Blarney steer past Courceys in powerful second-half show

A POWERFUL second-half saw Blarney into the third round of the intermediate premier hurling championship at Newcestown last night and condemned Courcey Rovers to the back door route.

The first half was a drab affair, despite perfect conditions for hurling and a beautiful sod. Both sides struggled for any kind of fluency though they started off brightly enough, 0-3 apiece after ten minutes, corner-forward and free-taker Niall Murphy with two for Courcey Rovers, wing-forward Michael O’Donovan with the third, Eugene McCarthy, John Hurley (free) and Colm Sheehan replying for Blarney, but thereafter it deteriorated and neither set of forwards were able to locate the posts.

Eight wides for the Rovers, O’Donovan particularly wasteful with four, a mere four for Blarney, two of those from very poorly struck 65s by corner-back James Hughes; into injury-time we went and still no further score until finally Niall Murphy broke the tedium by pointing a 20m free from wide left.

The change of ends saw a marked improvement, from Blarney especially. Mind you, their cause was helped considerably by a fortuitous early goal: in the 34th minute, a long free from wide right by Blarney’s outstanding forward, John Hurley, dropped short and slipped through the fingers of a Courcey Rovers defender for an easy goal.

That score remained the difference between the sides for the next quarter of an hour, 1-8 to 0-8, both sides having finally found their shooting boots. Midfielder Mark McCarthy notched three superb points, impressive centre-back Darragh McSweeney got his name on the scoresheet with the score of the game, with Niall Murphy doing all the scoring for Rovers from placed balls.

In the last ten minutes, however, Blarney pulled away, with Hurley very dominant along with centre-forward Sean Walsh.

Most impressive in that second half was the performance of the Blarney half-back line. A big and powerful line, Joe Jordan, Darragh McSweeney and Daniel Cronin gobbled up everything that came their way. Outside them, midfielders David and Mark McCarthy also proved very effective and with Hurley also offering a telescopic hand, Blarney keeper Ronan Byrne was spoiled for puckout options.

Byrne, the Blarney team captain, is a member of the junior soccer team which, earlier in the day, had qualified to play in the first round proper of the FAI cup. A feature of the game was the exceptional fielding, under pressure, of both keepers, Byrne for Blarney and Anto Hegarty for Courcey Rovers.

Relief for Blarney that they’re still on the high road, and their second half display was indeed impressive: a team with a lot of size, pace, good hurlers; they will know, however, that this won’t do if they are to go the distance in this competition. A team more precise than Rovers (how they will rue all those first-half wides) would have extracted a painful price yesterday evening; the upside, however, they have time now to work on those weaknesses.

For Courcey, more pressing business, they now await the losers of Aghada-Bishopstown, who drew last night, and they need to find someone to take the scoring pressure off Niall Murph fast.

Scorers: Blarney: J. Hurley 1-4 (1-3 frees); M. McCarthy 0-3; S. Walsh 0-2; E. McCarthy, C. Sheehan, P. Nodwell, D. McSweeney, 0-1 each. Courcey Rovers: N. Murphy 0-7 (0-7 frees); M. O’Donovan, S. Hayes, 0-1 each.

BLARNEY: R. Byrne (c); J. Hughes, P. O’Leary, D. O’Donovan; J. Jordan, D. McSweeney, D. Cronin; D. McCarthy, M. McCarthy; E. McCarthy, S. Walsh, J. Hurley; C. Sheehan, D. O’Leary, P. Nodwell. Sub: S. O’Donoghue (E. McCarthy 40).

COURCEY ROVERS: A. Hegarty (c); A. Collins, B. Downing, D. Murphy; T. Lordan, V. Hurley, G. Maloney; K. Maloney, D. Hayes; S. Hayes, S. Hurley, M. O’Donovan; J. Murphy, B. Hayes, N. Murphy. Sub: G. Maloney (J. Murphy inj. 58).

Referee: M. Collins (Clonakilty): loves that whistle.