Junior E Championship Final

Ballyboden St. Endas 6 13 Ballinteer St. Johns 0 10

Super Sunday 29th October was already well underway in PuM when the Under 20’s descended on Meadowbrook All Weather Pitch for this Junior E Championship Final.  Word filtered through during the warm up that the Junior B’s had clenched victory in the first Co Final of the day.  Having trained with the more experienced B’s all year, the great news certainly helped displace any early nerves from their younger clubmates.

Referee Declan Enright started the game bang on time and within a minute, Boden were a point ahead courtesy of a long range Conor Casey placed ball effort. Full forward Robbie O’Reilly also got on the scoreboard early with a close range point. The Ballinteer defence stood strong for the next 7 minutes despite some good Boden pressure but on 10 minutes the goal was eventually breached with Tom Culleton providing an excellent finish.

Ballinteer did get the next score with a well taken  effort from the right wing but on the restart, Conor Barnes found John Farrington in space with a pin point puck out and Farrington duly despatched a fine score.

The work rate and energy was paying dividends. The “Hells Kitchen” like full backline of Fionn, Ganno and Block was attacking every ball. Anything that Barnsey had to deal with was done so with total calm. Despite the wet greasy ball, his hand was like a magnet to the ball.

From here the Boden lads took full control. The rearguard was holding strong on the limited attacks Ballinteer were afforded. Points (2) from the energetic Daniel Daly, Ollie Brophy and Ciaran Kiely put the lads in to a commanding position. Kiely in particular making some marauding runs up the right wing. On 27 minutes Robbie delivered the killer blow with a well taken goal. To Ballinteer’s credit they did not give up and despite injuries taking their toll, they outscored boden 3 points to 1 just before halftime. Scoreline 2-08 to 0-05.

The message at halftime was simple. Keep the work rate up and the opportunities would also keep coming….and so they did.

Ollie split the posts more or less straight from the throw in. Ballinteer got away 2 fine scores from play but the gates opened again on 11 minutes. The halfback line of Kiely, O’Shea and Sudser were delivering some quick ball, one of which Sam Doyle made no mistake to goal.

The last thing Ballinteer needed was to see fresh legs as Keelin Smith, Aodhán O’Reilly and Conor Murphy were introduced, shortly followed by Stephen Pullan and Dylan Smyth. Keelin and Stephen combined for a well taken score off Stephen’s left.

More goals followed as the lads put the game to bed in the last quarter.

When the final whistle went there was a big cheer from the large travelling Boden support who had been treated to a great performance by a talented bunch of young hurlers. Final Score 6-13 to 0-10

Captain Tom Culleton accepted the Cup from Co Board official Elaine Dolan to make it an unbeaten League and Championship double for this group of enthusiastic and energetic young men.

Scorers: Jack Hutchinson 2-02) Tom Culleton (2-00) , Robbie O’Reilly (1-01), Sam Doyle (1-00) Conor Casey (0-2), Daniel Daly (0-2), John Farrington (0-02), Ollie Brophy (0-02), Stephen Pullan (0-01), Keelin Smith (0-01)

Laoch na himeartha: Ciaran Kiely

Panel:

2003: Conor Barnes, David Gannon, Setanta Sudway, Conor Casey, Tom Culleton, Dylan Smyth, Mick Hanrahan, Tom White

2004: Fionn Keating McDermott, Sean Wall, Ciaran Kiely, Sean O’Shea, Ollie Brophy, John Farrington, Jack Hutchinson, Daniel Daly, Robbie O’Reilly, Sam Doyle, Stephen Pullan, Aodhán O’Reilly, Keelin Smith, Conor Murphy, Alex Stewart, Darragh Brooks, Andrew McGough, Darragh O’Nuallain, Mark McSharry, Jack O’Connor

Management: Emmet Pullan, Daire MacPhaidín, Gavin Duff

Thanks to Clíona for the photos