SAHC: Coleman and Power on song for Blarney in victory over Bandon

Blarney 1-21 Bandon 0-12 

BLARNEY breezed into the knockout stages of the Co-Op Superstores SAHC by recording a comprehensive victory over Bandon on Sunday afternoon.

With Cork inter-county players such as Mark Coleman and Pádraig Power excelling, the Muskerry side were fully deserving winners and collectively produced an impressive level of work-rate.

In the early stages, Blarney opened the scoring through a crisply taken free by Power, while Bandon responded in kind from a placed ball by Aidan O’Mahony.

This was before Blarney struck for the opening goal of the game. From a Mark Coleman free which was floated in and not dealt with by the Bandon defence, Keith Costello was in the right place to knock the ball into the back of the net from a few yards out, with Power getting another point.

Bandon responded in kind through frees by O’Mahony and an Adam Murphy point, to see the score at Blarney 1-3 to Bandon’s 0-4 after 22 minutes.

Blarney had a strong period towards the latter stages of the opening half. Power got another fine score following a determined run, while Patrick Crowley also got a pair of consecutive points.

One of Blarney’s Cork stars Coleman kept his cool to finish off a well-worked move, with Bandon getting late points on 30 minutes from O’Mahony.

Blarney were in cruise control of the contest in the opening stages of the second half, getting seven out of the next eight scores upon the restart.

Alan McEvoy got a fine score from long distance, while Coleman continued to show the quality he has in abundance with some impressive point taking.

Blarney led at the second-half water break 1-16 to 0-7, with Crowley getting another and Coleman getting a fine score from a sideline cut.    

Although Bandon responded with scores by O’Mahony and Rory Desmond, they were second best to an impressive Blarney.

Scorers for Blarney: M Coleman 0-9 (0-6 f, 0-1 sl), K Costello 1-0, P Power (0-1 f), P Crowley 0-3 each, S Barrett 0-2, A McEvoy, D Hannon, E Kirby, C Power 0-1 each.

Bandon: A O’Mahony 0-10 (0-7 f, 0-1 65), R Desmond, A Murphy 0-1 each.

BLARNEY: P Hallissey; S Crowley, P O’Leary, D Walsh; O Hegarty, P Philpott, A McEvoy; D McSweeney, M Coleman; P Crowley, P Power, M O’Leary; K Costello, D Hannon, S Barrett.

Subs: E Kirby for O’Leary, S Mulcahy for Costello (both 40), C Power for Crowley (45), D Murphy for Hegarty, R Murphy for Hannon (both 53).

BANDON: P Barry; J Walsh, P Murphy, M McNamara; J Hickey, T Twohig, E McSweeney; J Harrington, D O’Donovan; C Long, M Cahalane, C Calnan; A O’Mahony, D Crowley, A Murphy.

Subs: R Desmond for C Long (43), C McCarthy for Harrington (51).

Referee: Brian Murphy (Carrigtwohill).