Liam Mellows march on
AN EXCELLENT team performance paved the way for Liam Mellows to book their place in the Greenstar Under-20 hurling Division 4 championship decider with a 3-19 to 0-12 victory over Askamore in Wednesday’s semi-final in Ballyroebuck.
With every player from midfield upwards contributing to the scoreboard at least once from play, and two of their half-back line on target as well, it was a routine victory for the Coolgreany men as they now look forward to a county final against Crossabeg-Ballymurn.
The victors enjoyed a bright opening as nice points from play by Seán Óg Stafford, Eoin Cullen and Frank Kavanagh helped them eke out a 0-3 to nil advantage after four minutes.
To their credit, Askamore battled back to hold a slim 0-5 to 0-4 lead by the 15th minute, with three frees from James Byrne, and a brilliant score from an impossible angle by captain Conor Byrne, briefly raising hope among the locals.
But Liam Mellows proceeded to outscore them by 2-10 to 0-5 over the next half-hour period that straddled the interval.
That said, they needed a perfectly-timed hook from Ross Cody to keep their goal intact just as Kevin Kenny was picking his spot five minutes before the break.
Kavanagh again, Alex Murphy and Robbie Brooks brought Mellows’ half-time advantage to 0-10 to 0-6, while Sam Cody used his low centre of gravity to hold his balance before firing home their opening goal on 39 minutes (111 to 0-10).
Eoin Cullen may well have goaled anyway soon after, but play was brought back for a tug on his jersey as he crashed the resultant penalty into the top corner for a 2-13 to 0-10 ascendancy.
The Cody brothers shared three of the next four points, with Chris Callanan firing over in between, while Cullen capped as impressive a semi-final performance as Mellows mentors could have asked for when smashing home his second goal five minutes from time.
Liam Mellows: Darragh Brooks; Mikey Fenlon, Frank Roche, Kevin Cleary; Shane Halpin, Ross Cody (01), Dylan Goland (0-1); Rory Heffernan (0-1), Robbie Brooks (0-1); Chris Callanan (0-1), Eoin Cullen (capt., 2-7, 0-5 frees, 1-0 pen.), Alex Murphy (0-2); Seán Óg Stafford (0-1), Frank Kavanagh (0-2), Sam Cody (1-2). Subs. - Darragh Heffernan for Stafford (54), Ciarán Power for S. Cody (54), Joe Barrett for Murphy (56).
Askamore: Jack Nolan; Pádraig O’Rourke, Ned O’Neill, Paddy Sharry; Jim Sharry (0-1), Peter O’Neill, Ciarán Kenny; Seán Bookey (0-1), John Kavanagh (0-1); Kevin Kenny (0-1), James Byrne (0-7, 4 frees, 1 ‘65), Seán Kirwan; Conor Kehoe, Conor Byrne (capt., 0-1), John Doyle. Subs. - Garrett O’Connor for Doyle (5), Doyle for Kirwan (HT), Dean Lancaster for Kehoe (52).
Referee: John O’Loughlin (Monageer-Boolavogue).