Premier hurling champions Sarsfields in cruise control against Douglas
Sarsfields' James O'Leary looks to get past Douglas pair Donnchadha Murphy and Andy O'Connell in Saturday's Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC game at Páirc Uí Rinn. Picture: Jim Coughlan
Sarsfields’ defence of the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC title opened in as comfortable fashion as they would wished at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday evening.
The champions, despite being without injured duo Cathal McCarthy and Killian Murphy and having Luke Elliott and Aaron Myers – both recently returned from travelling – on the bench, were never troubled by Douglas. Johnny Crowley’s side had the game’s opening four points inside five minutes and responded to Cian Baldwin’s opener for Douglas with six more.
The outcome was decided by half-time, by which stage Sars led by 1-15 to 0-5 – Shane O’Regan’s goal in the 30th minute putting an exclamation mark on their dominance. Even that was delayed gratification, with Douglas goalkeeper Donal Maher having denied them with brilliant saves prior to that.
With the breeze favouring them, Douglas had some chances in that opening half but they came at the kings and missed – by the interval they had registered nine wides and just two of their points came from play. Shane Kingston, who had got little change from Craig Leahy, did have half a sight of goal in the latter part of the half but couldn’t make contact with the loose ball, while Mark O’Connor, racing on to an Alan Cadogan break, was prevented from shooting by superb Conor O’Sullivan defending.
Wing-back Bryan Murphy was also impressive in the Sars defence and at the other end they started well before a sloppiness crept into their shooting during the first half as they eased clear. They were still perhaps unfortunate not to have a goal earlier than they did – on nine minutes, Cian Darcy’s run set up Colm McCarthy but Maher did well to get down to his low shot and the goalkeeper and corner-back Conor McSweeney combined to keep out Daniel Hogan’s follow-up.
Hogan’s 65 in the wake of that left them 0-7 to 0-1 in front and it was 0-9 to 0-1 when O’Regan and Daniel Kearney combined to set up James Sweeney. Again, Maher saved, though Jack O’Connor pointed the loose ball.
It was 0-14 to 0-4 when the goal did arrive, O’Regan drilling his shot past Maher from Sweneey’s pass and points from Hogan just before and just after half-time had the champions 14 in front.
There was never a sense that the overall flow would be reversed in the second half and a six-point stretch between the 39th and 44th minutes to put them 1-24 to 0-8 in front. The pick of those was a lovely Bryan Murphy point after great work by Cillian Roche while Hogan, O’Connor and O’Regan continued to add to their tallies.
Twenty-two points separated the sides by the end, with Sars knowing that another win against Newtownshandrum in three weeks will go a long way towards securing top spot in the group. Douglas, meanwhile, will look to regroup before a make-or-break clash with Bishopstown.
D Hogan 0-10 (0-5 f, 0-2 65), J O’Connor 0-7, S O’Regan 1-5, D Kearney, J Sweeney, B Murphy 0-2 each, P Leopold, C Darcy, C McCarthy 0-1 each.
A Cadogan 0-6 (0-4 f, 0-1 65), S Kingston 0-3 (0-1f, 0-1 65), M O’Connor, S Bourke, C Baldwin 0-1 each.
D McCarthy; C Leahy, C O’Sullivan, C Roche; B Murphy, E Murphy, P Leopold; C Darcy, J O’Leary; D Hogan, J Sweeney, D Kearney; S O’Regan, C McCarthy, J O’Connor.
L Elliott for B Murphy (46), W Kearney for McCarthy (57).
D Maher; D Kelly, D Murphy, K McSweeney; S O’Leary, M Howell, D Harte; A O’Connell, J Harte; M O’Connor, S Moylan, C Baldwin; A Cadogan, S Bourke, S Kingston.
C Kingston for J Harte (19-21, blood), E O’Flynn for Murphy (28, injured), C Kingston for J Harte (half-time), C O’Donovan for Moylan (43), N Hartnett for O’Connor (48), D O’Callaghan for O’Leary (53, temporary).
C O’Regan (Ballyhea).
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