Newcestown 2-17
Bandon 0-12
TOM LYONS REPORTS
A BRACE of first-half goals by Oisín O’Sullivan and a marvellous display of point-scoring by Eoin Kelly were the main ingredients for Newcestown’s comprehensive win over Bandon in round 3 of the RCM Tarmacadam junior A hurling championship.
This was a straight shoot-out between the sides to see who would finish second to Ballinascarthy in Roinn 1 and grab a qualifying quarter-final spot.
Bar the opening quarter in balmy Enniskeane on Friday evening, this was a game dominated by a livelier and more skilful Newcestown. The killer blows arrived in the 20th and 24th minutes when Oisín O’Sullivan, a nephew of the legendary Cork full back Diarmuid O’Sullivan, billowed the Bandon net twice to open up a clear two-goal lead after an even first quarter. Newcestown led by 2-10 to 0-10 at the break and never looked in danger of being overhauled in the second half as they outscored their opponents by 0-7 to 0-2.
‘We were slow to get going but once we found our rhythm, we got on top,’ said a pleased Newcestown manager Declan O’Donovan.
‘We had lost to Ballinascarthy by a single point in round one whereas Bal had hammered Bandon, so maybe there was a bit of complacency early on, even though we did our best to knock that out of them before the game.
‘Look, it’s our first win of the season, we lost all our league games and the first championship game against Bal, so we’d have to be happy with this.’
It was Bandon who started at top speed as Kevin Hannon and Stephen Murphy split the posts but Newcestown quickly pulled them back with two points from Eoin Kelly. It was practically point for point in the first quarter with Pat Barry (play, free and 65) and Eoin Geary pointing for Bandon, answered by Kelly, Oisín O’Sullivan and Ciarán Hurley for Newcestown.
It was Bandon in front, 0-6 to 0-5, at the end of the first quarter but that was as good as it got for the Lilywhites as Newcestown struck for an unanswered 2-2 between the 17th and 24th minutes. O’Sullivan’s two goals, the second brilliantly set up by Darragh McSweeney, plus points from Podge Collins and Hurley had the St John’s men seven to the good.
Bandon responded well as they hit four points before half time but three of those came from Barry frees, and only one from play by Murphy. Newcestown responded with three points from Kelly and it was Newcestown in front by two clear goals at half time, 2-10 to 0-10.
For the few neutrals present, it would be safe to say that the second half meandered to its inevitable conclusion. Content to watch Kelly rifling over the frees, interspersed with points from play by Conor Goggin, Podge Collins and Ciarán Hurley, the winners also had top performances from Rick Bradfield, Cormac O’Sullivan, Joe Kenneally, Conor Goggin and Murt Kenneally. Bandon found themselves confined to two pointed frees for Pat Barry in the second half but had good triers in Aidan Dullea, Brian O’Mahony, Stephen Murphy, Rory Fogarty, Gearóid Murphy and Pat Barry.
Our Star: One stand-out performer on the night, Eoin Kelly with ten points for Newcestown dominated the game.
Scorers
Newcestown: Eoin Kelly 0-10 (6f); Oisín O’Sullivan 2-1; Ciarán Hurley 0-3; Podge Collins 0-2; Conor Goggin 0-1.
Bandon: Pat Barry 0-8 (6f, 1 65); Stephen Murphy 0-2; Eoin Geary, Kevin Hannon 0-1 each.
Newcestown: Ronan McSweeney; Gavin Kelleher, Rick Bradfield, Cormac O’Sullivan; Conor Goggin, Joe Kenneally, Eoin Calnan; Murt Kenneally, Cian Twomey; Oisín O’Sullivan, Andrew Shorten, Eoin Kelly; Darragh McSweeney, Podge Collins, Ciarán Hurley.
Subs: Niall Murray for E Calnan (35), Gerard Murphy for D McSweeney (45), Brian Collins for A Shorten (50), Eoin Calnan for R Bradfield (58).
Bandon: John Buckley; Oisín O’Mahony, Conor Twomey, Aidan Dullea; Aaron O’Reilly, Ciarán Twomey, Dylan Barr; Stephen Collins, Stephen Murphy; Gearóid Murphy, Rory Fogarty, Kevin Hannon; Pat Barry, Eoin Geary, Jake Lillis.
Subs: Darragh Collins for O O’Mahony (ht), Brian O’Mahony for K Hannon (ht), Hugh O’Mahony for E Geary (40), Oisín Doyle for S Collins (48), Zach O’Farrell for D Barr (54).
Referee: Anthony O’Regan (Kilbrittain).
