ST. MICHAELS FALL AT FIRST HURDLE

Sunday January 27th 2019,
AFL Division 2, round 1
Full time: St. Michaels 0-07, Ballinabrackey 0-12,
Half time: St. Michaels 0-04, Ballinabrackey 0-5.

The long journey from Ballinabrackey proved fruitful for the visitors as they made a flying start to their division 2 campaign over a youthful St. Michaels side in a bitterly cold and windy Carlanstown on Sunday morning.

St. Michaels had wind advantage in the opening half but failed to make any use of it as their tally of four points was shared by Shane McCormack and Shane McDonnell with only two coming from play while at the other end Ballinabrackey made better use of their opportunities firing over five points, four from play to lead by one at the interval 0-5 to 0-4 despite having played into a strong biting wind.

New manager David Wright had it all to do with his players during the interval, however the “Bracks” emerged for the second half with all guns blazing, splitting the posts with a brace of points in the opening three minutes, Shane McCormack pulled one back with a pointed free on 35 minutes but the “Bracks” could do no wrong and kept adding to their account with a further six points, four from frees as they piled the pressure on the home sides back line. Shane McDonnell added a further two points from frees to complete the home sides tally, however the large home support will be disappointed with their sides poor return of only two points from play for the entire match.

St. Michaels team and scorers:
Darren O’Connell; Harry Dunne, