Ballymac V Kerins O’Rahillys
Sunday 17/02/2019
It may be February 17th but this game had a quality that wouldn’t have gone amiss in July given the favourable conditions, quality of the pitch and the positivity shown by both teams. Kerins O Rahillys exploded out the blocks to race into a 1-3 to 0-1 lead but as we’ve seen on numerous occasions this year, Ballymac are nothing if not resilient. A wonderful turnover by Vinny Horan was expertly dispatched to the net by Luke Sweeney and all of a sudden it was game on again. Despite being under severe pressure at times, good defending by Genie Griffin, Cian Counihan and Micheal Reidy kept the scoreline to just a 2 point deficit, 1-3 to 1-5 at the break.
Usually games slow down during the second half but the pace and intensity increased but in the space of a little over 10 minutes Ballymac and Kerins O Rahillys traded scores with abandon and the scores were level pegging 2-6 for Ballymac and 1-9 for Kerins O Rahillys. Points were traded before a goal chance was miraculously cleared off the line by Connie Kelly. Going into the last five minutes the scores were level 2-10 to 1-13 with everything to play for. Ballymac finished strongly with points from Aidan Breen and Daniel O Shea to steer them home for an historic victory, 2-13 to 1-13.