Limerick champions Ballybrown power into final of Munster Junior 'B' hurling competition

A DOMINANT second half performance from Limerick champions Ballybrown helped them progress to the final of the Munster Junior B hurling competition after a 0-18 to 1-6 victory over Clare rivals Inagh-Kilnamona on a cold Saturday afternoon in Killeedy.

Dean McInerney opened the scoring for Inagh-Kilnamona inside the opening ninety seconds of the contest. However, Sean Healy replied for Ballybrown before Ethan Keyes capitalised on a stray puck-out to give the Limerick champions the lead for the first time with just three minutes on the clock.

After a scrappy opening quarter, Jack Lyons brought the sides level through a free in the 13th minute. Barry O’Connor responded for Ballybrown before Lyons slotted over another placed ball.

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O’Connor then popped up with a well taken score from play before the O’Looneys, Paul and Chris, combined to put the sides level again after 17 minutes.

Keyes then finished off a pair of well worked attacking sequences by Ballybrown before Mark Doolan pounced on another poor Inagh-Kilnamona restart to extend the Limerick side’s lead to three.

Lee O’Reilly then stormed up the left hand sideline to fire over the standout score of the opening half.

Another O’Connor pointed free put Ballybrown four ahead with as many minutes remaining in the first half. However, Inagh-Kilnamona struck for goal three minutes later as Lyons blasted his shot to the roof of the net to leave the minimum between the sides at the break, Ballybrown 0-9 Inagh-Kilnamona 1-5.

Keyes and Healy capitalised on the open spaces provided by the Inagh-Kilnamona defence to give Ballybrown a strong start to the second half. A pair of O’Connor frees then extended the gap to five points after 45 minutes.

O’Reilly superseded his first half effort with a magnificent effort, again from the left hand wing, just minutes later.

With Inagh-Kilnamona experiencing a prolonged drought in front of the posts, Ballybrown began to take a firm hold on the contest. A Jack Lyon’s free was all that the Banner men could muster as a brace from Paul O’Neill followed with normal time running out.

Keyes then slotted his fifth score from play in what was a standout performance before Peter O’Rourke topped off an excellent scoring return from the Limerick side who ran out nine point winners, 0-18 to Inagh-Kilnamona's 1-6.

SCORERS: Ballybrown: Ethan Keyes, Barry O’Connor (0-3 frees) 0-5 each, Sean Healy, Paul O’Neill, Lee O’Reilly 0-2 each, Mark Doolan, Peter O’Rourke 0-1 each. Inagh-Kilnamona: Jack Lyons 1-4 (0-3 frees), Dean McInerney, Paul O’Looney 0-1 each.

Ballybrown: Connor O’Neill, Mark Sheehan, Luke Doran, Peter Kiely, Jamie Behan, Kevin Foster, Lee O’Reilly, Sean Healy, Ben Adams, Paul O’Neill, Peter O’Rourke, Ethan Keyes, Barry O’Connor, Rob O’Brien, Mark Doolan. Subs: James Smith for Rob O’Brien (53 mins), Rob Kearney for Ben Adams (56 mins), Rory Murphy for Peter Kiely, Jarlath Flaherty for Mark Doolan (60 mins).

Inagh-Kilnamona: Paul Keating, Liam White, Coley Kelly, Cormac Devitt, Alex Leyden, Colm Pilkington, Robbie Dowling, Robbie Roughan, Luke McGuane, Dean McInerney, Cillian Roughan, Paul O’Looney, Pat Marnane, Chris O’Looney, Jack Lyons.
Subs: Damien Hogan for Dean McInerney, Milo Kean for Robbie Dowling (36 mins), Daniel Rynne for Luke McGuane (45 mins).