With a fair crack of the whip Avondhu can have a real say in the championship

IT didn’t take Avondhu very long to dismantle Newcestown’s aspirations and book a place in the last eight of the County SFC at Watergrashill last Sunday evening.

With 17 minutes gone, they had forged 1-6 ahead, and the writing was clearly on the wall for the South-West men, who had an even steeper hill to climb heading out for the second half.

Typically, Newcestown, 1-13 to 0-4 in arrears at the interval, never gave up the fight, and managed to emerge from the fray with their pride intact, having trimmed the deficit to seven points with about five minutes remaining.

Avondhu always appeared to be playing a little within themselves in the second half, however, as was underlined when they put the finishing touches to a decisive win with late scores from Colm O’Neill (2) and Ruairi O’Hagan.

Cork star O’Neill was in razor-sharp form at corner forward, slotting over six exquisite points from play in all, but he wasn’t short of able accomplices up front where O’Hagan and Ryan Harkin also made major contributions.

Colm O’Connell, operating as a roaming corner forward, possibly handled the ball more often than anybody else over the hour, distributing his possession to good effect at all times, while Padraig De Roiste was always prominent at midfield and the speedy Matty Taylor regularly caught the eye with his probing runs from wing back.

It was basically a highly efficient team performance from the North-Cork divisional outfit, with everybody putting a shoulder to the wheel, and it confirmed the rich potential in a side forced to field without Kilshannig’s Killian O’Hanlon and Mitchelstown’s Shane Beston due to injury.

The big problem for Avondhu going forward of course is there’s no guarantee they will have everyone available from now on, and, in that regard, much will depend on how the powers-that-be compile the fixtures in the weeks ahead.

The team that lined out against Newcestown included six Fermoy players who had been involved in championship action with their club the previous day, which is hardly an ideal situation from a management’s perspective

And, wth Fermoy chasing county titles at premier intermediate level in both codes at the moment, and Mallow also on the trail of PIHC glory, it isn’t inconceivable that Avondhu’s resources will be considerably diminished for their next test if player welfare isn’t taken into account by the fixture-makers.

As one member of the Avondhu backroom set-up put it on Sunday night, it seems as if the County Board don’t want divisional teams participating in the senior championships, but they haven’t the guts to come out and be honest about it.

Based on how Avondhu shaped up in this match, they are certainly equipped to prove a handful for any opposition if given any sort of a fair crack of the whip by officialdom.

They produced some delightful free-flowing football when in full flight in the first half, with all six forwards getting on the scoresheet, as well as midfielder Padraig De Roiste.

Their goal was claimed by Padraig Clancy, who finished superbly after being put through by De Roiste, to make it 1-3 to nil inside ten minutes. It served to hasten the demise of a Newcestown side, whose cause wasn’t helped by erratic shooting, which saw them accumulate eight wides before the break

Predictably, Avondhu dropped the tempo in the second half, but Newcestown, denied a badly-needed boost when their hard-working corner forward Cathrach Keane had a shot kept out by the winners’ custodian Ciaran Cotter in the 34th minute, never threatened to get back into serious contention.

They did outscore Avondhu by five points to one in the third quarter, but then Matty Taylor, Ruairi O’Hagan and Padraig De Roiste shared a hat-trick of scores to give the divisional side an eleven-point cushion, 1-17 to 0-9, and remove any lingering doubt about the outcome approaching the last ten minutes.