Broadford in the last eight

Broadford 5-11   Ballyea 1-15

LAST year’s intermediate champions Broadford booked their place in the last eight of the Clare senior hurling championship when they accounted for Ballyea at Cusack Park on Friday evening.
In a high-scoring contest, the East Clare side’s ability to score goals, some of which came as a result of defensive errors on the part of Ballyea, proved the difference on the evening.
While Ballyea will be disappointed with the manner in which their defence leaked those goals, Broadford will also be unhappy with their defence, which conceded quite a number of frees, particularly in the first half, and these led to the majority of the Ballyea’s points.
The decision of the Broadford management to switch Cathal Chaplin to wing-back, arguably his best position, for the second half proved to be a wise one. He dominated in this area and the quality of the ball he delivered to the attack led to a number of scores and this was particularly evident when he set up Pádraig Hickey for the corner-forward’s goal nine minutes after the break.
The opening two scores came from long-range frees by Shane O’Neill (Ballyea) and Ciaran Corcoran (Broadford), before the winners had their first goal in the fifth minute. Aonghus O’Brien raced through but his strike was well stopped by Shane O’Neill. However, Ballyea failed to clear and O’Brien managed to scramble the ball home.
Ballyea fought their way back and with Tony Griffin in sparkling form from frees, they were in front at the mid-point of the half, 0-7 to 1-3. Another Griffin point put them two ahead but two Niall Moloney goals in a minute had Broadford back in front with eight minutes still to play in the half.
Broadford manager Danny Chaplin was banished to the stand after he protested over a decision by referee Walsh to penalise James Gunning for handling the ball on the ground, a decision that led to another Griffin point. Chaplin was adamant that Gunning did not handle the ball on the ground.
Donal Chambers was now enjoying a great spell for the Ballyea men and he had three points from play but it was Broadford who led at the break when the score was 3-7 to 0-12.
Five minutes into the second half the sides were level after Cormac Murphy had pointed and Tony Griffin struck for his side’s only goal. This drew a sharp response from Broadford and goals from Padraic Taylor and Pádraig Hickey inside a minute gave the East Clare men the edge they needed to go on and  capture victory and a place in the quarter-finals.
The Gunnings, Cathal Chaplin, Niall Moloney, and Aidan O’Brien were prominent for the winners while Ballyea’s best were Niall Keane, Francie O’Reilly, Paul Flanagan, Donal Chambers and Tony Griffin.

Broadford: Kevin Ryan; John Corcoran, Ciaran Corcoran, Stephen Gunning; James Gunning, Aidan O’Brien, Kieran O’Connell; Peter O’Brien, Craig Chaplin; Cathal Chaplin, Aonghus O’Brien, Declan Teefy; Pádraig Hickey, Niall Moloney, Pádraig Taylor.
Sub: Diarmuid Skehan for O’Connell (half time)
Scorers: Aonghus O’Brien (1-4), 0-4 frees; Niall Moloney (2-0); Ciaran Corcoran (two frees, one 65), Cathal Chaplin (one free) 0-3 each; Pádraig Hickey, Pádraig Taylor (1-0) each; Peter O’Brien (0-1).
Frees: 15; Wides: 9; 65s: 1
Bookings: Kieran O’Connell (20 minutes); Kevin Ryan (51 minutes).
“We were first to balls but dropped them but we got the breaks, we got the goals and at the end of the day the goals won the match for us.” Danny Chaplin, Broadford

Ballyea: Shane O’Neill; Eamonn Griffin, John Griffin, Frankie Griffin; Brian Carigg, Niall Keane, Francie O’Reilly; Paddy O’Connell, Gary Brennan; Kevin Sheehan, Cormac Murphy, Brian Chambers; Tony Griffin, Donal Chambers, Paul Flanagan.
Subs: Cathal O’Connor for F Griffin (half time); Brian Murphy for J Griffin (41 minutes); Francie Neylon for B Chambers (43 minutes); Don Flannery for D Chambers (inj, 57 minutes).
Scorers: Tony Griffin (1-8) 0-6 frees; Donal Chambers (0-4); Shane O’Neill (0-2), both frees; Cormac Murphy (0-1).
Frees: 16; Wides: 5; 65s: 1
Bookings: Brian Carigg (40 minutes); Donal Chambers (56 minutes)
“We seemed to concede soft goals every time we got ourselves back into the game. A lot of lessons were learned this evening.” Michael Hehir, Ballyea

Referee: Kevin Walsh, Wolfe Tones