St Vincent's 0-14 St Oliver Plunkett's 1-10
All-Ireland club football champions St Vincent's had a late scare at Parnell Park before escaping with a 1-10 to 0-14 Dublin SFC final victory.
Tommy Conroy's side looked to be in a comfortable position with nine minutes remaining as they led by six points and closed in on a 27th title.
But 1-02 without reply in the closing stages from Plunkett’s Eoghan Ruadh, that included a 57th minute Alan Brogan goal, ensured a dramatic finale.
Plunketts ultimately left it too late to snatch victory though and time simply ran out as they chased a maiden county title success.
Instead, Vins march on and will defend their Leinster title next Sunday week when they face Portlaoise in a repeat of last season's final.
Vincent’s had star talent in their ranks as usual with Footballer of the Year candidate Diarmuid Connolly and Tomas Quinn starting in attack.
But it was the less heralded Ciaran Dorney and Gavin Burke who emerged as joint top scorers with three points each.
They will reflect on a strong third quarter performance as vital as they built on a two-point half-time lead and moved six clear, a cushion they needed late on.
Plunkett’s were seeking to go one better than their final defeats of 2008 and 2011 as they chased a maiden title.
All that hurt appeared to come flooding out in their early play as they strode into a confident 0-03 to 0-00 lead.
Playing a counter attacking game, based on a heavily buttressed defence, they funnelled their attacks through the Brogan brothers and Gareth 'Nesty' Smith.
Bernard Brogan hit back to back points before a Smith effort. Bernard then stung the palms of Vincent's goalkeeper Michael Savage with a sixth minute goal chance.
Vins hauled themselves into the game with four points in a row, all shot from distance.
The sides were level twice at 0-04 and 0-05 apiece before Vins nosed clear and took a 0-07 to 0-05 lead into the interval.
Burke and Ciaran Dorney were their most potent attackers, helping themselves to a brace of points apiece.
Bernard Brogan reduced the gap to one with a Plunkett's free after the restart, but rapid fire points from Vincent’s wing-forward Shane Carthy suddenly pushed the Marino men three clear.
With 40 minutes on the clock, Dorney pushed them four clear.
And when they strode six up with less than 10 minutes remaining thanks to two more Shane Carthy points they looked home and hosed.
They had to endure a nervous finale though and were left hanging on to their crown by their finger tips in front of a capacity 10,000 or so crowd.
St Vincent's: M Savage; K Bonnie, J Curley, H Gill; B Egan, G Brennan, M Concarr; E Fennell (0-01), D Murphy; G Burke (0-03), D Connolly (0-01), S Carthy (0-02); R Trainor (0-02), C Dorney (0-03), T Quinn (0-01, 1f).
Subs: Cameron Diamond (0-01) for Murphy, T Diamond for Dorney, M Loftus for Fennell, Cormac Diamond for Carthy,
St Oliver Plunketts: Eoghan Ruadh: A O'Mara; D Kelly, R O'Connor, E Clarke; D Brogan, D Lally, J Brogan; P Brogan, C Dunleavy; S Lyons, C Walsh, A Brogan (1-01); G Smith (0-03, 1 45), B Brogan (0-05, 3f), N Walsh.
Subs.: R McConnell for P Brogan, P Brogan for D Brogan, P Lee (0-01) for Lyons, P McNulty for Dunleavy,
Referee: D Feeney (Parnells)
