News

Senior Hurling Championship

November 8, 2018

Championship Defeat For Hurlers

They say that goals win games, at Ballynoe on Sunday last, Killeagh scored three while we failed to raise even one green flag. In the final analysis the goals were indeed the difference. We registered sixteen scored while Killeagh had eighteen – but they had the goals and we hadn’t. played in perfect conditions before a fine crowd, this was a real East Cork local derby match. We hadn’t met Killeagh since 1990 when they defeated us in Ballynoe by 22 points 4-14 to 0-4 in the East Cork Junior ‘A’ Hurling Championship! On Sunday last we got off to a perfect start. Though playing against a stiff breeze we had two very quick points from Jerome O’Driscoll and Colm O’Keeffe. After a few wides Killeagh found their range and led by 0-3 to 0-2 after a quarter of an hour. Sean Ryan had a good point to level the scores at 0-3 each. Killeagh were ahead 0-4 to 0-3 with just a few minutes left and considering we were playing against the breeze, we looked to be in a very strong position heading for the break. Things changed rapidly in the space of five minutes, Killeagh hit 2-2 while a point from Barry Johnson was our only reply. This left us 2-6 to 0-4 behind at half time. Had Killeagh converted some of their wides tally they could easily have been further ahead but then we could easily have at least another 3 points in the first half. As it turned out that scoring spree before half time proved to be the decisive period of the game. With the aid of the wind in the second half we notched up a total of 12 points – scores coming from Sean Ryan, Jerome O’Driscoll, Barry Johnson, Michael Collins, Daniel Dooley and Terry Broderick. This brought our tally to 16 points but significantly Killeagh matched our efforts scoring 1-9. This meant they led by 8 points at half time and when the final whistle sounded, they were still ahead by the same margin. We forced two great saves from Bernard Rochford late in the game but never could get through for the goal which we needed.

            After the tremendous display in last years County Final this game was a huge disappointment. However, all is not lost and the great positive last Sunday was that the team showed great spirit all through and were trying very hard even at the end of the game. Last year we lost the first round to St Finbarrs after playing badly and yet managed to reach the County final. Our Round 2 opponents this year and local neighbours are Castlelyons. They lost to Sarsfields on Saturday. This game may be played on May 15th/16th or else on June 5th/6th. A word of thanks to our huge number of vocal supporters who travelled to Ballynoe on Sunday last.

Team & Scorers: Denis Fitzgerald, Aidan Collins, Brendan Walsh, Trevor Moloney, Barry Murphy, Brian Murphy (Capt), James Murphy, Barry Johnson (0-4, 0-2f, 0-1’65) Padraig Murphy, Sean Ryan (0-2), Jerome O’Driscoll (0-4, 0-1f), Michael Kearney, Michael Collins (0-1), Donal Ryan, Colm O’Keeffe (0-1).

Subs: Terry Broderick (0-2), Daniel Dooley (0-2), Stephen Boyce, Niall Fitzgerald.