Senior Hurling Championship

The past week has seen our Hurling teams in three age groups record famous victories.

Our Senior Hurlers thrilled us all last Saturday evening with their power-packed 2-22 to 1-15 demolition of the fancied Ballymartle team at Paric Ui Rinn.

We struggled in the opening half but were only 3 points in arrears at the small whistle and still  trailed by three points at the 40^th minute mark 1-13 to 1-10. However, after that we turned on the style and out-scored our rivals 1-12 to 0-2 in the remaining 20 minutes.   This team keeps on giving in both codes and what was especially noticeable was our superior strength and fitness in those closing stages.   Not fair to single out any one thing or person but the introduction of Cian O’Mahony at half-time worked wonders for the team and this coming off his man-of-the-match display in the PIFC game against Bantry a week earlier.

Minor Hurling - West Cork Champions

On Sunday evening a dramatic goal in the 64^th minute by our mid-fielder and man-of-the-match Conon Calnan won the West Cork Minor A Hurling Final Replay against Owen Gaels at a wind-swept Barryroe.  Trailing by two points 0-13 to 2-5 entering the final straight we were awarded a far out free on the right hand side.  Aidan O’Mahony used all his experience and lobbed the ball into the large parallelogram before Conor grabbed the ball and rattle the back of the net and broke the hearts of a very good Owen Gaels side.

As in the drawn game, our opponents lorded the early proceedings and it took a 12^th goal by Olann McSweeney to settle our nerves and bring the score to 1-1 to 0-5.  Aidan O’Mahony converted an earlier free and another one on the 17^th minute to leave the scores at 1-2 to 0-7 at half time. Both teams were wayward with their shooting but the extreme wind contributed to that over the whole game.  Ben Donegan and Kieran McCarthy both excelled in the centre core of the team in this and the second half.  
Conor Calnan snatched his first of two goals on the 37^th minute after a beautiful pass from Dylan O’Donovan who did well at corner forward.   Conor added another point on the 15^th minute and the accuracy of Aidan form dead-balls had us ahead 2-5 to 0-10 on 20 minutes.   Owen Gaels then surged ahead to lead by three points until the last dramatic minute of this gripping game.   This is a great achievement for this team and makes up for their own replay defeat in  the under 16 A County final in 2015 to Bride Rovers.  Team: Cian Farrell, Cian Burke, Ben Donegan, Michael Laffan, Tony Quinn, Ciaran McCarthy, Cathal Lynch, Conor Calnan 2-1, Paul Lang,  Nelson McCarthy, Aidan O’Mahony 0-4,  3f’s, 1x65mf, Charlie Long, Barry O’Mahony. Olann McSweeney 1-0, Dylan O’Donovan.

U12 Hurling - West Cork Champions

Last and by no means least comes the turn of the under 12 hurlers who were successful in the under 12 Cup Final against Kilbrittain last Sunday morning at windy Timoleague on a score of 6-9 to 1-2.  With wind advantage in the first half we took full advantage of same going in at half time  4-6 to 0-1. Darragh Collins settled the nerves when he powered through the kilbrittain defence for a superb goal. He followed that up with a bullet of a free shortly after.  Those goals settled the nerves and bandon powered on from there. The  defence was rock solid all through,  led superbly by a solid half back line in team captain Sean Ahern who contributed 3 points(2 frees),  Ciaran Twomey having his best game this year and tight marking Callum Waugh. The full back line of Donnacha Mccarthy who put in some hugh clearances and Zac Canniffe never put a foot wrong and brought out an amount of ball particulary in the second half. Behind them goalkeeper William Allen was coolness personified and make some brilliant saves when he was called upon .

Darragh Collins who finished the game with 3-4 covered every blade of grass from midfield and was abilily assisted by his colleague Steven murphy who put in a fine hour’s hurling.

Up front Hugh O Mahony was a constant threat any time the ball went into the square. Hugh finished the game with 2-1 and was unlucky not the add to that due to fine saves  by the Kilbrittain goalkeeper. Jack Cullinane worked tirelessly at center forward winning a lot of dirty ball and got his just reward when rushing in to score a fine ground stroke goal in the second half.

Eoin Geary,  Ronan Ahern and Kevin Hannon worked tirelessly all through the game putting the defence under constant pressure from clearing their lines and winning an amount of frees.

Scorers: Darragh Collins 3-4, Hugh O Mahony 2-1, Sean Ahern 0-3, Jack Cullinane 1-0, Kevin Hannon 0-1

Team: William Allen,  Zac Canniffe,  Donnacha  McCarthy, Callum Waugh, John Ahern , Ciaran Twomey,  Darragh Collins, Steven Murphy, Ronan Ahern, Jack Cullinane, Eoin Geary , Hugh O Mahony , Kevin Hannon,

Subs: Daniel O Leary, Liam Twomey, Dan Lane, Cillian O Mahony, Geroid Murphy, Darragh Power,  Jay Brennan, Jack Coughlan, Danny Crowley, , Conor Payne, John Hayes Holland , Jack Murphy and Colm Hanley.