County SHC: O’Dorney and Ballyheigue are out
FOR eleven minutes it was easy to imagine a very different outcome to this game.
There was a slickness and a determination to what Ballyheigue were doing. Their hurling was crisp and sharp. Passes went to their men. Shots sailed effortlessly over the bar. Kilmoyley, for their part, seemed a little shell-shocked, as if they weren’t expecting what they were getting.
It was easily the best prolonged spell of hurling we’ve seen from Ballyheigue in the last couple of seasons. Whatever work Brendan Mahony has been doing with the orange men, it’s doing the trick.
The trouble was it didn’t prove sustainable over the course of the sixty minutes. Some of that was undoubtedly down to Kilmoyley. Once they found themselves six down after the opening exchanges – 0-7 to 0-1 – they seemed to wake up and attack the game with greater ferocity.
Once they did Ballyheigue were never quite the same again. In those eleven opening minutes they had points from Michael Leane – easily their best player – from Ronan Kenny, from Philip Lucid and from Seán Colgan.
It was a whirlwind of activity from Ballyheigue, responded to only by a point from the excellent Seán Maunsell for Kilmoyley, but it didn’t last. After snapping up seven scores in eleven minutes, Ballyheigue didn’t score again for another twenty one minutes, well into injury time as Kilmoyley assumed near total control over the game.
Kilmoyley quickly banged in a goal and a point to more than half the deficit – a point from Maunsell, a goal from Conor Fitzell who pulled on a loose ball in the danger-zone at the end of a period of Kilmoyley pressure.
The green and gold delivered another five unanswered points before Gary Galway got Ballyheigue back up and running. Well into injury time – longer than normal because of a water break – Kilmoyley struck for their second goal when Maurice O’Connor assisted Jordan Brick.
A pair of swapped points – Galway with his second and Robert Collins with his first – presaged a rousing end to the half for Ballyheigue as Michael Leane scored what can only be described as a brilliant individual goal to leave it 2-8 to 1-9 in favour of Kilmoyley at the break.
Neither manager would have been wholly pleased by what they saw in the first half. Shane Brick would have been disappointed with how his side left Ballyheigue back into the game right at the whistle.
For his part Brendan Mahony would have been disappointed that having started in such a brilliant fashion his men were still behind at the break. Still within striking distance, but the element of surprise was gone from them.
The smart money was on Kilmoyley at that stage and the second half bore that out. It followed a similar pattern to much of the first half. Kilmoyley were dominant, utterly so. They went on to outscore the seasiders 1-10 to 0-2.
Indeed Ballyheigue went eighteen second half minutes before getting on the scoreboard through Philip Lucid – a real beauty to be fair but too little too late. Ballyheigue bow out with improved performances, but all too familiar results.
Kilmoyley, meanwhile, will be quietly satisfied with how they performed once they got over those initial yips. Shane Brick’s men scored freely and had a much greater spread of scorers than they’ve had of late.
Now it’s a big question whether that’s sustainable against better opposition, for now though it’s encouraging. Sometimes a good win against beatable opposition is just what a team needs to kick-start their season.
KILMOYLEY: John Brendan O’Halloran, Seán Nolan, Colman Savage, Seánie Murnane, Robert Collins (0-1), James Godley, Dougie Fitzell, Kieran McCarthy (0-1), Donal Kennedy, Joe McElligott (0-3), Daniel Collins (0-4, 2 f), Seán Maunsell (0-4), Maurice O’Connor (1-3), Conor Fitzell (1-0), Jordan Brick (1-2) Subs: John Godley for R Collins, 41, Flor McCarthy for K McCarthy, 48, Kieran Regan for D Kennedy, 48, John Redmond for J Brick, 52
BALLYHEIGUE: John Mike Pierce, Danny Casey, Damien Casey, Mark Dineen, Pádraig Behan, Michael Leane (1-2), Colin Mahony, Tommy O’Connor, Philip Lucid (0-4, 2f), Brendan Walsh, Séan Colgan (02, 1f), Declan Behan, Kevin Reidy, Ronan Kenny (0-1), Mikey O’Halloran Subs: Gary Galway (0-2) for T O’Connor, 19, Conor Galway for P Behan, half-time, Chris O’Mahony for D Behan, half-time, Tomás Casey for K Reidy, 44, Frankie Flaherty for B Walsh, 44, Danny Casey (inj, not replaced), 60