Glynn-Barntown reduce the Rocks to cardboard
GLYNN-BARNTOWN TARA ROCKS 1-27 0-9
GLYNN-BARNTOWN’S Junior’A’ hurlers progressed to the last four of the Permanent TSB championship with 21 points to spare over a jaded Tara Rocks outfit who looked less like rocks and more like damp cardboard in St. Patrick’s Park on Sunday.
The Gorey club’s second string came hoping to emulate their first side who had made progress earlier in the weekend but instead found themselves out of depth in Enniscorthy.
Though they maintained a semblance of competitiveness in the opening quarter, the longer the quarter-final continued, the further they dropped off the pace.
Their season was brought to a comprehensive close by a unit which played the more fluent hurling throughout and which had impressive strength in depth.
Not only did centre-forward Matt Doyle, with eleven points to his credit, score more than the opposition total, but four of the five Glynn-Barntown substitutes were also on the mark.
The writing was on the wall when a couple of Doyle frees, along with points from Aaron Kehoe and Jack Brazill, made the score 0-4 to nil with six minutes played.
However, Declan Breen robbed the sliothar from a defender to nick the opener for Tara Rocks, and this breakthrough was followed by a long-range point for Seán Forde.
Breen continued to cause a few problems as he slotted his share of frees and a ‘65 over Tommy Kehoe’s bar, but most of the action was at the other end of the field.
The M. Doyle/A. Kehoe combination in the half-forward line accumulated points and set up plentiful chances for those around them.
When Kehoe’s ball into the square was collected and kicked to the net by J.J. Doyle, the gap between the sides swelled to nine points.
A couple of Declan Breen frees reduced this to a still daunting seven-point deficit by the break, leaving the underdogs desperate for a goal.
It never came, though veteran netminder Tommy Kehoe was required to make a couple of good saves, from a Breen free and a Lorcan Clare shot.
While he kept his clean sheet, the merciless march to victory continued with a steady stream of scores, including three nice points from the excellent Jack Brazill.
Glynn-Barntown: Tommy Kehoe; Niall Whitty, P.J. Carley, David Roche; Ger Dempsey, Cormac Rowe, Shane Doyle; Matthew Banville, Jack Brazill (0-4); Jimmer Doyle, Matt Doyle (0-11, 4 frees, 1 ‘65), Aaron Kehoe (0-4); J.J. Doyle (1-1), Colm Moore, Darragh Nolan. Subs. - Cormac Cooney (0-2) for Nolan (25), Matt Joyce (0-2) for Moore (29), Kevin Mahoney (0-1) for Whitty (35), Jamie O’Shea (0-1) for J.J. Doyle (41), Michael Moran-Curran for Roche (51).
Tara Rocks: Seán Geoghegan; Damien Tobin, Enda O’Leary, Pat O’Connor; Colm Noctor, Gary Owley, Seán Forde (0-1); Gearóid O Súilleabháin, Michael Byrne (0-1 free); Richard Hughes, Declan Breen (0-7, 5 frees, 1 ‘65), Lorcan Clare; James Mordaunt, Joe Bolger, Damien Byrne. Subs. - Seán Bardon for Mordaunt (30), Donnacha McDonald for Owley (41), Danny Howard for O’Connor (41), Brian Doyle for D. Byrne (53), Dylan Smith for Hughes (53).
Referee: Philip Murphy (Faythe Harriers).