Ballyhaunis brush aside best of the junior ranks
High fielding action from the meeting of Ballyhaunis and St Ciaran's in the last four of the Mayo Senior Hurling Championship last Sunday. Picture courtesy of Ballyhaunis GAA
A blistering third quarter saw Ballyhaunis ease their way to victory over St Ciaran’s and into the Mayo senior hurling championship final.
St Ciaran’s, who are an amalgamation of clubs in the Mayo junior hurling championship, gave as good as they got, particularly in the second quarter, but the concession of the early goal in the second-half saw the floodgates open up as Ballyhaunis, along with final opponents Tooreen in their own one-sided semi-final win, showed that a significant gap still remains between East Mayo’s hurling giants and the remainder of the county.
Ballyhaunis reeled off the first six points of this game thanks to a pair of efforts from Cormac Philips and one each from Adrian Phillips, Michael Farrell, Eamon Phillips and Fionn Conlon.
Ronan Fallon got St Ciaran’s off the mark from a free but by the time Fallon sent over a second placed ball on 14 minutes, Adrian and Cormac Phillips had stretched the hosts lead to seven.
Cormac and Eamonn Phillips, along with Kieran Kiely, combined to reel off four of the next five points to take their lead to double figures but St Ciaran’s would find the net on 23 minutes as Niall Peoples was quickest to react from a placed ball that dropped shot and finished from close range.
Ballyhaunis would respond with three of the last four points of the half through Farrell, Kieran McDermott and Cormac Phillips, to hold a 0-16 to 1-4 lead at the break.
The second-half would see Ballyhaunis run riot while St Ciaran’s scored only a point in the half through an Oisin Duffy free on 54 minutes. At that stage, it was well and truly over as Ballyhaunis hit 4-9 without reply. The first of the goals came from Cormac Phillips on 32 minutes, who converted the rebound following Fionn Conlon’s thunderous shot that came back off the crossbar.
Conlon would finally get his goal on 40 minutes and Ballyhaunis completed their goalscoring at the start of the final quarter thanks to a Kieran McDermott piledriver and a tidy finish by Diarmuid Phillips.
Conlon, Farrell, Cormac Phillips, McDermott, Diarmuid Phillips, Joe Flynn, Adrian Phillips and Eoghan Collins would all add the avalanche of scores, with the only negative of the second-half for the Black and Red being the sending off of Kieran Kiely on 49 minutes after picking up a second yellow card.
But on this evidence, Ballyhaunis will push Tooreen all the way again as they look to win a first TJ Tyrell Cup since 2020.
Scorers – Ballyhaunis: Cormac Phillips 1-9 (3f, 2’65), Fionn Conlon, Diarmuid Phillips and Kieran McDermott 1-2 each, Adrian Phillips 0-4, Michael Farrell 0-3, Eamonn Phillips 0-2, Kieran Kiely, Joe Flynn and Eoghan Collins 0-1 each.
St Ciaran’s: Niall Peoples 1-0, Ronan Fallon 0-3f, Oisin Duffy 0-2 (1f).
Ballyhaunis: Donal O’Brien; Mark Phillips, Brian Hunt, Eoghan Collins; Diarmuid Phillips, Keith Higgins, Liam Herr; Kieran McDermott, Tom Donnellan; Kieran Kiely, Fionn Conlon, Adrian Phillips; Michael Farrell, Cormac Phillips, Eamonn Phillips. Subs: Ryan Kilbane (for E Phillips ht), Eoin Ryan (for Higgins 40), Joe Flynn and Shaun Morley (for Conlon and Herr 48).
St Ciaran’s: Liam Heneghan; Evan Heraty, James Carroll, Dylan Fitzgerald; Aidan Morrisroe, Michael Gallagher, James Gallagher; Oisin Duffy, Ruairi Gilvaryy; Niall Peoples, Colin Duffy, Killian Gallagher; Ronan Fallon, Chris Walsh, Cathal Guilfoyle. Subs: Calum Breheny and Norman Finnerty (for K Gallagher and Walsh 44), James McGrath (for Fallon 52).
REF: James Judge (Tooreen)
