July 28, 2019 at 9:00 am

PHOTOS/REPORTS: Ballyduff Advance But Crotta And St Brendans Have To Do It Again

Posted by Dermot Crean

Mike O’Halloran was at the two Kerry Senior Hurling Championship games in Austin Stack Park on Saturday…

Ballyduff 4-30

Ballyheigue 0-07

Action from the game. Photo by Dermot Crean

An easy win for Ballyduff in their game with Ballyheigue.

Ballyheigue battled away until the end, but the game was over after about 20 minutes when Ballyduff led by ten points to three.

Ballyduff went on to add 2-5 with Ballyheigue only managing one point to leave the halftime score Ballyduff 2-15 Ballyheigue 0-04.

Ballyduff rung the changes at halftime where they replaced three players, one of them being Daniel O’Carroll who was most impressive in the first half.

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One of the young men that came on was Eric Daly and he was a revelation showing great pace and confidence while scoring two points and setting up others for scores.

The top man for Ballyduff was Jack Goulding. Ballyduff have well and truly blown the cobwebs out of the system and their demolition of Ballyheigue shows that their well is overflowing again.

Ballyheigue to their credit battled to the end and must be given great credit for their efforts.

Their preparation was hampered somewhat and credit must be given to Michael Leane who did his best to keep the show on the road.

Ballyheigue must just hang in there for a couple of years as they have some serious talent on the way up.

Ballyduff: PJ O’Gorman, John Hussey, Anthony O’Carroll, Ally O’Connor, David Goulding (0-02), Eoin Ross (0-02), Padraig O’Grady, Michael Boyle, Paud Costello, Daniel O’Carroll, Liam Boyle(0-01),Paul O’Carroll(0-01) Padraig Boyle(1-08(0-04 from frees)), Aiden Boyle(2-03), Jack Goulding (1-10).

Replacements used, Jack O’Sullivan, Jason Bowler, Eric Daly (0-02), Kevin Bowler(0-01) Darren O’Connor.

Ballyheigue: John Mike Pierce, Darren Stack, Mark Dineen, Chris O’Mahony, Colin O’Mahony(C), Michael Leane, Mikey O’Halloran, Diarmuid Walsh(0-01), Gary Galloway(0-01), Philip Lucid(0-04), Brendan Walsh, Tomas Casey, Brian O’Riordan(0-01) Scroll down for photos…

Ballyheigue threaten the Ballyduff goal. Photo by Dermot Crean

Eoin Ross passes the sliotar. Photo by Dermot Crean

Letting fly. Photo by Dermot Crean

Ballyheigue player fail to stop a clearance. Photo by Dermot Crean

St Brendans 1-18

Crotta O’Neills 2-15 (after extra time)

HOW Crotta O’Neills must regret not coming out on top in this game, given that they were two points ahead with 55 minutes on the clock playing with the wind and having an extra man.

St Brendans will rue the fact that their shooting was poor, coughing up scoring chances from play and frees — I think they had 14 wides in ordinary time.

High-fielding action. Photo by Dermot Crean

Walking off the field after the game, I got the impression that St Brendans were the happier with the result.

St Brendans can thank Darren Delaney for their survival, Crotta O’Neills looked nervous in the first half with their first touch not as good as usual and of course they were without Barry O’Mahony for ten minutes due to being blood subbed.

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Crotta O’Neills looked nervous in the first half with their first touch, not as good as usual and of course they were without Barry O’Mahony for ten minutes due to being blood subbed.

Crotta came up against a physically strong and more experienced side who were much better able to manage the game and didn’t panic, they worked the ball out of defence to set up scores while Crotta were trying to force matters from distance.

Crotta also got two penalties, one of which was debatable. They depended on Jordan Conway up front and he was extremely busy, but he only managed two points such was the close attention he received from a resolute St Brendans rear guard.

In all, Crotta had only four different scorers, St Brendans on the other hand had ten separate men on the scoreboard with their bench contributing five points.

St Brendans have a way of pulling themselves out of tricky situations their escape yesterday will fill them full of confidence for the return bout.

Crotta will have to overcome this setback and I’m pretty sure that their young team will learn from the battle with a much more experienced team.

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All to play for in the replay, but I think St Brendans may shade it, with Crotta O’Neills still in with a chance to progress later.

St Brendans: Darren Delaney, Jerry Wallace(0-01), Stephen Leen, Fionan Horgan, Kevin Orpen(JC), Kevin Hannafin(JC)(0-01), Darren Dineen, Padraig Kearney, David Griffin, Cian Hussey(0-01), John Egan (0-08), Tom Moloney, Nathan O’Driscoll(1-00), Tim Hannafin(0-02), Brendan O’Connor,

Replacements used, Michael Davis(0-01), Kieran Fitzgerald(0-01), Seamus O’Halloran(0-02), Colm Healy(0-02)

Crotta O’Neills; Adam O’Sullivan, Adrian O’Mahony, Darragh Kennelly, Sean Weir(C), Eamonn Shanahan, Tomas O’Connor, Bill Keane, Donal Hunt(0-02), Barry O’Mahony(0-01), Richard Nolan, Jean McKenna, Shane Nolan(2-10,(2-06 from frees), Paudie Quille, Jordan Conway(0-02), Raymond Nolan.

Replacements used, Tom Blonde McElligott, Declan O’Donoghue, James Sheehan.

All the talk now is about when the replay will take place and what impact the re-fixture will have on the Kerry U20 game next Saturday. Scroll down for photos…