Louth GAA club | Hunterstown see off O’Mahonys

Hunterstown Rovers took control of the second half and ultimately Group 4 of this Louth GAA Intermediate Championship as they saw off the challenge of the Sean O’Mahonys in Darver on Saturday night last.

Despite trailing by the minimum at the break, last year’s finalists took charge in the second half, making the most of their wind advantage to outscore their opponents by 0-10 to 0-2 to secure a seven point win over the O’Mahnonys, who will surely rue not making the most of their first half advantage.

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Despite shooting into a tricky first half gust, Hunterstown crucially managed two goals roughly either side of the opening period to stay in touch of their opponents.

Gareth Hall who was particularly influential in the first half for O’Mahonys, landed the opening score from the throw in, but Hunterstown laid down an early marker when the lively Ciaran Russell took a Ryan Ward flick off the shoulder before finding the back of the net minutes later.

Russell was involved in the next score for Shane Halpenny as Hunterstown led by 1-1 to 0-1 after 5 minutes. Following a long ball from Conor Martin which dropped short, Kyle Carroll managed to flick the ball to the Hunterstown net to draw the sides level.

Despite conceding that early major, the O’Mahonys were dominant in that half, particularly on Hunterstown’s kickout, which saw the Dundalk side win 8 out of 12 Rovers restarts, with the strong gust having a big say once again. In fact, six of the O’Mahonys’ nine points emanated from Hunterstown’s kickout.

Central to this was the presence of Gareth Hall, who got a hand to several of these kickouts, alongside, Aarron Mackin, Conor Finnegan and the impressive Aaron Boyle.

On the back of this, O’Mahonys soon made this dominance count on the scoreboard, thanks to an Aaron Boyle two pointer and a nicely taken Terry Kelly strike, before Boyle again left the Quay men 1-5 to 1-1 in front just passed the first quarter.

But crucially, Hunterstown grabbed three out of the next four scores to leave just two between the sides after 24 minutes, thanks to Marc Ward, Tony McKenna, and Michael Reid, with Luke Kelly responding for the O’Mahonys.

Tiarnan Cassidy stretched that lead to three, but Hunterstown struck for a key score before the break, when Ryan Ward got the telling touch to a long ball into the square from Jason Monaghan to leave the sides level.

James Rogers then set up Tony McKenna to edge Hunterstown ahead for the first time since the opening minutes. However, the O’Mahonys pinched the lead back thanks to a Luke Kelly two pointer to leave them ahead by 1-9 to 2-5 at half time.

Second Half:

In that second half, Hunterstown stepped things up, making the most of the wind to turn the tables on their opponents.

That second half saw Hunterstown dominate the O’Mahonys’ kickout, winning seven out of 11 on the opposition’s kickout, with Jason Monaghan, Patrick Taaffe, James Russell, Marc Ward and Michael Reid seeing plenty of ball in that sector. Louth under 20 star Reid was central to this, finishing with 27 possessions over the hour, with Russell finishing with 19, and David Finn with 18.

Hunterstown’s tenacity in the tackle, made it almost impossible for the O’Mahonys to move the ball out of their defence at times, with the side coached by Sean Kelly and Sean Barry scoring 1-9 on the back of turnovers.

Such turnovers led to magnificent two pointers from Ryan Ward, Jason Monaghan sub Paul Carrie. At that stage Hunterstown were 2-14 to 1-9 ahead with eight minutes remaining.

In the absence of county star Ryan Burns, Ryan Ward stepped up when it mattered, having converted three close range frees prior to those two pointers, setting Hunterstown on their way.

It took 24 minutes into the second half before the O’Mahonys managed to trouble the scoreboard, which came via Terry Kelly, before another strike from sub Brian McGuirk put some respectability on the scoreboard.

Appropriately, it was Hunterstown and Ryan Ward who had the final say, with the full forward converting another free with the last kick of the game to seal a seven point win for Rovers, who will be strong favourites to advance to the Intermediate championship quarter finals as winners of this group.

Hunterstown Rovers: Donovan Sheridan; Adam O’Reilly, Euan Woodlock, James Russell; Micheal Reid (0-1), Patrick Taaffe, Colm Murphy, Shane Halpenny (0-1); Marc Ward (0-1); Jason Monaghan (0-2) (1tp); James Rogers, Tony McKenna (0-2); David Finn; Ciaran Russell (1-0), Ryan Ward (1-6), (4f ,1tp), Ciaran Russell (1-0).

Subs: Daithi Carroll for Murphy (41), Paul Carrie (0-2) (1tp) for McKenna (44), Glen Matthews for C Russell (55), Cillian Taaffe for Monaghan (60), Jamie O’Callaghan for Rogers (61).

Sean O’Mahonys: Eddie Maguire; Stephen Kettle, Chris O’Neill, Oisin Breen; Sean Cassidy, Aaron Boyle (0-3) (1tp), Tiarnan Cassidy (0-1); Conor Martin, Gareth Hall; Aaron Mackin, Conor Finnegan, Ciaran Redmond; Luke Kelly (0-3) (1tp), Terrence Kelly (0-2), Kyle Carroll (1-1).

Subs: Brian McGuirk 0-01 for Redmond (ht), Ciaran Jamison for Breen (61).

Referee: Stephen Johnson (Glen Emmets)