Result: 1 25 to 2 12
Quality performance yields the points for Boden’s Senior ‘Bs’ – The Long Fella Reports
A fine team performance from Ballyboden St. Endas Senior B hurlers yielded two valuable championship points (group stage) on Saturday evening last. The pitch at HQ was of such a high quality that a certain Irish writer might have said “it was like a deep carpet, Youghal to Youghal”. This was just one of two Cork links to the evening, the other being the Boden inclusion of ex-Ballyhooley hurler Darragh O’Reilly, a recent and valuable sign-up to the club. The competing sides arrived at the Firhouse Road venue from contrasting positions, Crumlin having opened their championship campaign with a good win, while Boden’s opener came up short, albeit after a satisfactory performance.
The winning of this contest centred around periods of domination, significantly at the end of each half. With Crumlin working hard to keep the home side within reach coming to the close of the first thirty, out of a longish ruck emerged O’Reilly with the sliotar. His conversion of the possession opened his side’s lead to seven points. Star man from the first half Gavin Corrigan added a further Boden point and his fifth in total in the half. This handsome lead of eight points was ultimately the winning of the contest. Crumlin were well up for the challenge when they emerged for the second half, and two goals should have been the launch-pad for a tense finale, but it was Boden who finished the game as a contest with five unanswered scores within the last ten minutes of play. The last quarter was dominated by the performance of Kevin Desmond who worked tirelessly to create opportunities as well as pointing three quality points of his own.
The Brendan Moran management team will have their concerns, particularly after the concession of the goals. The first of these came after a high ball from out in the middle landed at the feet of sturdy operator Adam Doyle(r). He managed to collect, turn and shovel the ball past Conor O’Donoghue in the Boden net. The second Crumlin goal came when Sam Caswell anticipated that a high incoming ball would break past the Boden defence. He had the easiest of tasks in firing past O’Donoghue. Putting this goal with a follow-up point from big centre-forward Shane Ryan brought the margin down to five points. That’s where Boden’s overall fitness and application came to the fore and led to the bagging of the championship points.
The style of play will particularly please the Boden mentors. The diagonal ball was well used by defenders, and forwards were on the move in anticipation of good possession opportunities. There were good moments like Ronan Dooley’s interception of a looped Crumlin pass which opened up for Keith McCarron, and he landed one over from out on the whitewash. Others to shine were Cian Mellett, particularly when he saw daylight in front of the Crumlin defence. His breakaway score in the first half provided a huge lift for his side. O’Donoghue provided his own contribution from mid-field, a sixty-five that landed short, only to somehow scuttle its way to the Crumlin net. Mattie Weldon operated from the corner and got onto enough ball to create about five free-scoring chances for Mark Lambert and Corrigan. Others who did particularly well were Finnian McDonagh (3 pts.), Jamie Desmond, James Enright (3 pts.) and Fionn Maguire. Corrigan did enough to earn the MVP choice, but hot on his tail would be O’Reilly, Mellett and McDonagh.
Side; Conor O’Donoghue, Mike Clifford, Ronan Dooley, Jamie Desmond, Kevin Desmond, Rob Leddy, Fionn Maguire, Gavin Corrigan, James Enright, Mattie Weldon, Karl Reddy, Cian Mellett, Darragh O’Reilly, Finnian McDonagh, Morgan Ryan, Keith McCarron, Mark Lambert, Aran Coffey.