s debatable whether it actually crossed the line.

A quick free by Barry Donnelly set Ciaran Brady off on a run at the Milltown goals and when he was fouled, Bouchier steadied the ship by pointing the free. A beautiful long-range point by Aaron Jacob on the 14th minute of the second half over-stretched his hamstring and saw him go off injured while also accounting for Milltown’s last score of the game.

Donnelly’s ability to beat players saw him kick his third score of the game and win a free a minute later for Bouchier to hit his fifth. A super solo run by Bouchier into the heart of the Milltown defence left McCabe free in the pocket and he added a third point to his tally to restore Arva’s seven-point lead.

Once again, a foul on Ciaran Brady resulted in a free and in a sign of Milltown’s growing frustration, the free was brought forward for Bouchier to tap over the bar. Milltown got a shot away at the Arva goal in a scramble but O’Hara had the measure of the shot.

Donnelly and Hofmann combined to set up Bouchier for his final point of the game with a minute of ordinary time remaining. With Arva leading by nine points they sent the ball towards the Milltown goal. Bouchier flicked the ball forward to Jamie Grey who smartly, rather than try to beat the keeper, played a clever pass to the rushing Paul Finnegan who rolled the ball into the empty net.

In the next play, an off the ball incident spotted by the linesman resulted in a red card for Ronan O’Shea and black card for the Milltown keeper Alan Dignam for remonstrating with the referee. After a lengthy delay allowing Thomas Partington to be attended to by the Arva physio, play resumed and quickly came to a conclusion, seeing Arva into next Sunday’s All-Ireland final.

Arva: Cian O’Hara, Dylan Maguire, James Morris, Finbar McAvinue, Charlie Madden, Stephen Sheridan (0-1), Ciaran Stanley, Ciaran Brady, Triston Noach Hofmann (0-1f), Thomas Partington, Barry Donnelly (1-2), Jonathan McCabe (0-3), Peter Morris (0-1), Kevin Bouchier (0-7, 5f), Paul Cassidy(0-1)

Subs used: Jamie Grey for P Morris, Stephen Ellis for F McAvinue, Bryan McEntee for C Brady, Paul Finnegan (1-0) for B Donnelly.

Milltown: Alan Dignam (0-1f), Jamie Cross, Cian Buckley, Sean Murphy, Aaron Jacob (0-1), Colin O’Shea, Shane Daly, Kevin Byrne (0-2), Conor Sheerin (0-1f), Karl Heuston, Ben Heuston, Ben Curran, Declan McKenna, Ronan O’Shea, Patrick Donohoe (0-2, 1f).

Subs used: Tom Stapleton for A Jacob, Aaron Walker for B Curran, Sam O’Hara for B Heuston, Ian Fitzgerald for K Heuston.