Saint Mary’s come out on top in West Waterford Junior Hurling Championship Local Derby

There is nothing like a good local derby championship game to bring the best out of a team.

This game played at Fraher Field last Saturday evening, was a game of contrast.

Saint Mary’s played the best hurling the side had played in a number of years, while Colligan who contested the last two Western Junior Hurling Finals never looked like a side that were hoping to make it third time lucky, making up for the disappointments of loosing to Ballysaggart in 2013 and Modeligo in 2014, both of whom went on to add County and Provincial titles to their Roll of Honour.

Of course this is the first round of five rounds of games in the group stages of the league section of the championship, so Saint Mary’s wont be getting carried away with beating their neighbours while Colligan wont be loosing too much sleep after suffering an opening round defeat as they know there is still plenty of hurling to be played between now and when the teams that will contest the knockout stages of the competition are confirmed.

Saint Mary’s on the day were best served by Mike Kearns who proved to be almost unerring in shooting from placed balls, putting over nine of the sides 13 frees won in this game, and he also put over from a ’65, while Kieran Barron and Kevin Sheehan also impressed hitting 1-3 and 1-2 respectfully over the hour.

Colligan on the day had Johnny Wall finish with ten points all from frees while inter county star Colin Dunford finished the game with three points behind his name on the score sheet.

The first half of this game proved to be an evenly balanced affair with the sides turning around at 1-9 a piece, having being level four times in the opening 30 minutes.

Playing with the breeze at their backs however in the second half it proved to be all one way traffic as the Touraneena based side out scored their neighbours twelve scores to five, one of which was an all important goal.

Saint Mary’s were first out of the traps in this game, as Mike Kearns put over a brace of points and Kieran Barron had a green flag waved inside five minutes of the game starting.

Colligan in this time did have their chances, but they shot three very early wide’s which if they had gone between the uprights we will never know now if we would have seen a different outcome to this game.

Colligan’s goal came on the quarter of an hour mark. Richie Kiely was the player that put the sliotar past John P. Fitzpatrick in the Saint Mary’s goal, following some good work by Colin Dunford and Ross Browne in the build up.

Coming out for the second half, Saint Mary’s were again quickest to settle, hitting their second goal inside thirty seconds of the restart, Kevin Sheehan being the player to beat Dean McKenna, giving Saint Mary’s a lead that they would never loose.

As the game progressed, it was clear that there was only going to be one winner, as Saint Mary’s pulled away with Mike and Eoin Kearns, Kevin Sheehan, Cormac Condon, Dermot Tobin and Kieran Barron all knocking over some good scores.

The winners however did finish the game with a two man disadvantage after referee Timmy Organ ordered off left corner back John Queally and left wing back Owen Barron, both as a result of having collected a second yellow card, late in the game having both being booked in the first half.

Next up for Saint Mary’s is a game against Ballyduff Upper second string side this Sunday afternoon at 1pm at Colligan while ninety minutes later Colligan play Fourmilewater’s second string side at Bushy Park.

Saint Mary’s: John P. Fitzpatrick; Ronan Gleeson, Tom Tobin, John Queally; Dermot Tobin, Denis Coffey, Owen Barron; Sean Fitzpatrick, David Whelan; Cormac Condon, Eoin Kearns, Mike Kearns; Jason Sheehan, Kieran Barron, Kevin Sheehan. Subs Used: Stephen Coffey and Jack Power.

Scorers: Eoin Kearns 0-12 (9 frees, 1 ’65), Kieran Barron 1-3, Kevin Sheehan 1-2, Dermot Tobin, Cormac Condon, Eoin Kearns 0-1 each.

Colligan: Dean McKenna; John Flynn, Ben Dunford, Ray Bannon; P.J. Coffey, Darren Dunford, John N. Fennell; John Morrissey, John Wall; Colin Dunford, Tom Kiely, Gavin Whelan; Richie Kiely, Mark Flynn, Ross Browne. Subs Used: Alan Walsh, Sean Browne.

Scorers: John Wall 0-10 (10 frees), Richie Kiely 1-0, Colin Dunford 0-3, Mark Flynn 0-1.

Referee: Timmy Organ (Abbeyside/Ballinacourty).

Results from Round 1: (Group A): Geraldine’s 2-18 Kilgobinet 0-6, Abbeyside 3-22 Lismore 0-12; (Group B): Saint Mary’s 2-20 Colligan 1-14, Fourmilewater 3-13 Dungarvan 1- 9.

Round 2 Fixtures:

Tallow V Geraldine’s on Sunday at 3pm in Lismore

Kilgobinet V Abbeyside on Sunday at 1pm in Bushy Park

Fourmilewater V Colligan on Sunday at 2-30 in Bushy Park

Ballyduff V Saint Mary’s on Sunday at 1pm in Colligan

Every week, one game will be picked out as Game of the Week in West Waterford and will be reported upon here.