MLR look to be hitting form at the right time.
Carlow Senior Hurling Championship Semi-final
Mount Leinster Rangers 2-19, Ballinkillen 1-15
By Leo McGough
In an era when tip-tappy possession hurling threatened to ‘transform’ the game us old traditionalists loved we feared that it would become ‘football with sticks’, a ‘festival of frees’ amidst thrown hand-passes, egg-and-spoon runs and precious little goalmouth action. Future ‘Reeling in the Years’ would struggle for highlights as goals had become so scarce as to be labeled an ‘endangered species’.
While Saturday’s second Carlow SHC semi-final in Netwatch Cullen Park was not a ‘goals galore’ affair two of the three goals, including the green flag that swung the game in Mount Leinster Rangers favour, owed their creation to good old fashioned direct hurling and owed their ‘finish’ to good old fashioned methods too, a catch-turn-and-shot and a, wait for it, an overhead pull! Hallelujah!
A tit-for-tat opening half had ended with the Rangers holding a narrow 0-11 to 0-9 advantage, a big part of the reason challengers Ballinkillen were still in strong contention being the fact that veteran David English, the former county star, had given a defensive master-class at full-back, sweeping up ‘breaks’, clearing cleverly and probably prompting the Rangers selectors to ponder withdrawing their full-forward, Eddie Byrne.
However ‘Feathers’ re-emerged for the second half, taking up his station close to the Deerpark end posts. Two minutes after the restart Teddy Joyce – a grandson of Ted of ’44 who 80 years ago this Tuesday won the county’s lone Leinster SFC – collects possession just inside the 65m line, close to the stand sideline and floats a high ball towards the posts. ‘Feathers’ takes flight, catches high despite David’s best spoiling efforts and quicker than it takes to type pivots in the air and lets fly, his ‘bullet’ whizzing by Ballinkillen goalkeeper en route to the back of the net.
That ’throwback’ goal helped the champions keep brave challengers Ballinkillen at arms length for the rest of the game and substitute Eoin Doyle’s 58th minute clinching goal also owed its ‘assist’ to a long ball (this from fellow substitute Paul Coady) it’s finish was of the more conventional moderan variety. However in the first minute of ’stoppage time’ Ballinkillen launched a long ball down on the scoreboard end posts and with a well timed overhead swing big Padraig Hynes connected with the dropping sliotar and directed it to the net. Wonder when was that last times that happened in the County Grounds?
Alas, it was too little too late for Ballinkillen who hurled really well for long periods, especially in the first half when having been hit by an early Rangers raids that yielded a point a minute for the first three minutes – Jon Nolan (long range), Dean Tobin (long range), Richie Coady (mid-distance) – the blue and gold brigade responded with a fabulous four-in-a-row of their own in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th minutes, Sean Murphy (a typical rousing score), Jack Treacy (narrow angle), Shane Kelly (a sweet point from the left wing) and Craig Wall (a classy score from the same left wing) all raising white flags.
Craig Wall was to add two further points before half-time, two superb scores, one long ranger, one from a narrow angle tight to the terrace sideline while Eric English also landed a long range point with Ciarán Whelan nailing two mid-distance frees to bring Ballinkillen’s tally to nine at the break.
The champions tally at that stage was 11. Now normally your scribe when taking notes on scores would etch ‘gt sc’ aka ‘great score’ but twice during that second quarter I was prompted to upgrade the rating, writing ‘magnificent’ after Dean Tobin’s 18th minute strike, ‘fabulous’ when Jon Nolan pointed in the 24th minute. Dean’s point came about when he quickly picked a ball that squirted out of a melee close to the sideline and immediately, from inside his own half, drove the ball all the bar. Magnificent. Six minutes later Jon Nolan fastened on to a ball in the middle of the field, deftly side-stepped a would-be tackler and with what appeared a mere flick-of-the-wrist to avoid a possible hook piloted the ball all the way over the bar. Fabulous. Jon scored a fistful of points from play in total, all long range, the other three merely earning a ‘great’ rating as did Dean’s other two. Donagh Murphy also contributed a sweet point in that opening half salvo.
Eddie Byrne’s smash-and-grab goal early in the second half helped his side to a 1-15 to 0-12 advantage at the end of the third quarter, Evan Kealy joining the long rangers, Conaill Fitzpatrick too, Teddy Joyce popping over a few frees while down the other end Ciarán Whelan frees, a Jack Treacy beauty and Sean Murphy with a point that on another day would have been deserving of the score of the game, a quick jab lift at full speed racing towards the sideline before firing an over-the-shoulder shot over the bar.
Apart from the quality of the scores another noteworthy aspect of this strongly contested semi-final was the brave goalkeeping of Ballinkillen net guardian Thomas Dowling whose brave advances twice denied Teddy Joyce goals in the first half. Another potential Rangers ‘goal’ was averted when David English’s helmeted head appeared to ricochet the ball away from danger though leaving the defender a bit ‘shook’ for a while. Also central to the Ballinkillen challenge was the cultured hurling of Dion Wall and Ciarán Whelan.
We have already mentioned Mount Leinster Rangers super scores but their defence, anchored by the assured Michael Joyce and Kevin McDonald were steady throughout while veteran Richie Coady, a hour away from his 12 Carlow SHC medal, put in his usual industrious performance in the middle of a park he knows so well.
– MOUNT LEINSTER RANGERS –
1. Dean Grennan
2. Michael Doyle
3. Michael Joyce
4. Sean Joyce
5. Evan Kealy 0-1
6. Kevin McDonald (Capt) 0-1 f
7. Tony Lawlor
8. Conaill Fitzpatrick 0-1
9. Richie Coady 0-1
10. Dean Tobin 0-3
11. Teddy Joyce 0-4 4f
12. Jon Nolan 0-5
13. Donagh Murphy 0-2 1f
14. Eddie Byrne 1-1
15. Ciaran Kavanagh
Subs: Eoin Doyle 1-0 for C Kavanagh
Paul Coady for C Fitzpatrick (56)
Jamie Nolan fot T Joyce (58)
Tim Brennan for R Coady (60)
– BALLINKILLEN –
1. Tommy Dowling
2. Ciarán Dowling
3. David English
4. Jamie Wall
5. Eric English 0-1
6. Dion Wall
7. Kevin Kavanagh
8. Cormac Lomax
9. Ciaran Whelan 0-4 4f
10. Sean Cummins
11. Sean Murphy 0-3
12. Craig Wall 0-3
13. Jack Treacy 0-2
14. Shane Kelly 0-2
15. Padraig Hynes 1-0
Subs: Patrick Kavanagh for Sean Cummins (h-t)
Sean Brenan for C Dowling (56)
Conor Treacy for S Kelly (60)
Referee: Paud O’Dwyer
