End of the road for Clough Ballacolla as Ballyhale cruise to Leinster success

Clough Ballacolla's hopes of a Leinster club title were dashed in emphatic fashion on Sunday after their Croke Park adventure ended with a 27 point beating at the hands of Kilkenny's Ballyhale Shamrocks.

For Clough Ballacolla, it was a day when very little went right for them. All three of Ballyhale's crucial first half goals were preventable while at the other end, they just didn't get going and under performed.

CLOUGH BALLACOLLA 0-14

BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS 6-23

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It was a magical year for the club and Sunday's result doesn't take anything away from what they have achieved. They died with their boots on and kept going to the end even though the result was beyond doubt with 20 minutes to play.

TJ Reid opened the scoring in the opening minute from a free but it didn't take Clough Ballacolla long to open their account with Willie Dunphy firing over from 50 yards to level things up on three minutes.

Nerves were there on both sides but Ballyhale got a big fillip early doors when Eoin Cody got his hands on a loose ball in and around the danger area, composed himself and fired a bullet to the back of Cathal Dunne's net to give the Kilkenny champions a 1-1 to 0-1 lead.

The whole Country has seen what Clough Ballacolla are made of this year and it was no surprise the way they reacted to that sucker punch of a goal.

They rattled off the next three scores to draw level with Lee Cleere, Willie Dunphy with his second and Aidan Corby all finding the range to square it off at 1-1 to 0-4 after 11 minutes.

TJ Reid landed two routine frees for Ballyhale to put them back two up but once again, the Laois men responded. Aidan Corby was roaring into the game in the middle of the field and he landed two points, one as good as the other to level it at 1-3 to 0-6 after 16 minutes.

There was time for one more score before the water break with Eoin Cody adding to his early goal with a well taken point to leave the Ballyhale men one up at the water break.

After a couple of points were exchanged quickly after the water break, Ballyhale struck for their second goal. TJ Reid played in a lovely diagonal ball into Colin Fennelly and after Darren Maher almost got a vital touch to it, Fennelly went through on goal and coolly dispatched past Cathal Dunne.

That left the Kilkenny men five points up but an instant response from Clough Ballacolla saw them rattle off two scores on the bounce from Aidan Corby and Willie Dunphy to narrow the gap to three with six minutes left in the half.

There was more bad luck to come for the Laois men though. Colin Fennelly blocked down an attempted clearance from Darren Maher, ran on to goals and despite a collection of defenders trying to stop him, Fennelly found the net for his second goal of the game.

Trailing 3-6 to 0-9, Clough Ballacolla had a big battle ahead of them and it got even bigger by half time. The last five minutes of the half saw Ballyhale outscore them 0-5 to 0-1 to extend their half time lead to a healthy 3-11 to 0-10.

The sides exchanged scores in the early stages of the second half before another blow arrived. A long ball into the Clough Ballacolla full back line broke from an aerial contest and into the path of Adrian Mullen who was left one on one with Cathal Dunne. Mullen did the business and fired home their fourth goal to leave them cruising at 4-12 to 0-11 after 37 minutes.

It got worse three minutes later when Ballyhale got in for their fifth goal. Eoin Cody fed the onrushing Brian Cody and his close range shot was deflected into the net off the stick of Eoin Doyle to make it a 16 point game with 20 minutes to play.

By the time of the second water break the gap was 18 points and it was damaged limitation for the Laois men.

Eoin Cody landed two more scores with just over 10 minutes to go while Jordan Walshe replied with a fine score to leave it 5-17 to 0-13 with 10 minutes to go.

Eoin Reid got a lovely flick away to get their sixth goal while points from Eoin Cody (two), Reid again and Brian Cody stretched their lead even further before referee Richie Fitzsimons brought proceedings to an end.

CLOUGH BALLACOLLA

Scorers: Aidan Corby 0-4, Stephen Maher (frees) and Willie Dunphy 0-3 each, Lee Cleere 0-1, Brian Corby 0-1, Jordan Walshe 0-1, Cillian Dunne 0-1

Team: Cathal Dunne; Eoin Doyle, Darren Maher, Diarmuid Conway; Brian Corby, Mick McEvoy, Lee Cleere; Aidan Corby, Willie Hyland; Robbie Phelan, Jordan Walsh, Mark Hennessy; Stephen Bergin, Stephen Maher, Willie Dunphy. Subs: Ronan Broderick for Darren Maher (36), Cillian Dunne for Willie Hyland (41), John Dwyer for Stephen Bergin (46), Tom Delaney for Michael McEvoy (47), Sean Corby for Mark Hennessy (53)

BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS

Scorers:  Eoin Cody 1-6 (0-3 frees), Colin Fennelly 2-1, Ronan Corcoran 0-5, TJ Reid 0-5 (frees), Brian Cody and Eoin Reid 1-1 each, Adrian Mullen 1-0, Eoin Kenneally, Darragh Corcoran, Paddy Mullen, Liam Barron 0-1 each

Team: Dean Mason; Darren Mullen, Joey Holden, Kevin Mullen; Evan Shefflin, Richie Reid, Darragh Corcoran; Ronan Corcoran, Paddy Mullen; Adrian Mullen, Brian Cody, Eoin Cody; Eoin Kenneally, TJ Reid, Colin Fennelly. Subs: Conor Phelan for Shefflin (42), Eoin Reid for TJ Reid (46), Conor Walsh for P Mullen (46), Brian Butler for K Mullen (52), Liam Barron for Kennelly (53)

Referee: Richie Fitzsimons (Offaly)

A bridge too far for Portarlington as Kilmacud end Leinster dream

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