Ballinacourty’s Patrick Hurney breached the malaise of last Tuesday’s SFC meeting with Clashmore at Fraher Field, scoring 0-6.
Ballinacourty’s one-point victory in Fraher Field last Tuesday night denied Clashmore a fifth win from five in this year’s Championship.
And in the wake of the walkover conceded by De La Salle to The Nire means three teams – The Nire, Ballinacourty and Clashmore – completed the Group with four wins from five. And that’s where the fly in the ointment occurs, indicative, one could argue, of the plight facing Waterford football at present.
Given (at the time of writing) the failure to reach agreement over how to settle who finishes first, second and third in this section, it now looks decidedly difficult to see how Waterford will have a representative in this year’s Munster Club Championship.
It’s a shame that common sense cannot prevail here, when one considers how close The Nire came to claiming the provincial title last winter, so perhaps the following might be considered come December’s convention: In the event of any future walkovers, the scoring averages from group games excluding the team which gave a walkover should determine group placings.
No drawing of lots. No unnecessary additional play-offs in an already elongated format which requires five rounds to get a dozen teams down to eight. This is literally a case of ‘do the math’ and one hopes such unnecessary intransigence can be avoided by a club fielding such a motion come convention time.
Alas, this frustrating debate provoked more discussion than last Tuesday night’s hour of football, in which Ballinacourty’s Patrick Hurney, and few others, avoiding succumbing to the malaise of a match lacking in genuine intensity. That the second half yielded only seven points in total backs up that contention.
Hurney’s 0-6 haul, including four points from play, proved the match-winning difference for a Courty side missing some of its bigger guns, including Richie Foley and Mark Ferncombe, while Gary Hurney was limited to a substitute’s appearance. And one wonders how key the loss of the now Middle East domiciled Shane Briggs shall prove between now and season’s end.
At half-time, the sides were tied on 1-5 apiece, the goals scored by Courty’s Evan Collins following Michael O’Halloran’s deep fourth minute delivery, with Paidi O’Rourke (via Declan Allen) replying almost instantly at the opposite end for Clashmore.
Courty never enjoyed a lead of greater than two points during the second half, with two Hurney frees leaving them 1-8 to 1-6 ahead with 11 minutes to play. Brian O’Halloran reduced Clashmore’s arrears with eight minutes remaining, his third of the night, before Hurney inevitably struck again.
Sean Fleming’s late free left just a point between the sides but Courty held on to claim on a deserved win on a day when tragic news in the east of the county made a game of little quality all the less interesting. Only a game? Too right.
Ballinacourty: Stephen Enright; David Collins, Evan Bergin, Conor McCarthy; Brian Looby, Diarmuid Henley, Patrick Lynch; John Hurney, Cormac Prunty; Michael O’Halloran, Mark Fives, Patrick Hurney; Evan Collins, Michael Maher, Shane O’Donovan.
Substitutes: Mark Nugent for Aidan Trihy (34 mins), John Prendergast for Shane O’Donovan (42), Willie John Kiely for Michael Maher (54), Mark Gorman for Mark Fives (56) and Jason O’Brien for Willie John Kiely (Black Card, 58),
Scorers: Patrick Hurney (0-6; 0-4f), Evan Collins (1-1), Shane O’Donovan and Michael Maher (0-1 each).
Clashmore: Declan Hickey; Ciaran Bourke, Kieran Connery, Sean Bourke; Darren Foley, Jason Seward, Aidan Trihy; Declan Allen, Tadhg De Búrca; Edmond O’Halloran, Paidi O’Rourke, Paddy Prendergast; Brian O’Halloran, Cillian O’Keeffe, Sean Fleming.
Substitutes: Carl O’Keeffe for Declan Allen (45 mins), Paul O’Connell for Edmond O’Halloran (52) and Fintan Walsh for Brian O’Halloran (62).
Scorers: Paidi O’Rourke (1-1; 0-1f), Brian O’Halloran (0-3), Sean Fleming (0-2; 0-1f), Cillian O’Keeffe and Paddy Prendergast (0-1 each).
Referee: Alan Kissane.
