Seir Kieran cruised to a comfortable victory over Ballyskenach in a disappointingly one sided Offaly Senior Hurling Championship encounter at St Brendan’s Park, Birr on Saturday afternoon last.
This victory puts last year’s beaten finalists back in contention in this year’s championship and they will need to win their final group game against Drumcullen to make the knock out stages.
They were always in control in this match and built up a 1-9 to 0-2 interval lead. That lead was never threatened in the second half and two Johnny Dooley goals in the final quarter put the icing on the cake for the Clareen side.
When they reached the county semi-finals only two years ago with a realtively young side, Ballyskenach looked like they would be challenging for honours in the following years, but they have failed to build on that promise and this was a most disappointing display and ends their hopes of progress in this year’s championship.
To be fair to Ballyskenach they were missing a lot of players through a variety of reasons. Mick O’Hara, David Franks, Noel Murphy (who came on as a sub), Peter Murphy and John Dooley were all missing from the starting line up while David Carney has transferred to Kerry, and they could ill afford to be without so many first choice players.
Fresh from their success in the Pat Carroll Cup, Seir Kieran clearly benefited from their two games in that final in recent weeks and they were quickly into their stride in this game. Joe Dooley was very sharp early on and he shot four points from play in the opening half.
They began to build up their momentum coming towards the end of the first quarter and although their lead was only four points after 25 minutes they finished the half strongly to go in leading by 10 points and the game was over as a contest. Seir Kieran could afford to shoot 16 wides and still win by 15 points and that says a lot about the nature of this contest. Ten of those wides came in the second half and by that stage it was almost a case of the teams just going through the motions. To their credit though, 3-13 of their final total came from play, which is good scoring.
In contrast Ballyskenach only managed to scored two points from play over the hour. They failed to score from play at all in the first half and it took them 33 minutes to register their first score from play. From early in the second half they tried to engineer goals from close in frees but without success and at least five frees within about 30m of goals were squandered in the final half hour. Had they taken points from the early frees it would have made the lead more manageable and if a goal had come at that stage they could have been back in contention but the more they missed the more the frustration grew.
Seir Kieran then punished them with scores at the other end as they just eased away to victory. Having lost to St Rynagh’s in their opening game they are now back in contention again and will face Drumcullen with confidence in their final game. Seir Kieran went in front after two minutes when Joe Dooley ran on to a loose ball and pointed. Ballyskenach equalised four minutes later when Derek Middleton burst in from the left and his shot was turned around the post by Liam Coughlan for a ‘65’ which was pointed by Tom O’Toole. From the puck out Seir Kieran were back in front when Johnny Dooley gathered 50m out and pointed. Mick Coughlan quickly added another and Seir Kieran were on their way.
Johnny Dooley pointed a free and then Billy Dooley sent a lovely crossfield pass to Joe Dooley for point number five. The same player then collected a pass from Seamus Dooley and ran up the left to add another point. Bill Lalor pointed a free for Ballyskenach after 22 minutes to bring the gap back to four points.
Three minutes later Seamus Dooley took a pass from Billy Dooley and pointed from 30m. Joe Dooley then made a fine catch from a puck out by Liam Coughlan to shoot another point and two minutes before the break they got their opening goal. Joe Guinan’s ground shot from about 20m came back off the post and although Alan Franks saved Barry Bergin’s initial follow up effort, the Seir Kieran man gathered again and steered the ball into the net from a narrow angle. A pointed free from Johnny Dooley made it 1-9 to 0-2 at the interval.
Seamus Dooley opened the second half scoring after taking a pass from Billy Dooley and then Mick Coughlan made a great catch from a high ball by Johnny Dooley and he fired over another point. Three minutes in Ballyskenach went for goal from a 20m free following a foul on Cathal Murphy, who had switched from full back to full forward for the second half. Bill Lalor’s shot was saved by Liam Coughlan and when Cathal Murphy pulled on the rebound the Seir Kieran netminder made an even better save. The ball was cleared out and eventually came to Brendan Murphy who took his point.
Bill Lalor added a point from a free and then Seir Kieran hit five wides in quick succession, four from the normally reliable Johnny Dooley, three of those from play. Another save from Cathal Murphy by Liam Coughlan resulted in a ‘65’ which Tom O’Toole pointed. Seamus Dooley and Brendan Murphy exchanged points and the gap was nine points midway through the half.
A minute later Seir Kieran drove another nail in the Ballyskenach coffin. The ball broke in the goalmouth in a tight situation but Johnny Dooley still managed to finished it to the net. A foul on Noel Murphy by Kevin Carey with seven minutes left resulted in a Ballyskenach penalty. Goalkeeper Alan Franks came forward to take it. His shot was half blocked by Liam Coughlan and Kevin Kinahan but spun behind them and over the line.
Joe Guinan and Damien Coffey added Seir Kieran points before Kevin Kinahan sent a long ball to Johnny Dooley. He sent in a dipping shot from 30m which eluded the grasp of Alan Franks and looped into the corner of the net. Team captain Billy Dooley rounded off the scoring with the final point to put the icing on a fine win.
Liam Coughlan made some great saves for Seir Kieran. Paddy Connors, Kieran Dooley and Kevin Kinahan did well in a defence that gave little away. Johnny Dooley and Joe Guinan did what was necessary at midfield while in attack Joe Dooley had a great first half, Billy Dooley sprayed around some great passes setting up a lot of scores, and Mick Coughlan and Seamus Dooley took their scores well.
It was not a day to remember for Ballyskenach. Eoin Maher, Cathal Murphy, Tom O’Toole, Ollie Ryan and Brendan Murphy had some good moments.
SEIR KIERAN: Liam Coughlan; Kieran Dooley, Paddy Connors, Damien Murphy; Kevin
Carey, Kevin Kinahan, Raymond Dooley; Johnny Dooley (2-3, 0-2 frees), Joe Guinan
(0-1); Finbarr O’Neill, Seamus Dooley (0-3), Joe Dooley (0-4); Billy Dooley
(0-1), Mick Coughlan (0-2), Barry Bergin (1-0).
Subs. Aidan O’Neill (for Seamus Dooley, 50 mins), Damien Coffey (0-1) (for Finbarr
O’Neill, 50 mins), Michael John Corrigan (for Mick Coughlan, 57 mins).
BALLYSKENACH: Alan Franks (1-0, penalty); Eoin Maher, Cathal Murphy, Brendan
Franks; Mark Kirwan, Tom O’Toole (0-2, both 65s), Eugene Hannon; Barry Keeshan,
Bill Lalor (0-2, both frees); Derek Middleton, Pat Donnelly, Ollie Ryan; Ciaran
Kirwan, Brendan Murphy (0-2), Eugene Kirwan.
Sub. Noel Murphy (for Ciaran Kirwan, 29 mins).
REFEREE: Brian Gavin (Clara).