Result: 4 18 to 0 15
Too many Boden aces for visitors O’Tooles – The Long Fella Reports
Ballyboden Senior hurling management will be well pleased with this team performance against O’Tooles in the second round of the league. They will also be pleased to have gotten the game played against the background of the recent snow drifts. Many of the county’s surfaces are still in ‘sick-bay’.
The contest was largely decided by the break, when Boden led by 3.10 to 0.08. The goals were well spread over the thirty, but perhaps the most significant aspect of the play was the endeavour among the Boden forwards to find the men in the best positions to complete the attacks. This brought many of them into the scoring frame, and none was more profilic than Conor Dooley. He operated at the point of the attack, sometimes taking his own score, and other times laying off the pass to complete the score. David O’Connor was first up to profit, but he had serious work to do, breaking a few strong challenges before firing over from close in. Others to impress during this half were Simon Lambert, showing all of his experience, and Niall McMorrow, looking as lively as ever. The early goals came from Lambert, Dooley and Paul Doherty. The best of the points came from Dooley, and Stephen O’Connor after a series of good passes put him into clear scoring space.
The second half lacked the level of Boden’s performance of the first half, but that was largely due to the improved efforts of the O’Tooles players. Michael Carton, operating on the forty kept probing for scores, and performed well up to his usual high standard. However the half was barely five minutes old when Conor McCormack flashed his shot to the net from thirty yards…..Game over..!!!!
Manager Joe Fortune freshened things up with some replacements like Collie O’Neill, Eoghan O’Neill, Cian Mellett and Cillian Byrne. This kept the pressure on O’Tooles, who kept pushing forward looking for the goals that might bring them back into contention. Sitting back and thwarting many of these attacks was Conor Robinson, showing his usual clever control and distribution.
The game petered out with Lambert being brought to the free shot line for a number of added points. The visitors tried hard, but there was no denying the overall superiority of the Boden boys.
Squad; Conor O‘Donoghue, Luke Corcoran, Malachy Travers, Rob Leddy, Simon Lambert, Conor Robinson, Stephen O’Connor, Paul Doherty, Finn McGarry, Conor Dooley, Niall McMorrow, David Curtin, Aiden Mellett, Niall Ryan, David O’Connor, Naoise Maguire, Eoghan O’Neill. Colm O’Neill, Cian Mellett, Cillian Byrne, David O’Connor.