If you take that window of 4 seasons then there is an argument that they are possibly ranked too highly. Granted 16 and 17 they were magnificent but they couldnât buy a win in 18 and in 19 were handed their biggest trimming in a munster final and in the aif , they hurled against 14 men. Sheedy went to the well once too often with them in 20 which in a way tarnished them a little more
Just back from Sean Finn Park, the Bog Garden, Rathkeale.
Nick Grene Sportsground Maintenance County intermediate hurling championship Group 2 Round 3 result (NGSMCIHCG2R3R)
G/B 3-14 Knockaderry 0-13.
A game that wonât live long in the memory for the sizeable crowd in attendance but a colossal win for G/B, should guarantee safety for another year and a shot at advancing to the knock out stages.
Flew out of the traps and led 2-05 to 0-02 early doors but Knockaderry were dogged and at halftime it was back to five points. It was soon back to two points as repeated infringements were punished by young Danaher who nailed almost every placed ball.
G/B eventually awoke from their slumber and kicked on again, three quick fire points settling nerves. A late third goal was the icing on the cake.
Condon was up centre forward and scored Knockaderryâs only point from play in the entire game. The young lad Molloy was good but he lacked support up there.
Bit of a shock in the other game as Kilmallock 2 beat Pallasgreen by 2-12 to 0-12.
Croagh/Kilfinny play Hospital at 6 in the final group match this weekend.
If Croagh win that, as expected, then theyâd top the table after 3 matches with 6 points, G/B with 4 while Knockaderry, Hospital, Pallasgreen and Kilmallock would all have 2. Incredibly fine margins.
Itâs not the Box Office Junior A championship - what is - but itâs not far behind for drama. What a championship.
3 Likes
Purely from an emotional point-of-view, there is no better way to win a local derby than a last minute goal. An unbelievable feeling. As we said before, the last time a unified Kildimo/Pallaskenry team played Ballybrown in Championship was 1955, and we were banned for 5 years afterwards. Theyâve been very very noisy neighbours in the intervening years, and it was an extra sweet victory. A long, long time coming. We were written off by a lot of people after the Mungret game, but this was a great win to have, puts things back in our own hands.
On a more clinical level, it is always nice when a plan comes together. The vast majority of our match-ups worked out well; a few little blips at times but thatâs going to happen against a good side. Word filtered through during the week that Ballybrown were going to drop Josh Adams for missing training to play soccer for Balla and that they were going to detail Coughlan to man mark Kyle. From expecting to have to plan for three major attacking threats, we were now primarily focused on Aidan OâConnor (while obviously trying to get our match-ups right for the Griffins, Luke, RK, etc).
In fairness to him, Coughlan did a job on Kyle. He didnât let Kyle absolutely roast him, and even caught a ball over him. So I guess that one worked from their point-of-view? Kyle still got on more ball than any of our other players, scored 0-2 from play, set up another couple. But he didnât wreak the same havoc that he did against Mungret & Liberties.
Maybe Ballybrown were basing their plan on only having seen the Mungret game, when maybe it did look like we were a one-man team. But, in reality, we completely collapsed that day and weâre far from a one-man team really. And with Coughlan penned back inside in his own full-back line, he wasnât a threat and our other players stepped up.
Barry OâConnell hit 0-3 from play and caused them serious bother. Conor Staff was immense at wing-forward, work rate off the chats and a lovely score early on after selling the defender with a sidestep. Young Davy Fitz was so so classy, some great deliveries and an unbelievable point at the start of the second half. Peter Nash & CĂan Hayes swept up some amount of ball too, Cathal Downes did a job on Aidan OâConnor, held him scoreless.
With the wind & the slope in the first half, Ballybrown did cause us problems with a few puckouts- Bryan Griffinâs aerial threat was excellent and Luke OâConnor was catching us on the breaks. He ended up being Ballybrownâs main man, hitting 0-4 from play. Ross Kenny scored a lovely goal early on, but barely pucked a ball after that. Killian Gavin, Ross Griffin, Leigh Doolin- all very quiet.
We gave away some ridiculous frees in the first half, and thatâs something we have to work on. I thought we hurled really well into the breeze but it should have been a lot closer; Coughlan put one free over from almost on his own '21, absolutely ridiculous stuff. He hit 0-4 from frees in the first half, from deep inside in his own half. But we were working the ball well, Barry had had a chance saved by Cian Hedderman and Chawkie had to make a great save from Bryan Griffin too but we were confident enough with the wind to come.
