Ballinkillen's superiority is key to unlocking junior final passage
Ballinkillen's Eoin Kavanagh tackled by Carlow Town's John Cleary.
Ballinkillen’s superior hurling nous was key as they qualified for their second Junior Hurling Championship final in consecutive years at Netwatch Cullen Park on Friday. In fairness to the runners-up they lost the experienced Brian Delaney who had to leave the field due to injury after less than five minutes. It was a tough blow.
The eventual winners started well as Mickey Butler, Shane Kelly and Tom Huff registered a point each before two minutes had elapsed. Huff’s effort was particularly noteworthy when finding the posts from a narrow angle on the left at the O’Hanrahan’s end of the ground.
Peter Lynch got Carlow Town off the mark from a free and he followed up with another on five minutes. Again, Ballinkillen reeled off a succession of scores with Butler, Darragh Nolan, Huff and Paddy Kavanagh raising white flags.
Lynch kept Carlow Town within touching distance with his accuracy from frees.
Both sides created goal chances with the Carlow keeper, Adam Maher, inviting Huff to take his chance down the left and the wily net-minder parried and cleared the Ballinkillen goal effort.
At the other end, John Cleary skinned the Ballinkillen defence as he jinked down the end-line at the tunnel side but was pinged for overcarrying a split second before his shot whizzed into the bottom left hand corner.
An interesting stat from the half revealed Carlow Town scored all their six points from frees while Ballinkillen haul came from play when leading 0-8 to 0-6.
The lead went out to three points when Kelly flashed over another point but Carlow Town struck back when Finlay Racklyeft took a pass from Lynch before finding the bottom left-hand corner of the net. The same player added a point and it looked as if the momentum of the game had changed.
Ballinkillen were not for turning as Conor Treacy levelled matters at 1-7 to 0-10. Lynch and Kelly exchanged scores. It was damaging for Carlow Town that they were depending a lot on their free-taker while Ballinkillen seemed to have players around the field who knew where the posts were and made it pay.
They key moment came on 38 minutes when Huff took a pass from Kelly and found the net from close range.
Around that time, key refereeing decisions were not kind to Carlow Town. In the lead up to the Huff goal, Ballinkillen could twice have been pulled twice for overcarrying. Marginal calls which go your way sometimes and other times they don’t.
From there Carlow Town could never catch the eventual winners. Kavanagh added a beautiful point from out on the right. Lynch posted two more points for the Oak Park side from placed balls to bring it back to 1-12 to 1-10. Huff and Kavanagh cancelled those out with one each from play.
In reply, Shane Gurhy knifed his way through the Ballinkillen defence but had to settle for a point. Frustration accompanied the Carlow effort and a mentor was yellow carded. Presumably a call from the side-line official?
Gradually Ballinkillen pulled away with Kelly (free), Kavanagh and Huff all pointing. They deserved it. From a desire and effort point of view, there was nothing between the sides but Ballinkillen hurled better on this occasion.
T Huff 1-4, P Kavanagh 0-5, S Kelly 0-4 (2fs), M Butler 0-2, D Nolan, C Treacy 0-1 each.
P Lynch 0-9 (fs), F Racklyeft 1-1, S Gurhy 0-1
John Farrell; Mickey Butler, Charlie Byrne, Colin Byrne; Lauren Kinsella, Mark Dermody, Eoin Kavanagh; Ciaran Dowling, Darragh Cummins; Darragh Nolan, Paddy Kavanagh, Adam Smyth; Conor Treacy, Shane Kelly, Tom Huff.
Damien O’Neill for Smyth (34), Colin Bolger for Butler (47), Craig Kehoe for C Treacy (56)
Adam Maher; Aaron Myles, JP Lee, Rory Dunne; Joe Carbery, Barry English, Simon O’Keeffe; Brian Delaney, Harry Delaney; Finlay Racklyeft, Aubrey Bradley, Peter Lynch; Conor Buggy, John Cleary, Aaron Power.
Sean McMahon for B Delaney (5), Lee Carpenter for Dunne (23), Shane Gurhy for Cleary (33), Daniel Brennan for Buggy (48), Jay Barcoe for Bradley (56).
Kyle Clarke (Bagenalstown Gaels).
