Carbery JAHC final: Ballinascarthy have too much firepower for Mary's to capture the title

Ballinascarthy 0-22 

St Mary’s 0-14 

A productive conclusion to the opening half augmented by star performances from midfield duo Luke Murray and man-of-the-match Ciarán O’Neill allied to the unerring accuracy of Jeremy Ryan and Brian O’Donovan paved the way for Ballinascarthy to capture their sixth Carbery JAHC at Clonakilty on Sunday.

St Mary’s controlled the opening exchanges running up an early deserved, 0-5 to 0-1 lead by the 10th minute with superb scores by Brian McCarthy (0-3), Niall Kelleher and Brian Everard. 

Once Ballinascarthy got to grips with St Mary’s ploy of operating a sweeper they soon resumed normal service up front with some fine points to take a commanding interval lead of 0-13 to 0-6.

Despite wind advantage in the second half, St Mary’s failed to penetrate a solid Ballinascarthy rear-guard for that elusive major.

Jason Collins went for broke with a close-in free in the dying embers but Darragh Hennessy brought off a brilliant save to lift the siege as Ballinascarthy swept to a deserved triumph.

Scorers for Ballinascarthy: J Ryan (0-10, 7f, sl); B O’Donovan (0-6), C O’Neill (0-3), E Ferguson, Cian Ryan, C Cullinane (0-1 each).

Scorers for St Mary’s: B McCarthy, J Collins (3f) (0-3 each); M O’Driscoll, D O’Donovan, B Everard (1f) (0-2 each); F O’Driscoll, Niall Kelleher (0-1 each).

BALLINASCARTHY: D Hennessy; D O’Brien, Chris Ryan, R O’Brien; P Cullinane, C Nyhan, D Walsh; L Murray, C O’Neill; J Ryan, S McCarthy, C Cullinane; E Ferguson, Cian Ryan, B O’Donovan.

Subs: R O’Flynn for S McCarthy (48), S Ryan for Cian Ryan (54), A O’Leary for D Walsh (59).

ST MARY'S: G Harrington; J Hurley, P Daly, D Curtin; B O’Brien, M O’Driscoll, R O’Connor; D Scannell, N Kelleher; B Everard, J Collins, F O’Driscoll; D O’Donovan, B McCarthy, R Scannell.

Subs: C Everard for F O’Driscoll (38), R Baggott for Dylan Scannell (44).

Referee: Ian McCarthy (Bandon).