Good Evans! O’Connor shines as Ballygarvan land South East junior football title

Ballygarvan 1-15

Ballinhassig 1-5

JJ HURLEY REPORTS 

A WORKMAN-LIKE Ballygarvan performance had them ease past Ballinhassig in the Huntsman Bar and Restaurant South East Junior A Football Championship final in Minane Bridge.

To be fair to Ballinhassig, the score did not justify their endeavour, particularly in the opening minutes of the second half when a goal from Eoin Buckley looked like opening up the contest.

With two opponents hailing from the same parish, the early bragging rights went to the red side, with points from Gary White (free) and Daniel Mackey. Ballinhassig got off the mark on eight minutes when the Blues had Diarmuid O'Sullivan to thank for a point from a free. The lively Evan O'Connor, who collected the man-of-the-match accolade, landed his first point on nine minutes.

With Ballygarvan in the ascendancy, Jamie Fenton fed Ray O’Halloran and he made no mistake in finding the back of the net. Two more points from there to half-time from O'Connor and Mark Kennefick were cancelled out by O'Sullivan and Adam O Sullivan in the same period.

The score could have been far closer at the interval only for the brave skills of the Ballygarvan goalkeeper, who denied Adam O'Sullivan a goal opportunity.

As expected, Ballinhassig started well in the second half, with a point from O'Sullivan, his first from play. With the lion's share of possession in the early stages of the second half, Ballinhassig could not reduce the deficit despite the best efforts of Adam O'Sullivan and Eoin Lombard.

Ballygarvan were far more clinical in front of the posts as Kennfick and O' Connor (2) added clear water between the neighbours.

A well-taken goal by Eoin Buckley was created by the hard work of Eoin Lombard on 13 minutes, but this was to be their last score. From there to the finish, O'Connor terrorised the Ballinhassig defence and slotted over six points (including five frees) in the remaining 17 minutes.

Ballinhassig almost engineered a goal opportunity late on, but the chance went a begging, and Ballygarvan finally got their hands on the Pa Joe Cronin Memorial Trophy,

Scorers

Ballygarvan: Evan O'Connor 0-9 (6f); R O'Hanlon 1-0; Mark Kenefick, Gary White (2f) 0-2 each; Daniel Mackey, Dylan O'Connor 0-1 each.

Ballinhassig: Diarmaid O'Sullivan 0-4 (3f); Eoin Buckley 1-0; Adam O'Sullivan 0-1.

Ballygarvan: G White; P Ryan, D O'Sullivan, C Mackey; S Fenlon, D O'Connor; M O'Mahony, J Fenton; E O'Connor, P O'Halloran, D O'Mahony; R O’Halloran, M Kennefick, D Mackey.

Subs: N O'Dowd for D Mackey (41), Callum Mackey for D O'Mahony (54), S Buckley for Conor Mackey (56).

Ballinhassig: A O'Leary; C Delea, C Kirby, D Lombard; C Grainger, K Maguire, S O'Leary; R Casey, C Desmond; S Kearney, D O'Sullivan, E Lombard; A O'Sullivan, E Buckley, Fintan O'Leary.

Subs: J Grainger for C Delea (41), B Lynch for F O'Leary (51), D Dulea for S O'Leary (54).

Referee: B Sweeney (Shamrocks).