Nenagh Éire Óg enjoyed a comfortable win over an out-of-sorts Toomevara side at MacDonagh Park, Nenagh on Saturday evening.
North Tipperary Junior A Hurling League
Nenagh Éire Óg 5-18 Toomevara 0-14
Following a win over Moneygall, a draw with Knockshegowna and this most recent result against Toomevara the Blues are in a strong position to progress out of their group – Éire Óg have games remaining against Burgess and Roscrea during the group stage of this year’s north Tipperary junior A hurling league.
Although the Greyhounds reached to the 2013 county junior A semi-finals Toome struggled to make an impression in the opening half and trailed 0-6 to 3-11 at the break.
The sides traded points early on and were tied at 0-2 apiece by the fifth minute. In the seventh minute Mark Tuite set up David Hickey for the home side’s opening goal – 1-2 to 0-2.
Toome converted a free in response, but Éire Óg then fired 1-4 without reply. A Bob O’Brien point got the Blues moving in the right direction before David Hackett converted consecutive frees. Hackett then picked out Mark Tuite for a fine point in the 16th minute before Bob O’Brien notched Éire Óg’s second goal following a John Cahalan delivery – 2-6 to 0-3.
Two Toome points book-ended a Bob O’Brien effort before points from John Cahalan and David Hackett (free) saw the home side into a 2-9 to 0-5 lead by the 25th minute.
Éire Óg put together a fine move in the 27th minute when full-back John O’Donoghue won the ball and found Adam Grattan; in turn Adam picked out Mark Tuite who passed to David Cleary and the centre-forward notched the Blues’ tenth point of the evening.
Two minutes later David Cleary broke the ball to David Hickey and Hickey made no mistake from close range – 3-10 to 0-5.
On the half hour mark ‘keeper Kevin Flynn made a fine save before the sides traded points to leave fourteen between them (3-11 to 0-6) at the break.
Points from David Cleary and David Hackett (free) opened a sixteen-point gap immediately after the break. Toome managed a response in the 37th minute, but Bob O’Brien cancelled out that effort almost immediately – 3-14 to 0-7.
In the 42nd minute a combination of Christopher Ryan and David Hickey forced a turnover in the Toomevara defence before Hickey picked out David Hackett with a cross-field ball and Hackett rounded the ‘keeper to hand the home side a 4-14 to 0-7 lead.
Two minutes later David Hackett struck for his second goal and when Mark Tuite scored a fine point in the 46th minute Éire Óg led 5-15 to 0-10.
To their credit Toomevara battled on well and won the final quarter of this encounter 0-4 to 0-3 with David Cleary, Mark Tuite (free) and Aidan Healy completing the scoring from an Éire Óg point of view.
Nenagh Éire Óg: Kevin Flynn, Donnacha Heffernan, John O’Donoghue, Brian Flynn, Niall Madden, Seánie Geaney, Adam Grattan, Cian Tucker, John Cahalan (0-1), Mark Tuite (0-4, 0-1 frees), David Cleary (0-3), Bob O’Brien (1-3), David Hackett (2-6, 0-6 frees), David Hickey (2-0), Christopher Ryan. Subs: (14th) Darragh Walsh for Cian Tucker, (HT) Gary Howard for Darragh Walsh, (41st) Gavin O’Connor for Donnacha Heffernan, (43rd) Aidan Healy (0-1) for Christopher Ryan, (49th) Michael Hallinan for David Hackett.
Referee: Pat Gibson (Burgess).
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