And we did pin them back early on, we got a couple of scores in a row, they were struggling to get out with their puckouts. They had to bring Josh Adams on and, in fairness to him, he made a big impact. They only scored 0-4 in the second half, and he hit 2 of them. I think heâs very close to a Limerick setup now tbh, heâs hurling out of his skin.
They started without Josh, we started without our county man, Darren OâConnell but he came on and made a big impact: won a few frees and probably should have scored a goal. Just made things stick a little more in the forwards. Shaun Barry was ice cool on the frees, when maybe the radar was off a little for Ballybrown. But all our subs made a big impact; Darren was lively, Dylan Corrigan brought great work, CiarĂĄn Barry solidifed our defence and Ryan Kelly was just a handful and won the crucial free at the end.
Ballybrown did miss a lot of chances, and cutting down scoring opportunities has to be one of the things we work on. But having watched it back, Iâd be generally happy that we were getting pressure on the shooters and forcing them to take shots on over the shoulder or out on the touchline, or moving away from the goal generally. Definitely could cut down a few chances but our own conversion rate was way up so that was good. We had been the ones hitting 20+ wides in previous games but we did a bit of work and were taking shots from much better places generally.
And Ballybrown didnât take a single shot from play in the last 15 minutes of the game. We can talk about the wides but the game was there to be won in the final 15 minutes and we were the ones applying the pressure and creating chances in the Championship moments, not them. Nash really powered into the game, and we started totally dominate back the field.
And then, deep into stoppage time, who else would you want standing over a 20m free than Chawkie? Heâs been there many, many times before; 41 years of age, a prolific goalscorer in his younger days from play & placed balls. Poc fada champion, a fella who can hit a ball on an almighty belt⌠rifled it into the roof of the net. Unstoppable. What a way to win a derby. Ballybrown could have levelled it but a very tough free up the hill & into the wind for Coughlan just trailed wide at the very end, unfortunate for him in fairness.
In our hands now, have Ballybrown on the head-to-head, just need to be clinical going forward. Mungret & Garryspillane a big game this evening.
Kildimo/Pallaskenry 1-17
Shaun Barry 0-9 (0-8 frees)
Barry OâConnell 0-3
John Chawke 1-0 (1-0 free)
Kyle Hayes 0-2
Conor Staff 0-1
Jack OâKeeffe 0-1
Davy Fitzgerald 0-1
Ballybrown 1-16
Luke OâConnor 0-4
Ross Kenny 1-1
Aidan OâConnor 0-4 (all frees)
Colin Coughlan 0-4 (all frees)
Josh Adams 0-2
Andrew Cliffe 0-1
14 Likes
Kilmallock never feared Pallas
Half time in Fedamore. Croagh/Kilfinny aided by a strong breeze well on top here. Former Limerick minor Cian OâCarroll shooting the lights out with 0-7 posted, 0-3 of it from play. Tom McMahon, James Lanigan and Seamus Hickey all showing well for C/K. Dylan OâConnor is a livewire for Hospital and has posted their only score from play. Conor OâGrady at 6 also hurling well in a scarcity of decent performances from the Southerners.
Hospital full back back Joe Fogarty very lucky to only receive a yellow for hitting Croaghâs Barry Lenihan with the butt of the hurley right in front of ref Eamonn Stapletonâs eyes.
2 Likes
14-10 to C/K now. Hospital have thundered back into the game.
1 Like
FT in Claughaun NaP 3-15 Murroe/Boher 2-15
4 Likes
Full time in Fedamore - Croagh/Kilfinny 0-18 Hospital/Herbertstown 0-14
3 red cards and total madness in second half.
Report to followâŚâŚ
10 Likes
Garryspillane 2-18 Mungret 1-17. FT.
Hurling Intermediate Group 2 result in Fedamore
CROAGH/KILFINNY 0-18 HOSPITAL/HâTOWN 0-14
This was the ultimate game of two halves. Despite the strong wind playing havoc with both sides scoring attempts, this was a highly entertaining yet very niggly affair in Fedamore on Sunday night.
Croagh raced into a 0-6 to 0-1 lead after 15 minutes. Cian OâCarroll, James Lanigan, Brian Hannan, Denis Lenihan and Tom McMahon were all to the fore in C/Ks first half superiority, aided by a strong wind. Only corner forward Dylan OâConnor and Oisin OâGrady at 6 showed any resistance for the Southerners, who hit some really poor wides in that opening period. C/K were full value for their 0-12 to 0-2 half time lead, even allowing for the elements being in their favour.
