Oulart win battle of top two
UNDER-AGE GAA ROUND-UP Buffers Alley beaten by six points in U-13 hurling clash
HOME SIDE Oulart-The Ballagh won the battle of the top two with Buffers Alley in a cracking New Ross Standard Under-13 hurling Division 1 championship tie on Tuesday.
The Enniscorthy District side now sit on the summit alone with two group games to go after a fantastic team performance was enough to see off a battling Alley effort. A victory over Blackwater in their game tonight (Tuesday) should be enough to book a semi-final slot.
This performance was built on a sterling defensive unit, a hard-working midfield and forwards, led by the superb Simon Roche, who battled for every scrap of possession. If Oulart-The Ballagh can continue in this type of form they will be the team to beat.
On the other side of things there was no lack of effort from Buffers Alley either.
Referee Pádraig Byrne played 30-plus minutes in both halves and their intensity level never dropped for a second, they just came up against a bang in-form team.
In fact, Oulart-The Ballagh could have won by more. It’s always difficult to pick out one outstanding player when more than 30 got a chance to shine, but nobody watching this could have come away from it without talking about how well Callum Whelan-Byrne played in the Alley goal.
Absolutely every facet of WhelanByrne’s game was at an extremely high level. His handling, shot-stopping, reading of the bounces and breaks, was all so impressive for someone so young.
Cian Dobbs opened the scoring for the visitors but Roche scored three points in a row and Jack Dunne also got on the scoresheet as Oulart-The Ballagh moved 0-4 to 0-1 ahead.
Three times Buffers Alley pulled a point back, with Eoin Fenlon, Tomás Walsh and Dobbs registering, but minors from Dylan Butler and Peter Wickham ensured the home side held a 0-6 to 0-4 interval lead.
In a game of superb goalkeeping, a major breakthrough was always going to be huge and it came less than a minute into the second-half.
Roche did all the work, weaving past two defenders before sending an unstoppable shot past Whelan-Byrne.
Intermittently Walsh pulled points back for Buffers Alley but they could never get closer than six in the final quarter.
Instead, points from Roche (two), Wickham and midfielders Dunne and Cian O’Connor ensured Oulart-The Ballagh took the spoils.
Oulart-The Ballagh: Jason Rossiter; Jake Stamp, Dylan Butler (0-1 free), Oisín Moore; Ben Harpur, Conor Blake, Lee Doyle; Jack Dunne (0-2), Cian O’Connor (0-1); Frank Gallagher, George Kelly, Peter Wickham (02); J.D. Masterson, Simon Roche (1-5, 0-3 frees), Aaron Royce. Subs. - James O’Leary for Kelly (45), Daniel Gallagher for Royce, inj. (50), also Kevin Redmond, Alex Howlin, Dean Cox, Matthew Ryan, Luke Fortune-Blake.
Buffers Alley: Callum Whelan-Byrne; M.J. Fox, Tom Fanning, D.J. Cullen; Dan Doyle, Brian O’Meara, Kevin Doran; Tomás Walsh (0-5 frees), Cian Dobbs (0-2, 1 free); Niall Furlong, Eoin Fenlon (0-1), Sebastian Veale; Brian Doran, D.J. Donnelly, Liam Hendrick. Subs. - Ben Fanning for Hendrick (52), also Brandon Murphy, Pádraig Kirwan, Jason Hearne, Rioch Fortune, Ciarán Murphy.
Referee: Pádraig Byrne (Kilanerin).