Barryroe GAA

Sunday 01 Nov 2015Junior D Football - West Cork Final

Rosscarbery (This is the Final)., 12:00PM

Ilen had a bit too much for gallant Barryroe.

There was a decent crowd in Ross for this West Cork final, but in the end, Ilen were a bit too "cute" for Barryroe.

As Gaelic Football turns into a form of rugby, and the GAA is borrowing tactics and phrases from the oval ball game, like "lines of running", " going into contact", "the soft shoulder" etc, the word that defined this game, was "turnovers".

Sometimes the passes were never on, sometimes badly executed, free kicks taken without looking, but the Blues gave away a world of ball, indeed a man near me on the sideline was near to tearing his hair out.

Ilen had the opening point, but on five minutes, Adrian Fleming raced onto a through pass and stuck the ball in the corner of the Ilen net.

Within five minutes however, Ilen added two quick goals and a point as the young Barryroe defenders were in danger of being overrun. The Rovers had a few grizzled veterans who caused a lot of problems for our younger, quicker but lighter defenders.

At this level, you might be quicker and younger that your opposing forward, but an early little push from a cute forward, followed by leaning in, means you can not move a forward who is a couple of stone heavier.

To their credit, the lads stuck to their task and at 1-02, (points by Adrian Fleming and Kevin O'Donovan), to 2-05 at the break, we were still holding on.

We lost Kevin O'Driscoll after the break, Kevin like his namesake Kevin O'Donovan was one of the players who gave no ball away, playing simply but effectivly and he was a loss.

Rovers had a point just after the restart, to go 2-6 to 1-03 in front, when Barryroe hit a purple patch of about 7/8 minutes. They owned the ball, but unfortunatly, it yielded no score, apart from a Sean Holland free.

An Ilen point on fifteen minutes, gave the green and whites a seven point lead, but then out of nowhere, a quick goal and a point from Sean Holland saw the defecit reduced to three points, 2-07 to 2-04.

Ilen had a couple of points to another Sean Holland effort and with five minutes on the clock, it was a four point game, 2-05 to 2-09. Ilen finished the stronger however and added 1-2 before the final whistle as Barryroe ran out of steam.

A gallant effort and it's nice to be playing into November. Hopefully some of the younger lads will have learned from the Championship run. There are definately some decent prospects there even if the slower softer grounds favour the heavier players.

By a country mile, Barryroe's man of the match, was Kevin O'Donovan, never rushing around the place, but like All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw, he always seemed to be near the ball and rarely did he give it a way.

Some pictures from the day.