Ballygarvan 2-12, Shamrocks 1-6
Ballygarvan are the league and championship champions after seeing off the brave challenge of Shamrocks on Sunday morning in Riverstick. The game tuirned out as most people expected – Shamrocks put it up to a Ballygarvan team still in county championship action but ran out of steam in the end before Ballygarvan pulled away in the last 10 minutes or so.
The Shamrocks effort over the hour is not reflected in the scoreline. They battled hard throughout and pushed Ballygarvan all the way but a lack of scoring power up front compared to their opponents cost them. Shamrocks played with the wind in the first half and led 1-4 to 0-5 at HT with Cannice Caffrey scoring the goal after he expertly finished low to the Ballygarvan net 20 minutes in. The game was even enough at this point but Ballygarvan were doing enough to keep within a goal at HT, such was the wind advantage. Brian Sweeney and Barry Mulqueen also kicked some nice Shamrocks points on top of 2 frees from Joseph Shanahan.
Shamrocks turned to play against the wind in the second half and faced a mammoth task to keep Ballygarvan at bay. Again, it was level 10 minutes into the second half at 1-4 to 0-7 but Shamrocks hadnt scored and their play was breaking down too easy, they found it nigh on impossible to break through the Ballygarvan defensive wall that they erected on their 45 yeard line – very similar to the championship replay between the sides. Ballygarvan slowly got on top and moved ahead and soon after scored a vital goal to lead 1-8 to 1-4. Shamrocks scored their first point of the second half 16 minutes in from Caffrey and had the deficit down to 1-10 to 1-6 with 8 minutes to go (McCarthy free). They had a chance to go within one score at this juncture but two attempts at pointing a simple free in front of the posts went wide, Ballygarvan broke and scored a point to effictively end the game. They added a further 1-1 to win out by double scores – an unfair reflection on the part a gallant Shamrocks team played in the contest.
Well done to the players and management on all the efforts throughout the year. While silverware eluded them, they certanly made plenty of progress and the signs are good for next year and beyond.
Team: F. O’Neill, S. Andrews, M. Prout, J. Tuohy, M. O’Neill, R. Harrington, D. Hayes, B. Mulqueen, A. McCarthy, J. Shanahan, C. O’Neill, C. Caffrey, S. Collins, B. Sweeney, D. O’Sullivan. Subs – C. Kidney, S. O’Neill, S. Hurley, J. Wilson.
