Report written and supplied by Crusheen Gaa Club.
Crusheen/Tubber 1-13 Éire Óg 0-8
Ballyvaughan-Fanore Gaa are represented by James Howard and Jonah Culligan
THE club's 2018 season began in earnest today, with a deserved win over Éire Óg in the U-21 B championship. Unsurprisingly given the weather of recent weeks underfoot conditions were poor in Corofin, which led to numerous rucks, particularly in the first half.
Both sides missed chances early on, and it took six minutes for the first score to arrive, through James Taaffe. After this Crusheen/Tubber began to dominate and took a 1-3 to 0-0 lead in the 14th minute, when Cillian Mullins struck for the game's only goal. It took Éire Óg until the 21st minute to get their first score, and by half time they trailed by 1-6 to 0-3.
Colm McNamara had relatively little to do all afternoon, but he made a super save in the opening moments in the second period, at a time when a goal would have provided Éire Óg with an important boost.
Crusheen/Tubber had the first three points of the half, two from Cillian Mullins and one from Ronan Monahan, leaving Éire Óg nine points behind and floundering.
However the Ennis side's best spell was about to come and between the 37th and 42nd minutes they had four unanswered points, finally generating some real momentum and converting the type of chances they had been squandering.
Breffni Horner looked dangerous throughout and he was on target in the 48th minute, while this was quickly followed by points from Mullins and Ronan Monahan.
Crusheen/Tubber were quite comfortable in the last ten minutes and ran out convincing winners, setting up a St Patrick's Day showdown with Scariff/Ogonnelloe in Sixmilebridge.
Crusheen/Tubber: Colm McNamara; Ian O'Brien, Ross Hayes, Tadhg Dean; Eanna McMahon 0-1, John Fawle, Emmet Quinn; Ronan Monahan 0-2, Padraig Kelly; Arron O'Brien, Cillian Mullins 1-7 (0-5F, 0-1 65), James Howard; James Taaffe 0-1, Aidan McNamara, Breffni Horner 0-2. Subs: Jonah Culligan for Arron O'Brien, Cian Ketelaar for Aidan McNamara, Colman McDonagh for James Howard, Tom Nolan for James Taaffe.
Éire Óg: Colin McGrath, Gearoid Collins, Ian McMahon, Rory Brennan; Conor O'Halloran, David McInerney, David Costello; Tadhg Connellan, Paul Martyn; Colin Reidy, Colin O'Donoghue, Lee Flynn; Gavin Cooney, Darren O'Brien, Eanna O'Connor.
Referee: G Callaghan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ballyvaughan-Fanore Gaa Club on Facebook
Facebook Page Please click the link on the left to launch.