Ballinora 0-22

Grenagh 1-10

BRENDAN KENNEALLY REPORTS

BALLINORA retained their MJK Oils Mid Cork Junior Hurling Championship title and created a new record by winning the championship for the fifth year in a row.

The champions were strong favourites to prevail, having beaten Grenagh in the group stage by 12 points a month earlier. Any hopes the challengers had of reversing that result were dashed by half time when Ballinora led by 0-12 to 0-3 after a very impressive performance in the first half at Coachford on Sunday afternoon.

Grenagh were much improved in the second half and shared the scoring tally equally with their opponents, but there was never any likelihood of Ballinora losing their tight grip.

In Ben Mayer they had an ace sharpshooter – the young Ballinora man scored 0-15 of his side’s total, displaying unerring accuracy from 12 frees from all sorts of distances. His performance earned him the player of the match award.

‘We have a great group of players,’ manager Don O’Brien said.

‘The Ballinora club is taking each game as it comes, hurling and football. Football now takes centre stage with an intermediate championship final against Ilen Rovers coming up and we will look no further than that.’

Ballinora captain Shane Kingston with, left, Brian O'Donovan of MJK Oils (sponsors), and John Feeney, Muskerry GAA Chairman.

Team captain Shane Kingston added: ‘We got out of a hole six weeks ago (after a heavy defeat by Dripsey) and put our heads down and resolved to get back on track. The players and management team form a tremendous group and our supporters are steadfast over the years.’

Conditions at Coachford were good, the heavy overnight rains having ceased and there was little wind blowing. Playing into the village goal, Ballinora had a good start – a point from Liam Lyons followed by two points from Ben Mayer frees in the first five minutes.

When Mayer had pointed another free and added a point from play within a further three minutes, it was clear that the champions were on song and Grenagh were visibly struggling to contain them.

Dan Twomey had an opening point for Grenagh from a 50-metre free in the tenth minute but Ballinora struck back with a point from a glorious Seán Lyons side-line cut on 14, followed by a Ben Mayer pointed free from inside his own 65.

As the champions continued to apply the pressure, Darragh Corkery fired over two fine scores to leave his side leading by 0-9 to 0-1 after 20 minutes.

Ballinora had control of the middle third of the field at this stage, with captain Shane Kingston at centre back, flanked by Mark O’Brien and Colin O’Flynn, giving huge support to Liam Lyons and Tommy Burns at midfield, ably assisted by half forwards Darragh Holmes, Danny Dineen and Seán Lyons.

Grenagh were under constant pressure and Kelvin Cummins, Paul Barry-Murphy and Alex Kiely were resisting strongly. But the waves of attack kept coming and fouling was a costly exercise for Grenagh with Mayer in such top form from frees from all distances.

Grenagh free-taker Dan Twomey hit over two points to break the Ballinora sequence but in the five minutes before the break Seán Lyons took a classy point from play, followed by another from Darragh Holmes and Ben Mayer made it 0-12 to 0-3 with the final score of the first half from a free on the half-way line. Ballinora looked to be the better team and on the road to victory.

To their credit and true to their tradition, Grenagh put in a much improved second-half performance and made the Ballinora men stay focussed to the finish.

Ballinora forward Ben Mayer received the man-of-the-match award from Brian O'Donovan of MJK Oils (sponsors).

Grenagh points from Robert Coleman, Seán Joyce and Dan Twomey were matched in each case by points from Mayer frees for Ballinora, two from long distance. Mayer had brought his points tally from frees to ten with two more by the three-quarter mark. The score was now 0-17 to 0-6.

A Grenagh point from Twomey was answered by Darragh Holmes. In the 50th minute a well-struck Grenagh penalty was stopped by a marvellous save by Ballinora goalkeeper Barry Crowley – another indication that this was not going to be Grenagh’s day.

The stout Ballinora defence was eventually breached in the 55th minute when a loose ball in the goalmouth was lashed to the net by Grenagh substitute Brian Walsh. Seán Joyce added a fine score from a distance but inevitably Ben Mayer answered these. When Joyce added two more for Grenagh, Mayer was on hand again with another brace to cap a fine individual performance as his team took its 11th Muskerry title.

Next, Ballinora meet the South East champions, Kinsale or Belgooly, in the county quarter-final and will be aware of their poor record in the county championship.

OUR STAR: Ballinora forward Ben Mayer finished with 0-15 to his credit, including 12 frees. He received the MJK Oils Man of the Match award.

Scorers

Ballinora: Ben Mayer 0-15 (12f, 1 65); S Lyons (1 sl), D Corkery, D Holmes 0-2 each, L Lyons 0-1.

Grenagh: D Twomey 0-5 (5f); S Joyce 0-4; B Walsh 1-0; R Coleman 0-1.

Ballinora: Barry Crowley; Tim Forde, Neil Lordan, James Byrne; Mark O’Brien, Shane Kingston, Colin O’Flynn; Tommy Burns, Liam Lyons; Darragh Holmes, Danny Dineen, Seán Lyons; Ben Mayer, Darragh Corkery, Alan O’Shea.

Subs: Conor Quirke for A O’Shea (inj, 34), James Keohane for D Corkery (45), Michael Quirke for S Lyons (51), Robert Quirke for D Holmes (52), Pat Fitton for M O’Brien (57).

Grenagh: James Walsh; Kevin O’Neill, Paul Barry Murphy, Alex Kiely; Jason O’Keeffe, Kelvin Cummins, Danny Warren; Jack Twomey, Seán Joyce: John Lehane, Michael White, Darragh Kenny: Shane Morley, Robert Coleman, Dan Twomey.

Subs: Paul Ahern for O’Keeffe (ht), Dara O’Shea for M White (42), Brian Walsh for D Kenny (44), Niall Coleman for J Lehane (50).

Referee: Brendan Barry-Murphy (Aghabullogue).