Donnelly’s late brace seals it for Cooraclare

Cooraclare 0-11
Kilrush 0-8

A pair of perfectly struck long range Rory Donnelly points, in the closing minutes, secured an opening round win for Cooraclare in Labasheeda last Saturday evening. The points were Donnelly’s only contribution to the scoreboard but they tied up the result for Cooraclare, who completely dominated the opening 15 minutes.

Playing into the breeze, Cooraclare settled immediately and led 0-5 to 0-1 after 17 minutes. John Looney, who excelled at centre-forward in the opening half, kicked two of those scores from play and one from a free, while his brother Gearóid and Seán Maguire also pointed.

Padjoe McGrath kicked Kilrush’s first score from a 14th minute free. Coming to the interval Kilrush had narrowed the deficit to two points, 0-6 to 0-4, with McGrath adding two further pointed frees, while corner back Niall Clancy kicked The Shams only score from play. The fact that none of their six forwards or midfielders managed a score, from play, between them, clearly indicates where last years semi-finalists have pressing issues.

Just before half time Cathal Lillis kicked Cooraclare’s final first half point, from a free won by Donnelly.
With the aid of the breeze, Kilrush opted for a two man full forward line of Jim Young and Rory O’Connor, deploying nominal corner forward Darragh Bolton in a roving role.

A pair of Young frees tied the game at 0-6 each early in the second half and while the teams were later deadlocked at 0-8 apiece, Kilrush never led. Young pointed all four of Kilrush’s second half points from frees, while in addition to Donnelly’s critical late scores, John Looney pointed three times, twice from frees.

Afterwards Cooraclare mentor Michael Garry was justifiably delighted with the result.  “We’re very proud this evening. We’d a great first half performance. It took us a while to get going in the second half but then we finished very strong and we were delighted to finish that way. We dug deep but the boys are doing that all year in fairness. They’re putting in good tackles and they’re working very hard,” he said.

Garry acknowledged the quality of Donnelly’s game securing scores but wants to see scores of that nature more often.  “That’s what he’s there to do and we want more of that from him,” Garry added.

Meanwhile, Kilrush manager, Aidan Moloney felt that his side lost the game in the opening half. “We started poorly. We didn’t really get into the game for at least 15 minutes and I think that’s where we needed to tack on a few scores. We were struggling to stay with Cooraclare in the first half and with the wind that wasn’t good enough. We just didn’t hit the ground running today. We were probably the better side for most of the second half. We held onto the ball better and worked it a bit better but it was big ask that

Cooraclare wouldn’t get a period on top at some stage of the second half,” he suggested.
“We’re in knock out championship now at this stage. We have to get going for next week. We were better than what we were in the first half which is something to take from it,” the Kilrush and former Cooraclare manager added.

Cooraclare: Andrew O’Neill; Michael Chambers, Conor Marrinan, Colm Carroll; James Burke, Declan McMahon, Thomas Donnellan; Michael Kelly, Gearóid Looney; Thomas Downes, John Looney, Colin Kelly; Cathal Lillis, Seán Maguire, Rory Donnelly.
Subs: Joe Downes for Colin Kelly (13 -inj).
Scorers: John Looney (0-6, 3f), Rory Donnelly (0-2), Seán Maguire, Gearóid Looney, Cathal Lillis (f) (0-1 each).
Wides: 5   Frees: 30.
Yellow cards: Thomas Downes, James Burke.

Kilrush: Tony Burke; Niall Gilbride, Chris Dixon, Niall Clancy; Cian Murray, John Hayes, Matthew Moloney; Danny Lynch, Donal O’Sullivan; Jack Browne, Padjoe McGrath, Stephen Sweeney; Darragh Bolton, Jim Young, Rory O’Connor.
Subs: Niall Brennan for Cian Murray (13 – inj), Con O’Brien for Danny Lynch, Eoghan O’Kelly for Darragh Bolton (both 23), Darragh Bolton for Stephen Sweeney (46), Liam Madigan for Padjoe McGrath (56).
Scorers: Jim Young (0-4f), Padjoe McGrath (0-3f), Niall Clancy (0-1).
Wides: 6   Frees 28   45s: 1.
Yellow card: Donal O’Sullivan

Referee: Gerry Keane (O’Curry’s).