AGB power on as Billies fade
AGB 1-14 BALLYMANUS 1-06 AGB learned a tough lesson against Donard-the Glen last time out in the Intermediate football championship but, all credit to the Arklow men, they took that new-found wisdom and put it into practice against Ballymanus last Sunday evening and came away with a convincing 1-14 to 1-06 victory.
Against Donard-the Glen the AGB side suffered turnover after turnover in and around the Donard 21-yard line. Some of their key men performed below standard and they failed to deal with their opponent’s danger men in any real way.
Now, granted Ballymanus were without Paddy Byrne of Moyne, a 1-02 return from the inside line suggests that the Billies’s attack was extremely stunted by the efforts of Ciaran Hyland, Seamus Tyrrell and Tom Maher.
As well as that the Arklow men showed a real losing of the shackles in attack with Ross Hynes bringing a vibrant energy to the equation, Darragh Fitzgerald cutting loose with his blinding pace, and Phillip Gleeson and Cormac O’Sé proving adequate from placed balls and capable of a few from play as well.
The AGB management pulled Chris O’Brien back from midfield to the centre-half back position and this produced an improvement in last year’s Minor football championship winning captain’s performance even though there is still plenty of room for more dominance from talented youngster.
Cal Kelly worked hard and showed moments of class and Cormac Hyland and Stephen Hurley bring a strength and ability that will prove very useful in the latter stages should things go to plan.
The Billies must sit down in the cold light of day and reflect on this performance. Marvyn Travers’ side will feel that a disputed goal midway through the second half was a major feature of this game and perhaps it may have changed the flow of the game somewhat but an AGB victory was all that was on the cards for the majority of this game.
The disputed goal was a shot that Roan Lynch fired in which walloped Tommy Hurley’s crossbar and slammed down in the goalmouth. Cries of “put up the flag” were screamed from the Ballymanus sideline but no flags were raised and no goal was recorded. AGB gathered the loose ball and moved up field where Darragh Fitzgerald pointed superbly.
The Ballymanus outfit showed vulnerabilities that need strengthening. John P Hurley and Cal Kelly came out the better in the midfield battle with Mark Kenny and Ray Stapleton with Kelly breaking ball regularly and AGB sweeping up well.
Mark Kenny worked hard and was busy but his potential was never realised over the 60 minutes.
The loss of Colm Coogan to a black card for a ridiculous foul on Darragh Fitzgerald didn’t help the cause and the Askinagap side looked well off the pace for much of this game.
Mervyn Travers installed Paddy Byrne (Gap) in at full-forward from the start of this encounter even though he was named at centre-half forward while Pádraig Byrne was patrolling the 40.
First blood was drawn by Stephen Hurley who showed well, turned and slotted over sweetly after 60 seconds.
A Cormac O’Sé point from a free stretched that lead befoe Pádraig Byrne got Ballymanus up and running.
The talented Roan Lynch pulled
the sides level but Darragh Fitzgerald notched his first score by sending over a cracking point after 11 minutes.
A mammoth burst through the middle by Ross Hynes, fresh from his drop-kick heroics in the Carter cup clash against Tinahely on Thursday night, resulted in the half-forward firing over to give AGB a 0-04 to 0-02 lead.
Points from Cal Kelly and O’Sé made it 0-06 to 0-02 but Mark Kenny dropped over a superb score from a free to keep the Billies within touching distance.
A crazy trip on Darragh Fitzgerald saw Colm Coogan heading for the line on a black card with Donal Murphy introduced in his place but it was all AGB now and they finished out the half with two points from Phillip Gleeson, one from a free for a 0-08 to 0-03 lead at the break.
Ballymanus introduced Kieran Whelan from the restart and Craig Farrar got them off the mark with a nice point to make it 0-08 to 0-04.
But AGB always seemed to be able to step it up that bit easier and they pointed through O’Sé before Darragh Fitzgerald took a pop pass from Gary Tyrrell and fired a shot at Brendan Doyle but the Ballymanus netminder could only get his fingers to it and the ball made it over the line.
Ballymanus recovered with a point and then Cormac Hyland fired wide at the other end. Ballymanus came again and Roan Lynch gathered the ball and bore down on the AGB goal. He pulled the trigger and Seamus Tyrrell got his hand to the ball and directed it away from Tommy Hurley and into the corner of the AGB goal.
Ray Stapleton fired over a beauty but Stephen Hurley hit back immediately with Seamus Coogan entering the fray for Kevin Byrne.
Philip Gleeson went short with a free to Cormac O’Sé and he fed Ross Hynes who drew a few Ballymanus players before fisting across to Gleeson and the full-forward walloped over the bar for a 1-12 to 1-05 lead.
Then came the disputed goal by Roan Lynch with Fitzgerald firing over at the other end.
Back came Ballymanus in search of goals and Roan Lynch was bravely blocked by Cal Kelly while Seamie O’Neill, dislodged from full-back to give some impetus to the Ballymanus attack, was blocked by Seamus Tyrrell and an aGB free relieved the pressure.
Mark Kenny did manage to fire over a screamer after a fine burst up along the sideline for what would be the Billies’ last score of the day and Ross Hynes pointed on the run to close AGB’s account on what was a good day for the Arklow men.
Scorers – AGB: Philip Gleeson 0-04 (2f); Cormac O’Sé 0-03 (2f); Darragh Fitzgerald 1-02; Ross Hynes 0-02; Stephen Hurley 0-02; Cal Kelly 0-01.
Ballymanus: Roan Lynch 1-01; Mark Kenny 0-02 (1f); Padraig Byrne 0-01; Craig Farrar 0-01; Ray Stapleton 0-01.
AGB: Tommy Hurley; Ciaran Hyland, Seamus Tyrrell, Tom Maher; Karl Kirwin, Chris O’Brien, Gary Tyrrell; John P Hurley, Cal Kelly; Ross Hynes, Cormac Hyland, Darragh Fitzgerald; Stephen Hurley, Phillip Gleeson, Cormac O’Sé. Cathal Kelleher for C O’Brien (inj, 50min); Daire MCBride for S Hurley (61min); Alan MCBride for G Tyrrell (64min); Ivan O’Shea for C O’Sé (BC).
Ballymanus: Brendan Doyle; Jim Byrne, Seanie O’Neill, Darragh Byrne; Shane Whelan, Kevin Byrne, Liam Byrne; Mark Kenny, Ray Stapleton; Roan Lynch, Paddy (Gap) Byrne, Philip Coogan; Caig Farrar, Padraig Byrne, Colm Coogan. Subs: Donal Murphy for C Coogan (BC); Kieran Whelan for P Byrne (H/T); Paul Murray for R Lynch; Seamus Coogan for K Byrne.