AGHADA HURLING AND FOOTBALL CLUB

Had Aghada come away from this game with a draw, they could have counted themselves unlucky, but to come away defeated was desperately disappointing for all concerned. Played on O’Neill’s home ground in Ballymacoda, the conditions were excellent, considering the time of year. O’Neill’s who have had a fantastic year winning County and Munster Junior hurling titles, were first out of the blocks and 2 frees over the bar within 5 minutes. Aghada quickly replied with 2 Stephen O’ Keeffe frees and it became obvious that we were in for a ding doing battle. However goals as they say win games and O’Neills were to strike for 3 of them in that first half. The Aghada defence couldn’t have been happy with their efforts to defend these scores as all three goals were preventable. For Aghada, Shane Morrissey at wing back, was the pick of the defenders with Liam Morrissey and Declan Kearney, holding up their ends well in the 2 corners. At midfield Brian Morrissey was putting in a colossal performance, and looked the outstanding player on show, while Stephen and David O’Keeffe were playing very well in the half forward line. Tony Wall regularly had the beatings of his man at full forward, and was fouled when through on goal after 12 minutes. Stevie converted the resulting free. Then the 2 corner forwards Finbar Day and Alan Creedon, combined well for Alan to point, and the lead was down to just a point with a quarter gone. The next 10 minutes saw Stevie convert first a ’65 after the O’Neills ‘keeper made a great save from Finbar, and then a free after Tony was fouled again. Then Tony himself buried a 21 yard free into the back of the net, and with just a point from play in reply from O’Neills, Aghada were 3 points to the good and 5 minutes to go to the break. O’Neills however struck for their 2nd and 3rd goals as well as a point from play in these five minutes. Stevie replied with a free and a super score from play to cap a magnificent 1st half performance from him and leave Aghada trailing by 2 points at the interval. Aghada 1-8, O’Neill’s 3-5.
The sides exchanged 3 points each in the 3rd quarter, but from here to the end Aghada really got on top of their opponents. Morrissey was still dominating at midfield and struck an enormous amount of ball, but the scores started to dry up for Aghada. A couple of point chances were spurned in search of goals, and a Stevie free after 19 minutes was all that was put on the scoreboard, despite the dominance. O’Neills lifted their game again and hit a super point from play, to leave Aghada trailing by 2 points with time running out. Finbar Day was desperately unlucky not to snatch a goal from a Davy O’Keeffe pass and a minute later O’Keeffe broke in behind the O’Neills defence, but saw his shot flash over instead of under the bar. It was the final score of the game and O’Neills held on for the victory. Aghada Team & scorers

M.Day,

L.Morrissey, S.Cashman, D.Kearney,

P.Wall, B.Hennessy, S.Morrissey,

B.Morrissey, D.Cashman,

A.Morrissey, D.O’Keeffe(0-1), S.O’Keeffe (capt) (0-10, 7f, 2’65),

A.Creedon (0-1),T.Wall(1-1), F.Day.

Subs Used – S.Gilroy, C.Hickey, L.Day