Michael O'Halloran makes the difference as better-balanced Blackrock beat Douglas

Douglas will look back with massive regret on the 10 second-half wides they struck

Alan Connolly, seen here battling Brian O'Neill of Douglas, scored the decisive goal for Blackrock. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

Cork Premier SHC: Blackrock 1-22 Douglas 0-20 

Their greater balance and efficiency in the opposition half of the field secured Blackrock a third county semi-final appearance in four years.

With each championship outing bringing incremental improvement, a trend which continued in Sunday’s entertaining quarter-final, Blackrock’s bid for local honours has been considerably strengthened by the return to full fitness of key forward Michael O’Halloran.

A Fitzgibbon Cup winner with UCC earlier this year, O'Halloran sat out Blackrock’s opening two games in Group B because of an ankle injury and while he did see 24 minutes against Bishoptown in their concluding group fixture, this was his first championship start of 2020.

And what influence he exacted on proceedings, O’Halloran’s fingerprints smeared all over this Rockies victory. He had four points from play notched by the 12th minute, this tally swelling to five by half-time and seven come the finish.

But crucially, it was anything but a one-man show in the Blackrock scoring department. Eight of his teammates also scribbled their names onto the scoresheet, this spread of contributors a microcosm for the balanced nature of Fergal Ryan’s side and one which contrasts sharply with a Douglas outfit who again leaned heavily on Shane Kingston, Brian Turnbull, and a somewhat subdued Alan Cadogan for scores.

Where the winners had nine different scorers, the aforementioned Douglas trio accounted for 0-18 of their 0-20 total.

The vanquished Douglas were so wasteful in the second period, five wides amassed within five minutes of the restart. With the elements behind them, too many players in green and black succumbed to the temptation to try their luck from way, way out the field. The smarter option, of course, would have been to continue with their first-half policy of feeding their three dangermen at every opportunity.

Five more wides were registered across the remainder of the half, while their decision-making close to goal fell to pieces late on.

They had made the brighter start to the second half, points from Kingston (0-2, one free) and Turnbull cutting the gap to the minimum — 0-15 to 0-14 — on 39 minutes. But the subsequent 11 minutes were owned by their southside opponents, Blackrock hitting 1-5 to Douglas’ solitary white flag to open up an eight-point gap.

A pair of Shane O’Keeffe points was followed by a well-taken Alan Connolly goal on 43 minutes, the full-forward taking on and beating two Douglas defenders before angling the sliotar across ‘keeper Donal Maher.

A ‘65 from Connolly in the ensuing play made it 1-3 without reply for Fergan Ryan’s side and while a Kingston free temporarily interrupted the Rockies’ spell of dominance, further points from lively sub Tadhg Deasy and O’Halloran left the scoreboard reading 1-20 to 0-15 in the 50th minute.

Four-in-a-row from Douglas did halve the deficit but the required goal was not forthcoming.

“With regard to Douglas’ second-half wides, I'd say a lot of them would have been shots taken under pressure from our guys, which is good and what you want,” said Blackrock manager Fergal Ryan.

“We knew coming down here it was going to be a hard task and that our lads stood up is extremely pleasing.” 

He added: “Michael [O’Halloran] always looked dangerous. He has a great hand on him. He is coming back from a fracture on his ankle. That game will do him the world of good.” 

The winners led 0-14 to 0-11 at the end of a breathless first-half that was level on six occasions.

The opening quarter, in particular, saw end-to-end scoring, with the sides tied at 0-8 apiece at the first water break.

O’Halloran was doing most damage among the Blackrock forwards, with Kingston and Turnbull showing well at the other end. The latter edged Douglas in front following the resumption of play after the water break, but there followed five unanswered points from the Rockies through Connolly (free), O’Halloran, John O’Sullivan, Niall Cashman, and David O’Farrell to shove the 2017 finalists 0-13 to 0-9 in front.

In the end, Douglas' efforts to fully wipe out this gap were undone by their own erratic shooting.

Scorers for Blackrock: A Connolly (1-6, 0-4 frees, 0-1 ‘65); M O’Halloran (0-7); C Cormack, S O’Keeffe (0-2 each); D Meaney, N Cashman, D O’Farrell, T Deasy, J O’Sullivan (0-1 each).

Scorers for Douglas: S Kingston (0-10, 0-4 frees, 0-2 ‘65s); B Turnbull (0-5); A Cadogan (0-3); C Baldwin, M O’Connor (0-1 each).

Blackrock: G Connolly; S Murphy, G Norberg, R Laide; N Cashman, C Cormack, J Ryan; D Meaney, D O’Farrell; S O’Keeffe, C Cormack, M O’Keefe; M O’Halloran, A Connolly, J O’Sullivan.

Subs: T Deasy for Cormack (35); J Cashman for D O’Farrell (37). 

Douglas: D Maher; B O’Neill, D Murphy, C Kingston; E Cadogan, M Harrington, C O’Donovan; C Baldwin, S Moylan; E Dolan, S Kingston, M O’Connor; B Turnbull, C Russell, A Cadogan.

Subs: A O’Connell for Russell (43); R Howell for O’Connor (47); R Cotter for M O’Keeffe (56); A O’Callaghan for N Cashman (60).

Referee: C McAllister.