County players McInerney and Burke power Oranmore home
Oranmore/Maree 1-19
Rahoon/Newcastle 1-10
ORANMORE/Maree booked their place in this year’s intermediate county final with a comfortable victory over a disappointing Rahoon/Newcastle outfit at Kenny Park on Sunday.
Coming in off the back of a fine victory over Kinvara at the second attempt, Rahoon/Newcastle would have expected to put up a much better showing but on the day they just never got going, with Oranmore bursting from the traps to open up an early six-point lead.
Credit to Rahoon/Newcastle who fought back in both halves but in truth that was more down to Oranmore/Maree taking their foot off the gas with John Burke and Gerry McInerney’s men showing exactly why they are favourites to earn promotion to senior ranks.
It’s not the first time that’s been said about this side, however, and they’ve been caught the past two seasons at the quarter-final and semi-final stage, so to qualify for the decider will feel like a monkey off the back in ways.
Big players stand up on the big days and they don’t come much bigger than Gearoid McInerney and Niall Burke, the two Galway men heavily influential for Oranmore/Maree who impressed in every sector of the field.
Eight minutes in they led 0-6 to 0-0 as Rahoon/Newcastle struggled desperately to get to the pitch of the action. Niall Burke fired his side’s first three scores, a one-handed point from play sandwiched between two frees before Ross Malone fired over a simple score to make it four.
County football star Eamon Brannigan had his sides first chance in the seventh minute when soloing through from midfield, but his effort off the hurl fell to the right and wide.
By that point, they had still failed to deliver a ball to their inside line which gives an indication of the dominance Oranmore/Maree held in the middle third and two quick points by lively Oranmore/Maree corner-forward Sean McInerney added to their woes.
John Hanbury eventually got his side on the board in the ninth minute with an excellent free from his own 65 and he repeated the dose shortly after before Jordan Ruffley hit his team’s third on the spin to cap a well-worked move. Rahoon were beginning to settle but were powerless to prevent another Oranmore/Maree burst yielding five straight scores.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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