Second half and with the substantial wind that aided the Croagh men in the first half, Hospital came thundering back into the game. After an OâCarroll free opened the C/K scoring for the second period, H/H hit the next six scores. Conor OâGrady at 11, Mickey Bob Ryan beside him and Mark Deegan all now prominent. Former Limerick U21 man Aaron Murphy drooping back into the sweeper role after the break certainly aided H/Hs cause as C/K found it more difficult to win clean ball in the forwards. It took a point from play by midfielder James Lanigan on 45 minutes to stop the rot with the scores now at 0-14 to 0-8. Two frees and a Harry Fox point from play reduced the gap to 3 with ten to play. Eamonn Stapleton was having a busy time with loose hurleys and late tackles and he soon issued his first red of the day for a second yellow card for Croagh midfielder Josh OâConnor. In OâConnors defence it was a case of mistaken identity, as the hurley of his fellow Croagh midfielder Lanigan had actually made contact with a H/H arm. The ref saw it as OâConnorâs hurl and despite vehement protestations, the red card stood. Dylan OâConnor was next to see red for H/H for an off the ball strike on Croaghâs Ciaran Tangney. Barely 5 minutes after, H/H were reduced to 13 players after a blatant strike by corner back Killian Reale across the head of Seamus Hickey, who had decided to run off with the ball despite H/H being awarded a line ball. Reale gave chase and fairly well hacked the All Ireland winner down. Hickey was in tremendous form for C/K during that second half, winning 4 clean high balls and drawing fouls off 3 of them, all of which were pointed by OâCarroll. Croagh maintained the three point gap to the end where Lanigan hit the insurance score. The last action of the day saw H/H custodian Diarmuid Quirke pull off a great double save to deny Croagh a goal.
The winning of the game for Croagh was their ability to use the ball better against the wind than Hospital did. Too often H/H had point attempts from stupid angles, where as Croagh looked to work the ball through the lines where they could. H/H were also guilty of poor use of the wind in the second half, the ball either being hit long and carried by the wind over their forwards heads, or shooting far out from silly positions.
Croagh will be happy enough to have three wins out of three. Jack Lenihan & Adam Shanagher were introduced in the second half, and itâs a timely return for their player of the year and best forward respectively. Hospital gave a better account of themselves than their last outing against Granagh/Ballingarry and will be disappointed they didnât reel Croagh in while they had the momentum in the second halfâs first twenty mins. Wides killed them and lack of composure in front of goal. Dylan OâConnor, Conor OâGrady and Oisin OâGrady were best for them. Ref Stapleton deserves praise as there was lots of âoff the ballâ stuff and stray hurleys in this game, it threatened to boil over a few times but credit to him for keeping control and not allowing a brawl to develop which easily could have. The worst we had was a melee near full time following the third red card.
MOTM - James Lanigan (Croagh/Kilfinny).
13 Likes
There are a lot of last years minors performing very well so far in the club champ. Fitzgerald as mentioned is a fine player, he has had a great championship. SOB has shot the lights out for Kilmallock and canât be far off a senior call up. Joe Fitzgerald has been impressive for Monaleen, Hayes for NCW has been a primary scoring threat too. Cian Scully by all accounts is a machine and has been excellent for D/A so far. Youâre then looking at Kevin Maher starting corner back for Doon and Cian O Carroll scoring all around him for C/K too. Itâs a really strong group of players and lots of potential clearly on show so far in the club championships
4 Likes
Agreed, some very skilful players.
They had a bad result in a one-off, knockout game against a very, very strong Cork side.
Mikey Gavin has been very good for Ballybrown; okay, wasnât unbelievable against us but we had seriously factored him into our plans to try and restrain his attacking threat, he has been flying forward in other games.
TomĂĄs Lynch has been excellent in goals for Doon too.
Liam Dennehy has been going well for Glenroe apparently, I thought Gavin Rowsome was one of Ahaneâs better players, had no fear at all in going toe-to-toe with DOD and Euan Sheridan for Murroe/Boher was very good this evening.
2 Likes
The spread of clubs is great to see too with that crop. Some of those players are making a big difference to their respective clubs
Fair play because most teams are generally afraid before they play them. 
The Pallastinians as they affectionately call themselves
Good win for us, especially after losing a couple of games by a point. Hope they can stay up.
This may or may not come as a surprise to yet but Pallasgreen had a first half red card in that game, which probably impacted the scoreline.
1 Like
Heard it was a straight red in the first ten mins.
G/B v Pallasgreen in Bruff next Sunday at 1pm in Round 4.
Mike Mann produced a red card after about 2 minutes yesterday. Gave an Ahane 2 player a yellow for mouthing and then produced the red when the mouthing apparently continued.
4 Likes
Thatâs the fucking job for him. Shut your mouth.
2 Likes
He must be some dope to get himself sent off after two minutes.
2 Likes