Francis Coughlan at Bansha
Lattin/Cullen are through to a third consecutive Gleeson Concrete West Junior A Hurling Championship Final following victory over Cashel King Cormacs at a sunny Bansha on Saturday evening. While Lattin/Cullen are getting a number of players back to action, the Cashel team was a depleted team to the one that started the competition having lost a number of players to Senior.
Lattin/Cullen’s win was built on a strong start, hitting seven unanswered points in the first ten minutes. Cashel to their credit made their opponents work hard for their win but were limited in their scoring threat relying on a place balls from Ross Whelan for the majority of their scores.
Lattin/Cullen though kept the scoreboard ticking over with Cathal Dillon linking up well Laurence Coskeran and Tomas O’Shea with Darragh O’Brien looking lively to lead by nine at the interval.
Lattin/Cullen continued to hold sway in the second half with Raymond Hennessy having a presence in midfield while Barry Grogan and Stevie Carey were strong down the middle of defence.
Lattin/Cullen hit the ground running with Darragh O’Brien scoring after just twenty seconds and this was quickly followed by one from Mark Russell who opened his shoulders out near the sideline.
Cathal Dillon who was accurate from play and placed balls added to the tally and he linked up well will Laurence Coskeran who also got on the board. Cashel was forced to bring Adrian O’Dwyer out the field which left Barry Grogan as the spare man in the Lattin/Cullen defence.
Cashel were making their opponents work hard and while they turned over possession, they often played the wrong ball in or saw it collected by the spare man.
Ross Whelan eventually got Cashel off the mark in the tenth minute with a pointed free and it seemed to spark a mini revival with Whelan on target from frees while Dylan O’Grady got their first point from play.
As the first quarter was drawing to a close, just three points separated the sides. Mark Russell forced a great save from Eanna McInerney and from the resulting sixty-five Cathal Dillon increased Lattin/Cullen’s advantage. Dillon went on to add another three from play and placed balls while Ben Carey and Tomas O’Shea opened their accounts.
Joseph Davis did add just Cashel’s second from play in the half as Lattin/Cullen led 0-15 to 0-6 at the break.
Similar to the first half Lattin/Cullen hit the first six points to extend their lead into double digits. Raymond Hennessy opened his account while Darragh O’Brien linked up well with Tomas O’Shea for a well taken score by the later. Coskeran and Dillon continued to lead the attack.
Ross Whelan responded with another from a free, however Lattin/Cullen had now given game time to players like Jack O’Halloran and Sean Bourke who made their presence felt getting on a lot of ball.
The game by now had well and truly an inevitable conclusion and while Cashel battled hard Lattin/Cullen had more fire power. Cathal Dillon got the final score of the game with about five minutes of ordinary time to play.
Scorers & Teams:
Lattin/Cullen: Cathal Dillon (0-10, (0-5f)), Darragh O’Brien (0-3), Mark Russell (0-2), Laurence Coskeran (0-2), Tomas O’Shea (0-2), Raymond Hennessy (0-2), Sean Bourke (0-1), Ben Carey (0-1), Patrick O’Donoghue (0-1), Jack O’Halloran (0-1)
Cashel King Cormacs: Ross Whelan (0-6f), Joseph Davis (0-2), Dylan O’Grady (0-1), Cian McGrath (0-1)
Lattin/Cullen: Jack Whelton, Timmy Corcoran, Barry Grogan, Mark Hanley, Ben Carey, Stevie Carey, Cillian Barlow, Thomas Cooper Fahy, Raymond Hennessy, Darragh O’Brien, Cathal Dillon, Mark Russell, Tomas O’Shea, Laurence Coskeran, Patrick O’Donoghue
Subs Used: Liam Carew, Sean Bourke, Jack O’Halloran, Thomas Cooper Fahy
Cashel King Cormacs: Eanna Mcinerney, Paddy Morrissey, Alan Cummins, John Darmody, Brian Manton, Oisin Dwan, Andrew Irwin, Joseph Davis, Robert Anglim, Ross Whelan, Colm Ryan, Aiden Skeffington, Cian McGrath, Dylan O’Dwyer, Adrian O’Dwyer
Subs Used: Donal Ryan, Jack Browne, Adrian O’Dwyer
Referee: Donal Ryan (Cappawhite)
