Saturday evening stroll for second string Gunners
Ballygunner's Colm Hartley beats the Shamrock's Goalkeeper John O'Donovan.
Ballygunner’s second string will also take beating. In the Saturday evening sunshine, they smashed Shamrocks by 20 points.
Conor Tobin (1-6 from play), Colm Hartley (1-4 from play) and Jake Foley (0-6 from play) caught fire up front. All three will be pushing for places in Darragh O’Sullivan’s first team. They had 42 shots at the target over the hour. Intimidating numbers.
The Gunners took to the field with seven of the side that won the 2022 intermediate title against Ballysaggart. Billy O’Keeffe, who brought the All-Ireland senior semi-final to penalties last December, was on dead ball duties and finished with seven points. Tony Brennan and Cathal O’Sullivan were the pick of the defence.
Shamrocks couldn’t call on former county man Colm Roche as he is away at present. His brother Shane stood out at centre back. Padraig Hynes picked off eight points while Chris Murphy made an impact off the bench. Their short puckout strategy fell apart as the game wore on. Ballygunner made hay off those turnovers high up the pitch.
The sides were level four times in the first quarter. On fifteen minutes, Conor Tobin cut in from the corner between the stand and the country end, left his marker for dead and buried the ball in the roof of the net (1-4 to 0-4). Tobin and Jake Foley looked razor sharp from the throw in. Foley opened the scoring after just 40 seconds. He then supplied Tobin who managed to split the posts while falling backwards. A hook from Shane Roche denied Foley a strike at goal.
With the benefit of a strong breeze towards the road goal, Tom Dalton dispatched two monster frees for Shamrocks. Padraig Hynes hit over five more closer in. Last year’s beaten semi-finalists were guilty of four balls short into Ballygunner goalkeeper Mark Kilgannon. Billy O’Keeffe knocked over five placed balls (four frees and a 65) at the other end as the Gunners led 1-10 to 0-9 at the break.
Tom Dalton broke his hurley off the throw in, a rare sight, and a fine Padraig Hynes point followed from the stand sideline. That was as good as it got for the men in white and green. Wind assisted points from Eoin O’Brien, Colm Hartley, Tobin, Foley and O’Keeffe pushed the gap out to nine. Defender Scott Fleming had three fresh air shots at a sideline ball before he finally connected!
The introduction of Chris Murphy at corner forward revived Shamrocks. He hit two points from play as the game entered the last quarter (1-17 to 0-14). Wides from Eoghan Lenehan and Stephen Lucey ended their comeback hopes however. With twelve minutes left, Tobin teed up Hartley for a goal. Substitute Eoin Cuddihy then went for a point but Shamrocks netminder John O’Donovan lost the ball in the sun and it landed in the cobwebs. Cuddihy didn’t even celebrate as O’Donovan smacked the post in frustration. A consolation goal arrived for Shamrocks eight minutes from time as a foul on Murphy allowed Shane Roche bury a close range free to the Ballygunner net (3-17 to 1-14).
It turned into a turkey shoot after that. The Gunners struck eleven unanswered points between the 54th minute and 61st minute including four more for Tobin. Shamrocks contributed to this avalanche of scores by persisting with the short puckout. It could have been worse as O’Donovan made an injury time save from Tobin with his feet. The winners could also afford to shoot ten wides.
Will Ballygunner be able to keep this team together when the knockout stages come around?
Conor Tobin 1-6, Colm Hartley 1-4, Billy O’Keeffe 0-7 (5fs, 1 65), Jake Foley 0-6, Eoin Cuddihy 1-2, Gavin Corbett, Eoin O’Brien, Tom Spain 0-1 each.
Padraig Hynes 0-8 (6fs), Shane Roche 1-1 (1-0f), Chris Murphy, Tom Dalton (2fs) 0-2 each, Eoghan Lenehan 0-1.
Mark Kilgannon; Tony Brennan, Sean Harney, Craig O’Keeffe; Tom Gallagher, Cathal O’Sullivan, Scott Fleming; Darragh O’Keeffe, Conor Berry; Colm Hartley, Billy O’Keeffe, Eoin O’Brien; Conor Tobin, Tom Spain, Jake Foley.
Gavin Corbett for Berry (46), Eoin Cuddihy for Spain (47), Gus Flynn for Gallagher (51).
John O’Donovan; Stephen Roche, Ivan O’Neill, Michael Lucey; Mikey O’Neill, Shane Roche, Billy Hynes; Adam Crawford, Tom Dalton; Kieran Crawford, Padraig Hynes, Edward Lonergan; Eoghan Lenehan, Stephen Lucey, Kelvyn O’Farrell.
Sean Meaney for Mikey O’Neill (HT), Chris Murphy for O’Farrell (41), Adam McSweeney for Lenehan (51).
Gavin Whelan
The tall and troublesome Conor Tobin shot 1-6 from play and closed down short puckouts.
Colm Hartley’s goal on 48 minutes stopped Shamrocks’ comeback.
Can the Gunners do the double?
Ballygunner meet Ballysaggart on Sunday while Shamrocks tackle Dunhill the day before.
