Ballinacourty ease past The Nire into Co Final.

Next Sunday’s County Senior Football Final will be between Stradbally and Ballinacourty, after the latter defeated The Nire in the second of this year’s semi finals at Fraher Field on Saturday evening.

A fine attendance were present all hoping for a better helping than what was served up a week earlier when Stradbally accounted for An Rinn, but such hopes were dashed.

The opening minutes of the game did prove to be enjoyable, but after Ballinacourty hit the first of their goals after just nine minutes, the games was all over as a contest.

The Nire on the night disappointed. However circumstances could have played a roll in this.

All year long injuries have hampered them and for this game, they were again unable to pick what would have been a first choice team.

Craig Guiry was out of the country, Shane Walsh who is hampered with injuries all year lasted just 39 minutes, Shane Ryan who has hugely impressed all year was ill and bringing Liam Lawlor who has impressed on the edge of the oppositions square over the past two or three years back into his own defence did not work as they would have hoped as it left then short of a match winner in attack.

Ballinacourty started this game well, hitting two points inside the opening two minutes of the game. The first, a Michael O’Halloran free was quickly followed up with an effort from Mark Ferncombe.

Brian Wall pulled a point back for The Nire on six minutes, but this was to be as good as it got for the side who had former Tipperary footballer Declan Browne on the line, as the eventual winners soon assumed supremacy.

Mark Fives restored Ballinacourty’s two point advantage on eight minutes, and a minute later that lead was further increased.

With nine minutes on the clock, Patrick Hurney played in a beautiful ball from the bank side of the field in front of The Nire goal. The ball lost height as it dropped in the square for anyone to catch it. Mark Ferncombe could have stuck a leg out to connect with the ball, but in doing so, the ball could have gone anyplace, so instead he threw himself on the ground and before it touched the ground he connected with his fist and guided the ball past Tommy Wall in The Nire goals.

Five minutes later, the same player had the umpire reaching for a green flag once more.

Liam Lawlor having come deep into his own side of the field attempted to play the ball out of defence, but his clearance was intercepted by John Hurney who found Ferncombe who finished to the net.

Brian Wall pulled a point back for The Nire just past the end of the first quarter of the game mark, but again they were unable to build on it.

On eighteen minutes, Patrick Hurney ran at The Nire defence but he was pulled down inside the large box and referee Tommy Sullivan had no option but to award a penalty.

Having scored two goals already and with the game as good as sown up despite the fact that there was twelve minutes of the half to play, there was ever going to be one player who was going to kick from twelve metres.

Mark Ferncombe sent the ball low and hard to Tommy Wall’s right, and he did well to push the ball onto the base of the upright and as the ball came back his way he was able to gather the ball and able to alleviate the danger.

Ballinacourty however did not have to wait long before they did have a third goal.

Nine minutes from the break, Jason O’Brien tried his luck at beating Tommy Wall in The Nire goal, and with the help of a deflection off the legs of Tommy Cooney’s left he did manage it.

Patrick Hurney put over a brace of points on twenty five and twenty six minutes which was followed by an effort from Mark Ferncombe to further stretch Ballinacourty’s lead with two minutes of normal time in the first half still to play.

Brian Wall did manage to kick two frees for The Nire before the break to send them in trailing 3-6 to 0-4, but they were to be mere consolation scores.

The Nire did start the second half well.

Brian Wall put in a Man of the Match performance. Without him, The Nire were going to be in a lot of trouble. He kicked three early second half points, two of which were from frees, to give his side some hope.

Gary Hurney responded with a point for Ballinacourty which was followed with efforts from Brian Wall and Darren Guiry to leave seven between the sides at the end of the third quarter.

On forty-six minutes, The Nire were somewhat unlucky not to have had that lead further reduced when Darren Guiry drew a good save from Stephen Enright in the Ballinacourty goals.

Jamie Barron pointed for The Nire on forty-nine minutes, but it was followed up with efforts from Michael O’Halloran from a free and then John Hurney.

Brian Wall and Gary Hurney traded scores with two minutes of the hour to play and with seconds of the hour to play, Brian Wall rounded off a good display by kicking a deserved goal.

Michael O’Halloran pointed for Ballinacourty seconds into the three added minutes at the end of the half and a minute later, Shane Briggs and Patrick Hurney combined well to find Mark Gorman and from close range, the half time substitute for first half goal scorer Jason O’Brien made no mistake.

Just before the end of the game, a miserable night for The Nire was made worse when they had JP Fitzgerald sent off on a straight red card.

The winners will have been extremely happy with this win, but they the could be found accused of pulling up in the second half, which if repeated next weekend against Stradbally in the decider, they could find themselves in a sport of trouble.

Ballinacourty: Stephen Enright: David Collins, Shane Briggs, Brian Looby; Conor Moloney, Sean O’Hare, Richie Foley; John Hurney, Gary Hurney; Mark Ferncombe, Mark Fives, James O’Mahony; Michael O’Halloran, Jason O’Brien, Patrick Hurney. Subs: Mark O’Gorman for Jason O’Brien (HT), Gavin Breen for David Collins (HT), Patrick Lynch for Richie Foley (34 mins), Shane Donovan for Mark Fives (57 mins), John Power for James O’Mahony (60 mins).

Scorers: Mark Ferncombe 2-2, Michael O’Halloran 0-3 (2 frees), Jason O’Brien, Mark Gorman 1-0 each, Patrick Hurney, Gary Hurney 0-2 each, Mark Fives, John Hurney 0-1 each.

The Nire: Tommy Wall; Justin Walsh, Maurice O’Gorman, Tommy Cooney; John Moore, Thomas O’Gorman, Michael Moore; Shane Walsh, Michael O’Gorman; Jamie Barron, Brian Wall, Seamus Lawlor; Darren Guiry, Liam Lawlor, Conor Gleeson. Subs: Dermot Ryan for Seamus Lawlor (16 mins), JP Fitzgerald for Shane Walsh (37 mins).

Scorers: Brian Wall 1-9 (0-5 frees), Jamie Barron, Darren Guiry 0-1 each.

Referee: Seamus Landers (Clashmore).