Cushe’s goals send Rocks on to victory

ARKLOW ROCKS CARNEW EMMETS 2-10 2-6

TWO goals from full-forward John Cushe, one at the beginning of each half, helped in no small measure to put Arklow Rocks on the road to a four-point victory over old rivals Carnew Emmets in this Intermediate hurling championship game played at Joule Park, Aughrim on Wednesday night last.

Unfortunately for Cushe he was injured in scoring the second goal and took no further part in the game, being replaced by Kevin Reilly.

Both defences were on top in the early stages before Carnew corner forward Paul Murphy got his opening point after five minutes following good work from full forward John Smith.

John Cushe levelled for the Rocks with a point two minutes later and followed in the next minute with the first of his two goals.

A Dean Grandy point from a long-range free closed the gap. Arklow went into a 15-minute period of dominance and had points from Shane Mellon (2), a Paddy Mellon point from a free plus another Paddy Mellon point from play to leave the Arklow side 1-5 to 0-2 ahead after twenty minutes.

Jody Byrne had a strong ten minutes finish to the first half for Carnew and scored three points to drag his side back into the game. His first point was a most unusual score.

A long ball into the town goal carried over the heads of backs and forwards alike, hopped just outside the square and went over the bar.

It’s not too often a sliotar will bounce over the bar but that is the year we have had.

Jody added two further points from frees to reduce the gap to a goal coming up to the break. Paddy Mellon pointed a free just on the call of half time to leave the half time score at 1-6 to 0-5 in favour of the Rocks.

The Arklow side began the second half well and John Cushe had the ball in the net after four minutes.

A Jody Byrne pointed free and a goal from Paul Murphy on ten minutes brought Carnew back to within a goal.

They were playing well out around the field with Nick Skelton, Martin Molloy, Daire Foley, Jody Byrne and roving full-forward John Smith getting on the ball quite a bit but they fell down when it came to scoring.

They had a number of wides and in fact went without a score at all for the last twenty minutes until Jody Byrne got their second goal just as the game entered the time added period.

In contrast, the Rocks kept the scoreboard tucking over with points from Tony Kinsella and Paddy Mellon (free).

The Emmets goalie Billy Molloy denied them a third goal when he pulled off a brilliant save from a close in shot by Tony Kinsella with ten minutes to go.

Paddy Mellon pointed another free and veteran substitute Danny Curran got their final point four minutes from the end.

The only Carnew scoring response was that Jody Byrne goal just before the call of time. Final score was ARP 2-10, Carnew Emmets 1-6.

Scorers. ARP: John Cushe 2-1, Paddy Mellon 0-5, Shane Mellon0-2, Tony Kinsella 0-1, Danny Curran 0-1.

Carnew Emmets. Jody Byrne 1-4, Paul Murphy 1-1, Dean Grandy 0-1.

Olagh Redmond; Martin Gilbert, Eamon Doyle. James Dignam; Cian Doyle, John Furlong, Conor Doyle; Colin O’Connor, Shane Mellon; Jason Redmond, Paddy Mellon, Tony Kinsella; Sean Somers, John Cushe, Chris Kavanagh. Subs Kevin Reilly, John Foxton, Tyrone Byrne and Danny Curran.

Billy Molloy; Cian Moules, Dermot Doran, Thomas Collins; Enda Foley, Martin Molloy, Nick Skelton; Dean Grandy, Dara Foley; Dan Nolan, Billy Rickerby, Jody Byrne; Paul Murphy, John Smith, Fionn Furlong. Subs: Tommy McGing, Adam Barnes, Dean Barnes.

Ciaran Fleming (Baltin- glass).