Gort’s best shot is not enough to floor Ballyhale

Ballyhale Shamrocks 2-17

 Gort 1-15

NO dishonour, no shame in this defeat. Galway champions Gort came and delivered a performance of some note; just in the end they lost out to a craftier Ballyhale Shamrocks outfit of Kilkenny in what was an enjoyable All-Ireland senior club semi-final at O’Connor Park, Tullamore on Saturday.

Gort were plucky, no doubt about it, but the guile Ballyhale Shamrocks brought to the contest ultimately proved too much for Gerry Spelman’s charges. Quite simply, Kilkenny legend Henry Shefflin came with his ‘A’ game to hit five points from play. His performance secured him the TG4 Man of the Match award.

Shefflin may have been the best player on the field but, here’s the thing, Gort centre-half back Greg Lally still had a fine outing, scoring two points himself (a monster from distance and a 65) and claiming no less than five of Ballyhale’s puck-outs and winning two frees in a contest in which only 13 were awarded.

The duels between Shefflin and Lally underlined the high intensity this All-Ireland Club semi-final was played at for periods while other notable one-on-one battles were those between Gort’s Aidan Harte and Ballyhale’s TJ Reid and between the two respective midfields.

In respect to the latter, the Gort centre-field pairing of Jason Grealish and Sean Forde – who later swapped berths with wing-back Sylvie Og Linnane – was extremely competitive in picking up possession from the puck-outs and breaking ball, but they struggled to keep up with their Ballyhale counterparts.

In all, the Shamrocks midfield duo of Conor Walsh and Bob Alyward hit three points apiece – six points was a massive return from this sector – and, again, this was a reflection of the Leinster holders’ guile. So elusive, on numerous occasions, the Ballyhale players picked off their scores without a Gort shirt in sight.

For Gort’s part, they secured a wealth of possession, particularly in the first 40 minutes or so of the game, but their biggest problem was translating it into meaningful scoring opportunities. Too often, the distribution into the threat zones was either too slow or less than clinical. And it had to be clinical.When it was, Gort enjoyed a great deal of success.

They took a 1-0 to 0-1 lead as early as the fourth minute when Richie Cummins bagged their only goal following good work from Paul Killilea and they continued to stand toe-to-toe with the victors as Cummins, Gerard O’Donoghue and captain Lally landed inspirational points in the opening 10 minutes.

An extended report will appear in this week’s Connacht Tribune.