Shamrocks 2-9, Ballinhassig 0-11
Early November football and both Shamrocks and Ballinhassig served up an exciting and competitive game to decide who qualified for the league final. In the third meeting of the teams this year, Shamrocks came out on top by four points to qualify for the final against Valley Rovers.
Shamrocks started like a train and looked like they would wipe the floor with Ballinhassig as they opened up a 4 point lead inside the first 10 minutes, 0-4 to 0-0 after some points from Barry Mulqueen, Darragh Scriven and Cannice Caffrey. However, Ballinhassig turned the game right around in a six minute spell thereafter, moving ahead by 0-5 to 0-4. So it was game on at this point with both teams having dominated spells. Both sides exchanged points up to halftime to leave the blues leading 0-7 to 0-6. Shamrocks had work to do.
Shamrocks had a dream opening 8 minutes to the second half. They scored two quick goals through Darragh O’Sullivan and Cannice Caffrey to gave themselves a firm hold on proceedings. They led 2-6 to 0-7 at this point and Ballinhassig needed at least one goal to win this game. Ballinhassig brought the deficit back to 2-6 to 0-9 and 2-7 to 0-10 but couldn’t do enough to break the strong Shamrocks rearguard. Some inspired points from midfielder Mulqueen and Caffrey drove Shamrocks over the line in the last quarter.