Bray moving nicely
Moorehouse shines in defeat of depleted Éire Óg
BRAY EMMETS ÉIRE ÓG 2-24 1-10
EVEN taking the loss of key men from the Éire Óg ranks into consideration, this was still a very convincing display from a Bray Emmets team who look to have one key ingredient back in their psyche and play this year: hunger.
Anto Byrne and Stephen ‘Chester’ Kelly would be missed from any club side in Wicklow but Bray were without the services of John Henderson for this clash and he will bring further improvement to a quality looking side.
That’s two wins from two for Bray Emmets in the somewhat meaningless opening stages of the Dacia Cars Senior Hurling Championship, having already accounted for a much improved Kiltegan outfit in their opening game.
Obviously, Paul Carley won’t be making any real judgement on his hurlers until they show what they can do against the defending champions Glenealy or a challenging St Pat’s outfit but there’s no doubt he will be pleased with what he witnessed on Saturday afternoon last in Old Conna when they proved clinical.
Bray’s inside pairing of Tom Cash and Christy Moorehouse returned 1-15 for their shift, Moorehouse bagging 1-12 of that (six frees, one 65). They looked keen throughout and were well supplied with quality ball that allowed them out in front of their men. Their deeper colleague (in the positional sense, not philosophically) Padraig Doyle raised an early 1-1 and worked hard over the course of the game and looks to be in fine form.
A fine showing from Diarmuid Masterson at centre half-forward suggests a long campaign for the Bray men while they were well served all over the field in what was a promising outing on home soil after both sides had agreed to the switch from Pearse’s Park.
Éire Óg’s cause wasn’t helped by the loss of Daniel O’Connor to injury after 14 minutes of this game but they were well served by James Cranley and Peter Keane among others in the face of a Bray onslaught.
Padraig Doyle swept over the opening score after a mere 20 seconds and Tom Cash got out in front of Eoghan Potts before turning and rifling over Bray’s second score moments later.
Four minutes in and a Bray clearance found Eoin McCormack around midfield and the county player had oceans of work to do before he made it to a position where he could pop off a lovely hand pass to Padraig Doyle who charged down on Dan O’Neill’s goal before walloping home to the back of the net. 1-2 to 0-0, writing scrawled all over the wall.
Éire Óg recovered well from their bad start and produced plenty of positive play all over the field with Billy Cuddihy and the rest of his defence coping well under Bray pressure. However, they couldn’t make that effort show on the score board with three wides recorded in the space of as many minutes from Peter Keane, James Cranley and Eoin Dorgan.
James Cranley stopped that stat fairly lively when he got in behind the Bray defence to fire home past Peter O’Reilly who will feel that he should have done better with the corner-forward’s effort, 11 on the clock, Bray leading by 1-3 to a goal.
Excellent Christy Moorehouse play resulted in the sharpshooter rampaging down on the Éire Óg goal having gathered out the field and slotting over the bar. And then a tasty ball across the Greystones square allowed Moorehouse the chance to volley home off the hurl for his side’s second goal of the game to make it 2-4 to 1-0 and give the Éire Óg men a very steep hill to climb at the end of the first quarter.
Pressure from the Bray defence resulted in a wide from lofty Éire Óg full-forward Andrew Walsh before James Cranley fired wide from a free before being robbed by Daire Lohan as he headed for the Bray goal.
A wide from Tom Cash was followed by a Christy Moorehouse pointed free after a foul on the hard-working Ben McCormack and then Moorehouse gathered a Diarmuid Masterson ball on the stick 45 from goal, left Sean Hughes for dead, soloed 35 yards before slotting over for a superb score to make it 2-6 to 1-0.
Tom Cash added to Bray’s tally with a fine effort before striking a pair of wides (one goal chance) before Éire Óg enjoyed something of a mini purple patch with points from Peter Keane after 24 minutes, Cranley from a free, Michael Walsh from his own 65 and two more Cranley frees to leave the half-time score reading 2-8 to 1-5 in favour of the Bray men at a very windy Old Conna.
There was no let up from the Bray men as Christy Moorehouse swung over two frees early in the second half before Tom Cash added from play.
A super save from Peter O’Reilly from an Andrew Walsh shot was called back for a free which Cranley slotted, 2-11 to 0-6. The ‘Pooch’ added two more points (one free) to give the Éire Óg men slight cause for belief, but Bray tagged on five points without reply from the hurls of Christy Moorehouse (free), Dara Maloney, Diarmuid Masterson (two) and Cian O’Byrne before Cranley would grab another score from a free to leave Bray out of reach at 2-16 to 1-9 after 49 minutes.
Another five unanswered white flags from the home side (Eoin McCormack, Christy Moorehouse (three, one free, one 65), and an outstanding Diarmuid Masterson effort left it all over bar the shouting at 2-21 to 1-9.
Kristin Flynn fired over a screamer from out on the sideline to close Éire Óg’s account before Christy Moorehouse, Joe Phelan and Masterson from a free completed the rout at 2-24 to 1-10.
All judgements must be withheld until Bray Emmets come up against Glenealy or Pat’s. They were let hurl to a certain extent on Saturday last. When that lovely hurling is pressured, that’s when the hurling public will know where Bray are at.
This was a good performance, though, make no mistake about it.
– Bray Emmets: Christy Moorehouse 1-12 (6f, 1 65), Padraig Doyle 1-1, Diarmuid Masterson 0-4 (1f), Tom Cash 0-3, Dara Maloney 0-1, Cian O’Byrne 0-1, Eoin McCormack 0-1, Joe Phelan 0-1.
Éire Óg Greystones: James Cranley 1-7 (7f), Peter Keane 0-1, Michael Walsh 0-1, Kristin Flynn 0-1.
Scorers
Peter O’Reilly; Daire Lohan, Peter Kiely, Cathal O Dualachain; Daire Henderson, Peter Walsh, Luke Maloney; Cian O’Byrne, Dara Maloney; Eoin McCormack, Diarmuid Masterson, Ben McCormack; Christy Moorehouse, Padraig Doyle, Tom Cash. Subs: Jim Doyle for T Cash (51min), Joe Phelan for E McCormack (53min), Liam Kenny for P Doyle (55min), Luke O’Reilly for C Moorehouse (59min), Liam Benville for D Henderson.
Bray Emmets:
Dan O’Neill; Eoghan Potts, Michael Arrigan, Daniel O’Connor; Sean Hughes, Billy Cuddihy, Kristin Flynn; Conal Deeny, Peter Keane; Danny Nolan, Leon Browne, Michael Walsh; James Cranley, Andrew Walsh, Eoin Dorgan. Subs: Brian Lawless for D O’Connor (14min, inj), Jamie Griffin for D Nolan (43min).
Ciaran Fleming (Baltinglass)
Éire Óg Greystones: Ref: