O’Donovan Rossa 2-11

Ballinora  1-11

THERE is no stopping the O’Donovan Rossa minor footballers right now as they reached their first county U18 football final in 18 years.

After their West Cork final replay victory over Naomh Abán, the Rossas took down Ballinora in the Rebel Óg Cork ETB minor football semi-final in Newcestown.

A county final is next as the Skibbereen club will take on Croke Rovers, a combination of Castlemagner and Kilbrin.

‘It’s huge for the club. With the fact that the club has gone down to intermediate at adult level this year, it’s certainly given the area a lift,’ minor boss Dan Connolly told The Southern Star.

‘This particular team is earning respect and are now starting to get a following. These guys are the future for the club. It will take two to three years to transition a lot of these players into that intermediate team but it’s great for everyone.’

Skibb put in another huge team performance against Ballinora, despite losing midfielder Niall Hodnett to injury before throw-in. Finn Ryan started in his place and had a stormer, emphasising the benefits of having a deep squad.

Joe Connolly was immense as he hit 2-6, 2-5 from play, including goals in both halves to propel the Carbery club to victory. Kevin O’Donovan, Jason Collins and Odhran Herlihy turned in great displays in the forwards while Matthew Murphy, Ronan Collins and Dillion Ryan bossed the game around the middle third.

The West Cork side led 1-6 to 0-5 at the break. Ballinora, spearheaded by Cork minor footballer Ben Hegarty, went ahead during the second period but Skibb found a way to win with Joe Connolly’s second goal coming at a crucial time.

Dan Connolly feels his players’ decision-making is improving every game. They lost their championship opener against Valley Rovers but since then have gone from strength to strength with wins over Newcestown, Sam Maguires and Naomh Abán.

‘The team has been continually improving. We’re absolutely delighted with their decision-making. Their intensity and the level of professionalism that these young lads are actually bringing to the whole set up is brilliant. They’re an incredible bunc,’ he said.

‘Ballinora are a big physical team. It’s probably the first time that we met a team that was physically bigger than us. We knew from the outset that Ballinora was going to pose a huge challenge. On the day, we were pretty clinical as well up front.’

Croke Rovers, Skibb’s final opponents, beat Youghal in the other semi-final, 7-12 to 6-12, with Barry O’Driscoll and Fionn O’Shea some of the Duhallow side’s stars.

O’Donovan Rossa scorers: Joe Connolly 2-6 (1f); Kevin O’Donovan 0-4 (2f); Bobby Carstairs 0-1.

O’Donovan Rossa: Fionn Herlihy; JJ O’Brien, Neil McCarthy, Charlie McCarthy; Dylan Ryan, Danny Collins, Matthew Murphy; Ronan Collins, Finn Ryan; Odhran Herlihy, Kevin O’Donovan, Bobby Carstairs; Jason Collins, Joe Connolly, Darragh Crowley.

Ballinora: Kiel O’Mahony; Matthew Cremin, Sam O’Donovan, Gary O’Shea; Cormac Murphy, Conor O’Mahony, Jack Drinan; Simon Laverty, Alex Lehane; Oran Kingston, James O’Sullivan, Billy Meighan; Tom Meighan, Michael O’Donoghue, Ben Hegarty.

Referee: Tadhg Sheehan (St Mary’s).