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You are > Home > GAA: Ballina lay down marker as Shrule are blown away by pace and power
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Wednesday, October 06, 2004
GAA: Ballina lay down marker as Shrule are blown away by pace and power
By: J ames Laffey
Breaffy House Hotel & Spa mayo Senior Football Championship
Ballina 1-12, Shrule/Glencorrib 1-6
Pace and power win football matches. Fact.
That’s the lesson Mayo learned against Kerry ten days ago and Shrule-Glencorrib learned a similar lesson last Sunday in Ballina. The South Mayo men were blown away by a Ballina side that was simply too strong, too quick and too focused.
Like Mayo seven days earlier, Shrule-Glencorrib were completely overwhelmed in the middle third of the field, leaving their full-back and full-forward lines totally isolated. Star corner forward, Conor Mortimer, was little more than a spectator for the entire sixty minutes while his former All-Star brother, Kenneth, battled valiantly to hold together a creaking full-back line. It was certainly deja vu for anyone who had been in Croke Park seven days earlier.
Nowhere was Ballina’s domination more evident than in the half-back line where the excellent Brian Ruane became a launching pad for attack after attack. Ballina drove relentlessly at the Shrule-Glencorrib defence and the scores came thick and fast in the second-half. A total of 1-4 was struck by the Ballina forwards in a ten-minute spell after the interval, leaving Shrule-Glencorrib with an impossible mountain to climb.
Indeed, the South Mayo men had to wait all of 53 minutes before opening their account, courtesy of a Conor Mortimer free. They managed one more score – from substitute, Mark Ronaldson – five minutes from time. Ronaldson’s point came from play, thus sparing the visitors the ignominy of failing to score from open play in a championship encounter. But it was the only silver lining on a black day for Shrule-Glencorrib.
The underdogs were dealt a crippling blow even before the ball was thrown in when county star, Trevor Mortimer, failed to show. Mortimer was listed at centre-half forward in the match programme but he was nowhere to be seen in James Stephens Park. One man who managed to make an appearance was corner back, Dermot Geraghty, who had lost an All-Ireland U-21 title in heartbreaking circumstances only 24 hours earlier. By the end of the game he was probably wishing he had stayed in bed.
Ballina, who were fielding the county partnership of Brady and McGarrity in midfield, took a few minutes to get into their stride and the visitors could have taken the lead after four minutes when a Conor Mortimer effort dropped into the arms of Ballina ’keeper, John Healy. But that was as good as it got for Shrule-Glencorrib.
Liam Brady opened the home side’s account after six minutes with a fine 30 yard effort and the Ballina men never relinquished their lead for the rest of the match. Indeed, such was the Stephenites dominance, they had only one genuinely worrying moment in the entire first half – a snap shot from Shrule’s David Geraghty that went narrowly wide.
Yet for all Ballina’s dominance they found scores hard to come by early on. Indeed, it was not until the end of the first quarter that the homeside got their second point from a Patrick Harte sideline ball that bounced over the bar a la Colm Coyle. Harte hit a second point in the 17th minute before Liam Brady and Paul McGarry found the posts to leave the Ballina men five points ahead at half-time, 0-5 to 0-0.
If the Shrule men were smarting over their failure to kick a single score in the first-half they didn’t show it after the interval. Ballina went on the rampage in the opening ten minutes and it was during this period that the game was put beyond the reach of the visitors.
Liam Brady began the scoring in the 1st minute with a good point from play and his effort was quickly followed by an equally impressive score from Patrick Harte. Ballina were on a roll now and few players were enjoying themselves as much as Brian Ruane. The left-half back kicked a superb point in the fifth minute and he was to the fore again a minute later when his surging run ended in a score for Liam Brady.
The last thing Shrule-Glencorrib needed was to concede a goal but they did just that in the 10th minute when Ballina’s Shane Hughes latched onto a knock-down from Liam Brady. Hughes rifled the ball to the net to leave the home-side twelve points in front, 1-9 to 0-0. The margin was increased to thirteen a few minutes later when Brian Ruane kicked his second point of the afternoon.
With the result beyond all doubt the only source of interest for the large attendance was whether Shrule-Glencorrib would go through the entire sixty minutes without registering a score. It began to look like it might happen when Conor Mortimer hit a post in the 15th minute but the county star finally found the target seven minutes from time when he was awarded a fourteen yard free. Mortimer’s effort was followed by a fine effort from substitute, Mark Ronaldson, who looked lively with the limited ball that came his way.
Ballina, meanwhile, hit further points from Enda Devenney and Paul McGarry, and could afford the luxury of substituting their two county midfielders, Brady and McGarrity. It was that sort of an afternoon for the Stephenites.
Scorers – Ballina: S. Hughes 1-1, L. Brady 0-4 (1f), P. Harte 0-3 (1f), P. McGarry and B. Ruane 0-2 each, E. Devenney 0-1. Shrule-Glencorrib: C. Mortimer 0-1 (1f), M. Ronaldson 0-1.
Ballina Stephenites: John Healy, Kenny Golden, Martin Wynne, Colm Leonard, Brian Ruane Shane Sweeney, Enda Devenney, David Brady, Ronan McGarrity, Paul McGarry, Patrick Harte, Steven Hughes, Brian McStay, Liam Brady, Patrick McHale. Subs: Ger Brady for McStay, Shane Melia for David Brady, Thomas Duffy for McGarrity, Brendan O’Hora for McGarry.
Shrule-Glencorrib: Derek Walsh, Kenneth Mortimer, Pat Hyland, Dermot Geraghty, David Walsh, Ronan Walsh, Liam Garvey, Kieran Walsh, James Lohan, Paul Bruen, John Morley, Owen Ronaldson, Cian Donnellan, David Geraghty, Conor Mortimer. Subs: Mark Ronaldson for Donnellan, Niall Sullivan for Dermot Geraghty, Thomas Byrne for David Walsh.
Referee: Michael Daly
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