BLACKROCK LYNCHED
Ronan-inspired Limerick men drub Cork aces
RONAN LYNCH led the way as Blackrock, the most prolific winners of the Munster club title, were crushed by Limerick champions Na Piarsaigh in a one-sided semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds yesterday.
The All-ireland U21 star (right) took over the free-taking duties in the absence of injured county colleague Shane Dowling.
And he blasted Cork’s most successful club with a 0-15 haul, 10 of them frees with a couple of 65s and a sideline thrown in for good measure.
Blackrock, beaten in the Cork final by divisional side Imokilly, had no answer and were left chasing the game after Na Piarsaigh raced into a 2-8 to 0-4 lead after 17 minutes against the wind.
“We needed the start that they had,” lamented Blackrock boss Shane O’neill, who was without injured centre-back Eoin Smith and wing-forward Shane O’keeffe who has moved abroad.
“That’s why we played with the wind advantage, we said we could get a goal or two or a couple of points up. But we chased the game from the very start. The harder we chased it the further it went away from us.”
The accuracy of Lynch from frees kept extending the gap and they led by 0-8 to 0-3 after 16 minutes when Peter Casey blasted to the net after being set up by Adrian Breen.
David Breen then added a second goal for Na Pairsaigh with a low shot to the net to lead by
2-8 to 0-4 and there was no way back for the Leesiders.
Two pointed frees from Michael O’halloran gave Blackrock hope but Na Pairsaigh finished the half strongly with another pointed free from Lynch before Casey took his opening half haul to 1-3 in stoppage time.
It was all one-way traffic after the restart, Lynch tacking on four more points and Niall Buckley also found the range to lead by 2-16 to 0-7 at the end of the third quarter.
Blackrock only managed four points against the breeze as Na Piarsaigh eased to their biggest win in the provincial championship.
Manager Shane O’neill admitted they will miss Shane Dowling in the final against Ballygunner but praised the way Lynch stepped forward.
He added: “You’ll always miss Shane and we’ll miss him next day as well but Ronan stepped up fairly well from deal balls. He missed a couple all right which he normally wouldn’t but he got some great scores from placed balls.”