Ballyboden 2 30 Naomh Barrog 1 09
Long Fella Reports from PUM
The daffodils were fluttering in the breeze on Sunday morning for the opening round of the senior hurling Division 1 league at HQ. The early start only drew a handful of supporters huddled on the rail, and they dropping their heads against a chilling north-east wind that translated itself into a four or five point advantage for the hurling side in receipt of it. Boden won the coin-toss and elected to take the advantage. By the half, they had opened a commanding lead of nine points, and without a goal.
Barrog’s opened the scoring with a free from their most potent forward Evan O’Brien, but the game was level within a minute when Boden’s Kevin Desmond poached an opportunity and fired over the bar from close range. Sweeping up from the back, Boden’s Luke McDwyer launched the first of a series of attacks, but the opportunity was not taken. Operating from the same zone, Boden’s Luke Corcoran found Adam Kelleher, and he brought the score to a brace to a single. Boden’s Fergal Ryan continued the good combination by finding Daniel Glynn in space, and he added to the home tally. O’Brien stopped the rot with a second pointed free, but Glynn was again on the mark with another quality point. Corcoran again became provider for mid-field man Luke Mulligan-Lynch to extend the Boden lead. Score 5 to 2.
More Boden scores came quickly when Ryan hit a 65, followed by Desmond from distance. O’Brien interrupted the Boden flow with yet another pointed free, but Desmond was quickest to react to a breaking ball and another point from close. Ryan bagged another free, but the effort was cancelled out by Barrog’s Ruairi McDonald with a smashing point from out wide. Some good Boden play in the middle zone brought Conor Dooley into the picture with the right pass for Corcoran to open a six point lead on the quarter hour. Demond hit his third, followed by McDwyer, using the following wind to heap more misery on the visitors. Ryan kept his percentages up with a brace from placed balls, but O’Brien cancelled one of them with some quality play. Barrog’s goal came next, after O’Brien dodged some flaky Boden defending to kick the sliotar past Conor O’Donoghue. The goal was quickly cancelled out with points from Corcoran, Dooley and Desmond, after McDwyer provided the telling pass. O’Brien closed the opening half scoring to bring the score to 18 points to 1.06.
With a nine point home cushion, it may have seemed a vain effort for the visitors to get something from the game. That however did not deter them, and they opened the second thirty with a brace of points, Jordan Dennis and Shane Ryan the scorers. Boden reacted quickly with points from Niall Ryan (a substitution for Desmond), Fergal and Malachy Codd, after McDwyer laid on the telling pass. Glynn hit his third of the morning, followed by Fergal after Corcoran’s pass. Within a minute, Kelleher had done a lot of his own creation before firing past Barrog’s excellent goalman Conor Ryan. The final quarter was to some extent dominated by the Lambert clan, with Jack digging in at the rear and Simon operating in a new role as an attacker. Jack kept the score-board ticking over with a point from out in the country. The bro then stepped up with a point off a wide mark, followed by a goal from a narrow angle. Glynn then capped a fine morning with some quality free-taking against a breeze. Ryan, McDwyer and Glynn completed the Boden scoring, and O’Brien bagged just a single for Barrog’s.
Overall Boden had a good morning out, but Barrog’s were severely hampered by five forced replacements following injuries. McDwyer and Corcoran swept up a rake of ball from the half-back line, feeding a hungry forward division. Desmond and Glynn took advantage of most of their possessions. Sean McDonnell gave a sixty minute contribution to the cause, and the Lambert brothers were hugely effective in closing out a good morning’s work-out. Another who showed some of his best touches was Niall Ryan, continuing his good form from last year. Barróg’s were very dependent in O’Brien for scores, and they can thank goalman Conor Ryan for his good blocking.
Squad: Conor O’Donoghue, Rob Leddy, Barry McGuire, Luke Corcoran, Luke Mulligan-Lynch, Dean Curran, Leon Kennedy, Luke McDwyer, Sean McDonnell, Daniel Glynn, Kevin Desmond, Conor Dooley, Adam Kelleher, Fergal Ryan, Malachy Codd, Pearse Christie, Simon Lambert, Jack Lambert, Shane Kennedy, Niall Ryan .