*Tony Kelly in action for Ballyea. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
He has been the hero on so many occasions for club and county and Tony Kelly continues to stand out as an outstanding hurler.
Ballyea 1-22
Broadford 0-13
Venue: Wolfe Tones na Sionna GAA Grounds, Shannon
At Shannon this afternoon he turned in another outstanding performance when assisting his club Ballyea to a comfortable win over Broadford in the second round of the Clare senior hurling championship.
Trailing by seven points at half time, Broadford had reduced the deficit to three midway through the second half and their supporters were, understandably, holding out hope of victory over the county champions.
Enter Kelly and in the final quarter Broadford simply had no answer to the powerful midfielder who finished the tie with 0-7 to his credit.
Ten minutes after the game had ended, and despite persistent rain, he was still out on the pitch signing autographs and having photographs taken with several young hurling fans
Both sides were forced into early changes due to injury with Cathal Chaplin and Cathal Doohan both forced out of action in the opening half.Chaplin was replaced by his brother Craig after twelve minutes while Doohan had to leave the action in the twenty fourth minute due to a shoulder injury.
Points were exchanged twice before Ballyea landed three in a row to open a lead they held throughout the half.
The only goal of the first half came after twenty one minutes when Aaron Griffin finished well despite the best efforts of Cian O’Brien in the Broadford goal. The defending champions went on to finish the half strongly, shooting the last four points to leave the half time score at 1-11 to 0-7.
Of concern to Ballyea going forward is the growing number of injuries. They played on Saturday without last year’s captain Jack Browne and during the course of the game they lost two more experienced players to injury in Cathal Doohan and Cathal O’Connor.
Paul Flanagan, Gearoid O’Connell and Aaron Griffin were also prominent in this victory.
Scorers: Ballyea; Niall Deasy (all frees), Tony Kelly (0-7 each; Aaron Griffin 1-3; Mossy Gavin 0-2; Pearse Lillis, Morgan Garry, Martin O’Leary 0-1 each
Scorers Broadford: Niall O’Farrell (0-5); Diarmuid Moloney (0-2) Cathal Chaplin, Shane Taylor, Paddy Donnellan, Diarmuid O’Brien, Sean Phelan, Stiofan McMahon(0-1) each.
Ballyea:
1: Barry Coote
2: Gearoid O’Connell
3: Peter Casey
4: Paul Flanagan
12: Cathal Doohan
7: Brandon O’Connell
5: James Murphy
8: Tony Kelly
9: Stan Lineen
10: Cathal O’Connor
11: Pearse Lillis
21: Morgan Garry
13: Mossy Gavin
14: Niall Deasy
15: Aaron Griffin
Subs:
17: Brian Murphy for Doohan (inj) (24)
20: Thommas Kelly for O’Connor (48) (inj)
19: Martin O’Leary for Gavin (60)
Broadford:
1: Cian O’Brien
17: Davy Boland
3: Eoin Donnellan
2: Mark Moloney
7: Shane Taylor
6: Padraig Taylor
4: Cathal Chaplin
8: Darren Chaplin
9: Paddy Donnellan
10: Paul Moloney
11: Diarmuid O’Brien
12: Niall O’Farrell
13: Diarmuid Moloney
14: Sean Phelan
15: Stiofan McMahon
Subs:
5: Craig Chaplin for C Chaplin (12) (inj)
19: Darragh Whelan for S Taylor (30) (inj)
18: Oisin Kavanagh for P Moloney (HT)
Referee: Rory McGann
