Result: 0 14 to 1 09
Boden tough it out in upwardly mobile move
“ Sport does not create character. Sport reveals character”
That stuff we call character was very much in evidence as our Senior B/Division 3 Adult Hurlers took on Barrogs for the League title on the all-weather pitch at Sancta Maria on a bright crisp sunny Sunday morn. The reward after a long season was a spot in Division 2 for the 2016 season.
What the decent sized crowd got was a fiercely competitive contest, packed with fine duels and great interplay. Both sides chose to line out conventionally, an opportunity for the skilful to show their best qualities. The game broke down fairly evenly over the hour, both sides displaying great character, all be it in somewhat different ways. The home side had the better of the exchanges during the middle quarters and moved into a winning position entering the final fifteen. Barrogs showed great determination in the face of a plethora of wides and were very much in the contest right up to James “Shiner” Brennan’s final whistle. They just never gave up!
The opening exchanges were loose and it took a fine Barrog goal to get the game settled down. Full forward Dean Flood had the honour of finishing the ball to the Boden net after some quality passing. The shot could have been saved, that is if Boden had two Donal Butlers as goalmen. As it turned out they were lucky to have one. He gave an accomplished performance over the hour and was probably the difference between the sides, all said and done. He even had the vision to pick out Niall Ryan from a puck-out and in some space and what would Niall do with a decent ball? Stick it over the black-spot
Austin Lynch gave his usual quality display from frees and bagged six over the hour. From play the ubiquitous Mattie Weldon slotted a fine score after ten minutes and within a minute Naoise Maguire had notched one from seventy metres or so. Meanwhile Barrogs were doing their stuff through Brian Dennis and Collie Cleary. Enter Darragh O’Gorman from his quarter and a diagonal ball to John O’Driscoll. He passed onto Ryan and the result was the Boden score of the hour. Close to the break Brendan Treacy showed some inventiveness and back-flicked the ball to Sean McDonnell. The result was a neat strike, the final score of the first half, making it 8 points to 1.5.
Boden came out for the second half and made determined moves towards “close-out”. Weldon won the first ball from the throw-in and was fouled. Lynch did the rest. Keith McCarron cleared his line and found Lynch. Another foul followed and “Ozzie” did the business. Meanwhile Barrogs were winning some decent ball, but were just not accurate enough to score. Over the hour they had at least double the Boden wide tally.
Adam Jermyn now came into his own and showed real guile and determination to keep the pressure on the Kilbarrack boys defence with some good clearances. Paul Doherty hit a fine 65 to put Boden two up with a Quarter left. Ryan and Flood cancelled each other out with individual efforts.
McDonnell bagged his second point after Jermyn and Ryan did the donkey work. The final ten minutes of play were dominated by Barrogs, looking for the goal that would tie the contest, but all they could add was a point from Paul Garbutt. All in all it was the Boden boys who showed the composure to grab the spoils, leaving Barrogs and their star man Dean Flood with much to ponder.
The Boden management included three on this year’s minor team for this important game, McDonnell, Aaron Coffey and James Holland.
Squad; Donal Butler, Darragh O’Gorman, Jamie Desmond, Eoin Small, Keith McCarron, Naoise Maguire, Adam Jermyn, John O’Driscoll, Mattie Weldon, Dermot Coffey, Brendan Treacy, Austin Lynch, Paul Doherty, Sean McDonnell, Aaron Coffey, Chris Lambert, James Holland, Niall Ryan.