Shamrock’s greater experience and craft unlocks Borris-Ileigh code
By Shane Brophy
Alas it wasn’t to be for Borris-Ileigh and while they will look back on their journey to the All Ireland Senior Club final with pride, it will be tinged with a little regret of what might have been.
To start out, defending champions Shamrocks were the worthy winners on the day. They did that little bit more all through, responding well to the bright Borris-Ileigh start to open a crucial four point lead come half time, while modest was a considerable one in what wasn’t a free-flowing game where goal chances were at a premium.
That period before half time saw Shamrocks use all their experience of the big occasion to counteract Borris-Ileigh’s early dominance, negating their power in the air which saw Niall Kenny and Jerry Kelly get some extra joy. Pulling midfielders Ronan Corcoran and Patrick Mullen deep saw Ballyhale swarm the Borris-Ileigh puckout when it hit the floor. From there, the used the ball well and managed to work the openings to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
This was something Borris-Ileigh were unable to do. Manager Johnny Kelly was never going to deviate much from what had worked to get them to this stage, going back in particular to the blue-print from the Munster Final in terms of a gameplan by playing direct down the midfield and trying to win the breaks.
It played into the hands of Michael Fennelly who wasn’t pulled a dragged all over the place as he was by Slaughtneil and there are few better at using his physicality in tight spaces than the veteran centre back who likely played his last game at senior level on Sunday and what a way to go out.
On another day, it would have worked as on a number of occasions Conor Kenny got his hand to the high ball which is a strength of his but on every occasion in popped back out in what was a frustrating day for the Borris-Ileigh vice-captain who finished scoreless with shot three wides, two of which in the second half he would usually put over with his eyes closed.
But that is the pressure of playing in an All Ireland club final and that experience proved vital for Ballyhale in the end, even if they were hanging on a bit but when you have a class player in TJ Reid in your side, holes are easily repaired and it was his two late points which ultimately did for Borris-Ileigh’s hopes.