Sixmilebridge 0-11

St Josephs Doora/Barefield 2-21

Last Tuesday evening Sixmilebridge U16’s got their championship underway against Doora/Barfield in Gurteen. The Bridge won the toss and elected to play with the aid of a light breeze in the first half. Sixmilebridge were first on the scoreboard with a Sean McNamara point in the first minute and for the next 5 minutes both teams were well matched with D/B opening their account on 6 minutes with a Bruce Pigott point. D/B then started to get more into the game with their midfield pairing of Fionn O’Brien and Tony Butler beginning to get on top and supplying good ball into their forwards, and while they hit several wide’s they still managed to leave the half time score at 1-11 to 0-5 in favour of D/B.

Evan Murphy replaced Luke Keogh at half time for the Bridge and they started the second half playing the better hurling. They outscored D/B  five points to two in the first 15 minutes of play  with Jack Corry hitting four points (3 frees) and Shane Whyte getting their fifth. Then just like the first period, D/B started to dominate. When Ethan Coughlan scored D/B’s second goal on 25 minutes followed by three more points in quick succession from Ronan Liddy, Bruce Pigott, and Coughlan to finish there was no way back for the Bridge.

The score line suggests a one sided game and D/B were the better team but the Bridge lads did play some lovely hurling for long periods. Their tendency to go on solo runs when better options were available cost them dearly, losing possession and having to start all over again eventually wore them down. Also D/B had 12 of their starting 15 on the age while only 7 of the Sixmilebridge team were at that level.

For Sixmilebridge, Shane Whyte, Jack Corry, Adam Breen and Conor Flynn played well.

For D/B  Fionn O’Brien, Tony Butler, Ronan Liddy, Bruce Pigott, and Ethan Coughlan were excellent.

Sixmilebridge: Cian Fawl, John Hogan, Storm Devanney, Ferdia O’Lionain, Darragh Toomey, Alex  Frost, Sean Og Murnane, Conor Flynn, Jack Corry 0-7 (0-5f) Matthew Hurley 0-1, Dylan Downes,  Shane Wyhte 0-1, Adam Breen, Sean MacNamara 0-2, (0-1F), Luke Keogh, Subs: Evan Murphy for Luke Keogh (30), Conor Morey for Ferdia Lionain (40), Matthew Dillon for Dylan Downes (50), Colin Kelly for John Hogan (52).

Doora/Barefield: Brendan Cleland, Oisin Brennan, Tommy Quinlivan, Niall O’Regan, Ben Ryan, Adam Mungovan, Fionn O’Brien 0-3, Tony Butler 0-3, Garry Mulligan, Ronan Liddy 1-02, Joey Keane, Bruce Pigott 0-10(0-07F), Ethan Coughlan 1-01, Seanie Keane 0-2.  

Referee: Jim Hickey