Seán in super scoring form
Rathnure ace registers 2-10 to clinch Minor honours
THE ELECTRIC finishing of corner-forward Seán O’Connor, who annexed a personal tally of 2-10, powered Rathnure to an eventual twelve-point victory over a battling Blackwater outfit in this Wexford People Minor hurling Roinn 1 championship final in Monageer.
O’Connor possesses all the skills of a quality forward, with an excellent first touch, good control and an ability to carry the ball at pace.
He is also able to apply that clinical finish, factors that the Blackwater defence were unable to counteract as he simply ran riot through the closing 20 minutes.
To their credit the battling Blackwater crew dug deep for some 40 minutes of this game.
They were just one point adrift at the interval, and while they fell six points behind (0-12 to 0-6) inside ten minutes of the second period, it was fluffed opportunities which created their problems.
They struck two frees wide while also seeing three further point attempts drift the wrong side of the posts.
But once Rathnure and O’Connor, in particular, turned on the power in the closing 20 minutes they had little answer as the scoring became all one-way traffic.
O’Connor pointed two frees inside three minutes of the start, but Blackwater quickly settled and responded with two Kevin Corrigan pointed frees, while a ninth-minute Ben Redmond point had them leading by 0-3 to 0-2.
Very little separated the sides during the opening quarter, as Rathnure bounced back for points through A.J. Redmond and a neat O’Connor effort from play.
They followed with two further unanswered points through O’Connor along with a fine Michael Martin individual effort.
Corrigan (free) and O’Connor traded points, while approaching the interval Blackwater responded with points from Patrick O’Connor and John O’Toole to leave the minimum (0-7 to 0-6) separating the sides at the break.
Inside nine minutes of the re-start Rathnure had opened up a six-point cushion (0-12 to 0-6), as they resumed with points from Michael Martin, Seán O’Connor with a fine effort on the run, Charlie Tector, A.J. Redmond with a long-range strike, and an O’Connor 50-metre score from play.
While Blackwater responded with some attacks, they lacked the finishing power of their opponents, leaving them to wait until the 47th minute for their first second-half score, a Corrigan pointed free.
He had missed out on two earlier efforts, with both attempts drifting just the wrong side of the right post.
Despite all of the open attacking play one had to wait until six minutes from the end for the game’s opening goal, with Seán O’Connor drifting through the defence before planting the ball high into the right-hand corner of the net.
His second goal arrived two minutes later when, following a mazy run from 40 metres out, and despite drifting to the left of goal, he produced a clinical finish from an acute angle to cap a terrific individual display, along with fine all-round composed performance from his well-drilled team.
Rathnure: Kyle Martin; Stephen Martin, Philip Redmond, Ciarán Maher; Cameron O’Leary, Cathal O’Connor, Dylan Hogan (capt.); Micheál O’Connor, Owen Lennon; Charlie Tector (0-1), Michael Martin (0-3), A.J. Redmond (0-2); Seán O’Connor (2-10, 0-5 frees), Thomas Furlong, Ben Ronan. Subs. - David Dunphy for A.J. Redmond, Jordan Richards for Tector, Seán Moran for Lennon, also Brendan Foley, Adam Carty, Brian O’Neill, Liam Doocey, Jack O’Neill.
Blackwater: Páuric O’Toole; Adam Murphy, Eoin O’Neill, Robert McGuinness; Feidhlim Roche, Jake Nobbs, Patrick Cullen; Shane Cahill, Kevin Corrigan (0-7 frees); Tomás Murphy, Ben Redmond (0-1), Patrick O’Connor (0-1); John O’Toole (0-1), Darragh Doyle, Aaron Culleton. Subs. - Shane Lynch for Cahill, James Kelly for Murphy, also Shane Butler, Caolan O’Reilly, Jonathan Blake, Josh Culleton, Ross Berry, Ben Cullen, Bryan Mooney, Kealan Fikentscher.
Referee: John Carton (Monageer-Boolavogue).