Oulart-The Ballagh hold on to ACL title
Glynn-Barntown come up short for second year in row
OULART-BALLAGH 0-20 GLYNN-BARNTOWN 1-14
OULART-THE Ballagh’s impressive run of success in Division 1 of the EEW All-County Hurling league continued in Innovate Wexford Park on Friday as they shook off a wasteful first-half to edge past Glynn-Barntown.
This is the second year in a row that these two clubs met at this stage and, much like last season, it was a strong finish from the Enniscorthy District team that finally secured the crown against the plucky underdogs.
They didn’t look too sharp in the first-half. Most of the game was played at something approaching championship pace but it’s been so long since these sides met in the first round back in April that things were fairly untidy in the opening exchanges.
A look at the flags suggested that Oulart-The Ballagh had a decent breeze in the first-half, but the reaction of the sliothar told a different story. As the light, dry flags fluttered away at the Clonard end of the ground, the eventual victors struggled with their shooting.
They struck nine wides in the half, dropped a couple of balls short into the hands of the solid Niall Whitty, and generally looked a bit rusty. However, they never trailed in this contest as Glynn-Barntown didn’t exactly fly out of the blocks themselves.
Having breezed past Cloughbawn four nights earlier, they took a little while to find their higher gears and could easily have been much further behind than they were. Nicky Kirwan opened the scoring from a dead-ball but his side swatted three wides in a row thereafter.
Murtha Doyle eventually snapped the streak and Kirwan tapped over another brace of frees as Oulart-The Ballagh settled first.
Michael O’Regan did pull one back after Ben O’Shea was fouled but a quickfire double by Billy Dunne made it 0-6 to 0-1.
That was just the start for Dunne. It was he who consistently worked his way loose in the half-forward line and his shooting was superb, finishing with seven scores from seven shots at the posts.
Glynn-Barntown did eventually start to make some impact in their opponents’ half of the field. Gary Moore and Rowan White cut two off the deficit but Murtha Doyle didn’t flinch when Shane Codd’s hurl shattered around his shins, he simply kept running down the right and converted to make it 0-7 to 0-3.
Daire Barron replied with a nice score and, with Oulart-The Ballagh still wondering how Anthony Roche didn’t get a ‘65 for his shanked shot on the run, the Glynn-Barntown attacker went up the other end and sliced another point off the deficit.
Still, Oulart-The Ballagh were able to do a little more damage in added time. Dunne knocked over his third of the half from Doyle’s feed before Nicky Kirwan notched his fourth free to leave his team 0-9 to 0-5 in front at the interval.
Less than two minutes after the break, seconds after he had put a goal between the sides, Michael O’Regan won a long ball into the goalmouth, emerged from a ruck and slotted past Stephen Doyle between the sticks.
Glynn-Barntown immediately got another chance but White’s weak shot was repelled by the Oulart-The Ballagh stopper. Kirwan, Dunne and impressive replacement Peter Sutton all raised white flags as their side re-asserted their superiority.
Moore picked off a nice score amongst O’Regan dead-balls but further points from Garrett Sinnott, Kirwan and the unstoppable Dunne made it 0-15 to 1-9 with eleven minutes of normal time remaining.
However, the game quickly swung back with the Wexford District club. O’Regan, White and David Clarke flighted over three in a row to tie the game for the second and last time (0-15 to 1-9). They couldn’t keep the purple patch going.
After he scored his sixth minor, Dunne intentionally flashed over a penalty after Kirwan was fouled on his way to goal.
Sutton made it a three-point game, O’Regan brought it back to two twice, but Des Mythen ended a run of five misses with a crucial, superb point and Sutton got his third to keep Glynn-Barntown at arm’s length.
The runners-up did battle away to the end and Oulart-The Ballagh had Sinnott sent-off for his second yellow card after a fracas, but the late Glynn-Barntown pressure didn’t lead to any major scares as Oulart-The Ballagh retained the cup once again.
Oulart-The Ballagh: Stephen Doyle; Kevin Nimmo, Dennis Morton, Ian Storey; Eamonn Murphy, Keith Rossiter, Conor Goff; Anthony Roche, Cormac Finn; Billy Dunne (0-7, 1 pen.), Des Mythen (0-1), Rory Jacob; Murtha Doyle (0-2), Garrett Sinnott (0-1), Nicky Kirwan (0-6, 5 frees). Subs. - Peter Sutton (0-3) for Finn (31), Paul Roche for Nimmo (51), also James O’Toole, Shaun Murphy (capt.), Michael Jacob, Tomás Dunne, Ben O’Connor, Martin Óg Storey, Pad Mythen, Cathal Kenny, Peter Murphy, Barry Kehoe.
Glynn-Barntown: Niall Whitty; Frankie Hynes, Pádraig Donnelly, Shane Codd; Ben O’Shea, John Leacy, David Clarke (0-1); Michael Doyle, Gary Moore (capt., 0-2); Daire Barron (0-2), Rowan White (0-2), Alan Cowman; Brendan Doyle, Michael O’Regan (1-7, 0-6 frees, 0-1 ‘65), Ian Moran. Subs. - Aaron Kehoe for M. Doyle (31), Rioghan Crosbie for Moran (55), also Fionn Cooney, Tommy Kehoe, Shane Doyle, Barry Doyle, Mark Fanning, Cian Neville, Craig Doyle.
Referee: David O’Leary (Rathnure).