Walker inspires Cookenno to healthy victory over Ballinacor
COOLKENNO BALLINACOR 5-8 1-9
THE traits you are always guaranteed to witness when watching Coolkenno are commitment, courage and passion and these and more were in abundance in Baltinglass on Sunday evening last as Damien McMahon’s men fired five goals past Paudie Byrne’s Ballinacor to get their IFC campaign off to a flying start.
Coolkenno relish contact. They have no fear of the physical side of the game. Ben Jackman should have been stretchered off after receiving two monster hits in the first half. It is reported that one of his eardrums is burst as a result of the first thumping collision. Up he got and on he went, contributing to the play and enjoying a humdinger of a getting-to-know-you episode with Tyrone Byrne.
Robert Keogh must have a steel jaw having received an accidental but ferocious wallop from Danny Dowling’s trailing arm which seemed to have little or no affect, while Eoghan Dolan received a bit of Mr Miyagi healing power on the sideline after a crunching collision before re-entering the fray and turning in a fine performance.
The reason for the recounting of these incidents is to highlight the fact that this Coolkenno team mean business and they will take and administer manly hits without fear or favour making them something of a nightmare to play against when they are in the form they produced on Sunday evening.
Ballinacor’s failure to deal with Conor Walker, the sending off of Brian Hanlon for a foul of Eoghan Dolan early in the second half, and the impressive showings of Shane Walker, Robert Keogh, Philip Timmons, Paddy Dalton, James Gregan and Eoghan Dolan are just some of the reasons for this victory for Coolkenno.
Walker’s return of 3-2 would knock the stuffing out of most teams. Throw in a pair of 1-1s for Eamon Rossiter and the hugely impressive James Gregan and some stout defending from the likes of Cathal Rossiter and Jim Cushe and you can tell that Ballinacor ran into something of a brick wall in Baltinglass.
Paudie Byrne’s charges were not found wanting for effort, but they lacked a cutting edge and had too many players who were not up to the pace of the game to make any major inroads into the Coolkenno defence.
Hints that Conor Walker was on song were dropped early. He picked out James Gregan with a lovely pass for the opening score before following that up with a beauty from the sideline before getting in behind Martin Byrne to collect an Eamon Rossiter ball and blast home past Ciarán O’Neill to make it 1-2 to 0-1 with the energetic Calum Rowden opening Ballinacor’s account.
When James Gregan fired home Coolkenno’s second goal they led 2-5 to 0-2 and you couldn’t see anything other than a Coolkenno win and they took a 2-6 to 0-4 lead in at the break.
Ballinacor’s chances suffered a brutal blow in the second half when Brian Hanlon was dismissed for a challenge on Eoghan Dolan and moments later Conor Walker grabbed his second goal after working his way in from the sideline after collecting a Don Jackman ball.
Walker’s hat-trick arrived late before substitute Christopher Kennedy made a big argument for him to get a starting jersey the next day out when he registered a rapid 1-1 to take the bad look off the scoreboard.
A fine Eamon Rossiter goal made possible by a superb Shane Walker break from deep put the finishing touches to a fine evening’s work by Coolkenno who will require all that passion and resolve when they meet a wounded Kilmac in the next round.
Ballinacor have a great chance to get things back on track when they meet Stratford-Grangec on.
Scorers – Coolkenno: Conor Walker 3-2, Eamon Rossiter 1-1 (f), James Gregan 1-1, Paddy Dalton 0-2, Eoghan Dolan 0-1, Don Jackman 0-1.
Ballinacor: Christopher Kennedy 1-1, James Murphy 0-2, Paddy Byrne 0-2, James Byrne 0-1, Conor Parsons 0-1, Calum Rowden 0-1, Brian Hanlon 0-1.
Coolkenno: John Corcoran; Donal Doyle, Cathal Rossiter, Shane Walker; Jim Cushe, Robert Keogh, Philip Timmons; Paddy Dalton, James Gregan; Don Jackman, Pauric Coleman, Ben Jackman; Eoghan Dolan, Eamon Rossiter, Conor Walker. Subs: Niall Bailey for P Coleman, Cormac Byrne for E Dolan, David Cole for B Jackman, Paul Muphy for P Dalton, Colm Murphy for D Doyle (BC).
Ballinacor: Ciarán O’Neill; Stephen Dowling, Martin Byrne, JP Byrne; John Devitt, James Byrne, Tyrone Byrne; Paddy Byrne, Danny Dowling; Conor Parsons, Calum Rowden, Jamie Nolan; David Carter, James Murphy, Brian Hanlon. Subs: Christopher Kennedy for JP Byrne (26min), Peter Kennedy for J Nolan (H/T), Denis Heffernan for S Dowling (40min), Michael Dowling for T Byrne (40min), Ger Byrne for D Carter.
Referee: Stephen Fagan (Baltinglass)