Anniversary years seem to hold something of a boost for hurling and football clubs this season.
Wearing a retro Clonmore jersey to commemorate the club’s 75th anniversary (it’s proving to be a good year for Clonmore), they made goal chances count in beating O’Hanrahans in the first of Saturday’s games at Netwatch Cullen Park.
Having lost the last two county finals at Junior C grade, goals in either half from Paddy Byrne and Niall Humphries would prove crucial in a 2-13 to 0-11 finish this time out – more than enough to ensure the first of two pieces of silverware at stake for the club.
With the first piece of the puzzle complete, it was on to the replay of the Junior A final at 6pm on Saturday, Clonmore and Old Leighlin failing to be separated at the first time of asking.
Second time around, it was a completely different story, considering the first game finished 0-07 apiece.
Enda McGrath (Clonmore) and Aidan Lillis (Leighlinbridge) pointed early but 20 minutes into the game, Clonmore were starting to pull away a little, pushing the game out to 0-06 to 0-3 before tacking on another four unanswered scores and hit the break 0-10 to 0-03 up.
Second-half goals from Jake Hickey and Rory Maguire were met by goals from Kieran Casey and Shane Farrell as Leighlinbridge bid to stay in touch. Indeed, five minutes from time it could have been a much wider score, Cian Kavanagh doing well to save from the spot from Clonmore’s Jake Hickey before the champions would run out 2-12 to 2-06 winners.
As for some of the passing and buildup play involved? Check out this video picked up by John Nolan as Clonmore make transitional scoring play look easy.
Clonmore will now progress to the Leinster junior football championships to face Grattan Óg of Longford. The game will be played in a Carlow venue on the weekend of 23 November, throw-in time TBC.
