North Dublin claimed their first National League title since 2005 with a well-deserved victory over an off colour Drogheda in the final fixture of the season in the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
Their 19 year wait looked like it might stretch to 20 as Drogheda started the match brightly, forcing some fine saves from Jamie Cope in the North Dublin goal in the first quarter with Hudson Grieve and Andy Healy.
Their opponents missed the best opportunity of the opening period when a long delivery from James Reid found Fionnan McMenamin up front ahead of the chasing Simon Heffernan.
Adam Child in the Drogheda goal did enough to hold McMenamin up just long enough for the Drogheda captain to pressurise the Dublin man enough for him to delay his shot which Child tipped onto the crossbar before retrieving possession to send the match into the second period scoreless.
North Dublin coach Stevie Nolan has his standard harsh words for his charges during the break and whatever he said seemed to fire his team up as they laid siege to the Drogheda goal in the early part of the second period, breaking the deadlock fortuitously when a Gerry Wilkes shot deflected off a helpless Aidan Mullaney and with Child off balance in the Drogheda net the ball trickled over the line.
This rattled Drogheda and a series of unforced errors seemed to hand the initiative to their opponents, forcing Drogheda into some last gasp rear guard action to prevent the deficit from increasing.Heffernan once again came to the fore in this period, showing great hunger and determination to perform some remarkable steals.
Struggling to find any shape to their play Drogheda went further behind when Cal Rohan found himself in acres of space and made no mistake with a stinging shot beating Child.
Recent addition Luka Olitskii turned on the magic with an incredible solo effort to halve the deficit when he broke along the wing and somehow manged to beat North Dublin net minder Cope with three opponents bearing down on him.
Drogheda’s hopes of equalising before half time were dashed when, in a moment of controversy, North Dublin’s antipodean James Reid appeared to foul Drogheda’s James Winters but neither ref seemed interested as Reid went unpunished and he stretched the lead to 3 – 1 as the clock ticked near half time.
Drogheda forced three shots in the final minutes of the period, but all three fell to Simon Heffernan who could not replicate his defensive accuracy as, uncharacteristically, he failed to trim the deficit.
At 3 – 1 the next goal was going to be pivotal and Drogheda started the third quarter brightly with a Teige Kelly lob shot forcing a full stretch save from Cope, and Andy Healy firing a rocket shot narrowly wide.
Drogheda’s profligacy was punished at the other end when a powerful postage stamp effort from Croatian Luka Vuksic gave Adam Child no chance in the Drogheda net.
Moments later Olitskii was adjudged by referee Brian O’Dwyer to have struck his opponent in transition and saw red for the second week in a row. The loss of Olistkii was a pivotal moment and the three goal deficit now looked like a mountain Drogheda might struggle to overcome.
Indeed it proved just that as a series of uncharacteristic misses from Kelly, Healy and Mullaney failed to trim the deficit. North Dublin’s veteran Paul McMenamin demonstrated his years of centre forward experience when he outsmarted Alex Crosbie at full back to take the stretch the North Dublin lead to four.
Drogheda’s own veteran, David Murnaghan, then made his impact on the game as his pinpoint pass found Aidan Mullaney unmarked and he made no mistake from five metres. The four goal lead was restored on the stroke of three quarter time as Reid buried a penalty.
With Drogheda’s chins on the floor, the last period played out very much like the preceding three with North Dublin’s accuracy from distance proving to be pivotal as Vuksic (2) and Paul Laffan put the icing on the cake to seal a 9 – 2 victory and a first title in 19 years for the Dubliners.
Drogheda can look back on their campaign with a degree of pride too as their 4th place finish was no more than they deserved.
Drogheda: Adam Child, Alex Crosbie, David Murnaghan, Aidan Mullaney, Teige Kelly, Luke Olitskii, Pearse Branigan, Simon Heffernan, Andy Healy, Hudson Grieve, James Winters, Alex Tapu, Simon Brazil.
This coming week sees the showpiece event of the water polo calendar, the Irish Senior Cup take place in Bangor. Drogheda have been grouped with defending champions St Vincents, Cathal Brugha from Belfast and their fabled northern counterparts Clonard.
Action begins on Thursday evening when the Boynesiders play St Vincents in their opener. On Friday at noon they face off against Brugha before the final group game on Friday evening against Clonard. The top 2 qualify for the semi-final on Saturday. In the other group North Dublin face off against Sandycove, Corrib and Half Moon.
