Junior B Hurling Final Replay – Saturday, 20th October 2018
Ballinderreen 0-13 Killimor 0-9
Darren Kelly in Loughrea
(Photos: courtesy – Joe Keane)
This was a low scoring joust between the top two teams in their grades but Ballinderreen forged ahead in the closing stages to win a first Junior B title since 1996.
Aidan Duffy, Colm Gill and Allen Martyn got four late points to give Billy Carr’s charges the result but their defence were equally responsible with hooks and tackles carrying importance in putting Killimor’s attack under pressure.
Central to this was man of the match Niall Gill whose work rate at corner back never allowed Killimor settle or even generate sufficient momentum to overturn the deficit.
“In fairness, both sets of defences were really on top,” said Niall Gill afterwards. “Whatever forward scored today, he definitely had to work for it. And thankfully (in) the second half, our forwards got the vital scores at the vital times.
“And it’s great to come out on top. You’d see why these two teams got to the final because both defences were superb.
“That’s typical junior hurling. It’s 60 minutes, not 40 minutes or 30 minutes and we learned that the first game. We were disgusted coming back out of it (drawn match). We regrouped on the Tuesday and watched the video.
“We saw a lot of things we had to work on. And thankfully, we improved on them today and came out on top.”
As well as Niall Gill, Packie Carr and Jack Tully winning individual battles, wing backs Conor Crotty and Gavin Duffy contributed three important points before half-time. Duffy converted from distance with two excellent strikes from the left flank.
“It’s nothing new to us,” added Niall Gill. “Gavin Duffy is doing that all year. And especially in the knock out stages when we really needed him to stand up, he was absolutely brilliant. He got a vital score against Oranmore (Maree) in the replay.
“And in the first final, he got five points from wing back. They were massive frees for us and without him, we wouldn’t have been here today. He was brilliant.
And finally, what about the celebrations?
“There’ll be a few days of it,” laughed Niall Gill. “And there’ll be early mornings and there won’t be any sleep. Definitely!”
Ballinderreen face Longford’s Wolfe Tones in the 2018 Leinster Junior B Hurling Semi-Final on Saturday, 10th November. Throw-in at Pairc Ide Naofa, Raheenagh, Co. Limerick is 1pm.
