BY KIERAN McCARTHY
O’DONOVAN ROSSA hurlers made the long trip to Ballinlough a worthwhile one as they began their Co-Op Superstores Confined Junior B Hurling Championship campaign with an eight-point victory, 1-16 to 0-11, over Doneraile.
It was a result that pleased the Skibbereen side’s manager Alan Keane as the Rossas are without several players through long-term and short-term injuries.
‘It was a really good team performance,’ Keane explained after this opening-round Group 2 win.
‘We started slowly and were down 0-5 to 0-2 after ten minutes then we took over and finished the half well to lead 1-9 to 0-8 at the break.’
With centre back Flor Crowley and captain Shane Donoghue at centre forward both starring, the Rossas had two of the best players on the pitch. Eugene Daly top scored with 0-7 frees, Stevie Cotter hit 1-1, Shaun Hodnett scored 0-3, Shane Donoghue chipped in with 0-2, while Patrick Crowley, Jason Nott and Micheal O’Donovan all added 0-1 apiece.
Next up for the Rossas in Group 2 is a clash with Rathpeacon on May 18th, and Keane hopes the county board will fix this clash closer to Skibbereen than last Saturday's opener in the city – the Rossas had to travel 82 kilometres one-way while Doneraile had a 49km trip.
‘We played a league game against St Mary’s the Tuesday night before the game, and we still had no venue for the county match at that stage,’ Keane explained.
‘Fair play to St Mary’s, they offered the pitch for the game to be played in as the original venue Cloughduv was unavailable. We emailed the county board and the reply we got back on Wednesday lunch-time was the game was to be in Ballinlough. This meant a trip of one hour and 20 minutes for us and a 45-minute trip for the opposition. That’s too short notice by the county board. Lads who work on Saturdays had to take extra time off work and so on.
‘I think the county board needs to really look at themselves when picking venues; this game should have been nowhere near the city. Fair play to Seandún for giving the field but it just seemed like the easy way out and didn’t think of the players.’
