Duhallow show

Duhallow 2-17 Seandun 1-3

DUHALLOW breezed into the next round of the Cork senior Football Championship on Tuesday night, seeing off Seandun in the most impressive fashion possible.

The game, which was played on a cold night under lights at Mallow’s GAA Complex saw the north Cork side open up on their opponents, impressing the small but dedicated numbers of football fans that braved the night.

Duhallow came into this one as one of the favourites to progress from the Divisions / Colleges section after making it all the way to the County semi-final in 2017, only to lose out to the all-conquering Nemo Rangers at the second last hurdle.

Seandun lined up with eight St Vincent’s players in the starting 15 along with four from Passage West. The lack of stars from the heavy weights of Na Piarsaigh and St Michael’s was always likely to have a negative impact on their performance.

For Duhallow, a good spread of players that included Ballydesmond and Cork star Donncha O’Connor was always likely to make the difference in this one.

Seandún got off to a great start with a goal from Gerry Kelleher inside four minutes, but that early optimism wasn’t to last long as Duhallow settled down to the task scoring six of the next seven points to lead by two, before Paul Walsh dealt the city side a big blow raising his side’s first green flag on 17 minutes.

Duhallow continued to press and opened up a nine point gap by the interval (1-10 to 1-01) to all but seal this one with half an hour still to play.

This one was unofficially done by the 45th minute as Duhallow extended their lead to 13 points. Seamus Hickey landed the final nail in Seandún’s night with a late goal which rounded off what was a very difficult night for the city side and a very positive opening sortie

from Duhallow.

The win means that Duhallow will now take on UCC in Round 2 next week which may well prove to be a huge step up in quality for a Duhallow side that feel they have a genuine chance of again competing in the later stages of this season’s championship. For Seandún, without their bigger clubs they just won’t be able to compete going forward with the likes of an impressive Duhallow.

DUHALLOW: K Murphy (Boherbue); B Daly (Newmarket) 0-1, J McLoughlin (Kanturk), D Hickey (Cullen); K Crowley (Millstreet) 0-2, TJ Brosnan (Newmarket), P Walsh (Kanturk) 1-0; D O’Connor (Ballydesmond), M Healy (Kanturk) 0-2; E McSweeney (Knocknagree), M Vaughan (Millstreet) 0-1, M Dilworth (Knocknagree) 0-2; A O’Connor (Knocknagree) 0-3 (1f), S Hickey (Rockchapel) 1-4, F O’Connor (Knocknagree) 0-2 JF Daly (Knocknagree) for M Vaughan (27), K Cremin (Boherbue) for P Walsh (ht), G O’Connor (Knocknagree) for M Healy (40), D Buckley (Boherbue) for D Hickey (49), K Buckley (Knocknagree) for B Daly (53), J Carver (Kanturk) for E McSweeney (57) SEANDUN: A Kidney (Passage West) 0-1f; K Sorenson (St Vincent’s), A O’Callaghan (St Vincent’s), G Gould (Delaney’s); S Duggan (St Vincent’s), D O’Regan (St Vincent’s), G McCarthy (St Vincent’s); K O’Flynn (Passage West) 0-1f, P O’Sullivan (St Vincent’s); S Crowley (Brian Dillons), B Murphy (St Vincent’s) 0-1f, G Kelleher (St Vincent’s) 1-0; J Kind (Passage West), S Coughlan (Passage West), C Brosnan (Brian Dillons) Subs: K Hosford (Delaney’s) for S Crowley (37), R Carroll (Passage West) for S Coughlan (40), S Cunningham (St Vincent’s) for C Brosnan (40), R Harrington (Passage West0 for K Sorenson (44), D Hackett (Mayfield) for A Kidney (50), C Brosnan (Brian Dillons) for P O’Sullivan (54)

REFEREE: D Murnane (Macroom)