Brilliant Ballincollig capture Premier 1 Féile hurling title with superb display against Shandrum

Ballincollig 1-13 Shandrum 1-3 

Ballincollig, inspired by an outstanding display from Faolán O’Leary, produced champagne hurling to defeat a fine Shandrum side in the Rebel Og Premier 1 Hurling final at the MTU on Monday.

Although O’Leary was the standout player, Ballincollig have great balance and credit to their management team as they're clearly well-coached in all aspects of their game. Their second team won the Division 6 Féile earlier on Monday morning, showing the depth to their panel.

Shandrum were left to rue their slow start as Ballincollig blitzed them in the opening 10 minutes to go nine clear with some incredible points.

In the opening minute, David Jozefowski got through on goal only to be denied by a superb Tadhg McMahon save in the Shandrum goal. Gradually, the points came raining down on the North Cork side, starting with a Will Twomey free.

Shandrum struggled to get meaningful possession with O’Leary showing his undoubted skills with a slick point in the sixth minute, followed by lovely points from Charlie Hannigan and Jozefowski and Ballincollig commanded a seven-point lead in the eighth minute.

Finally, the drought ended for Shandrum a minute later when Eoghan Mulcahy drilled over a point but that was to be their only score of the half as Ballincollig added three more white flags that gave them a comfortable nine-point lead at the break, 0-10 to 0-1.

O’Leary continued to run the show from centre-field and his strike in the 14th minute would have graced any pitch in this county.

Three minutes later, he showed coolness personified with a darting run before finding the back of the net with a classy finish.

To be fair Shandrum, threw the kitchen sink at Ballincollig only to come up against some stern defending, but they were rewarded with a late consolation goal from David Weir.

The sound of the final whistle brought scenes of celebration from the Ballincollig faithful. Manager Denis Twomey, son of the club president Aubert, was thrilled with their efforts.

“We have played Shandrum in the last two years at U13 and U14 levels and both games could have gone either way but today we felt we badly needed this one as we lost the football final with the same group of players."

The Ballincollig manager has been with this team since they were six-year-old that includes his son Will and he believes there is plenty to be excited about with this group of players.

“It’s a great day for the club and hopefully this group will be the future of things to come in both codes at our club."

Scorers for Ballincollig: F O’Leary 1-5, W Twomey 0-2 f, L Healy 0-2, A O’Driscoll, C Hannigan, M Harrington, D Jozefowski 0-1 each.

Shandrum: D Weir 1-1, E Mulcahy, D O’Neill 0-1 each.

BALLINCOLLIG: J Kearney; F Barker, K McSweeney, T Fitzgerald; R O’Gorman, C Hannigan, R Dineen; J Archibold, F O’Leary; L Healy, W Twomey, D O’Sullivan; O Power, D Jozefowski, A O’Driscoll.

Subs used: M Harrington, E Moore, T Kelleher, R Lynch.

SHANDRUM: T McMahon; B Morrissey, M Boyle, R Lynch; E O’Brien, A O’Mahony, T Mulcahy, D Weir, E Mulcahy; A McLoughlin, J Ryan, M Walsh; R O’Connor, F Barker, J Sheehan.

Subs used: A O’Driscoll, S Hayes, A Quinn, S O’Sullivan, JP Sheehan.

Referee: Peter Cotter (Gleann na Laoi).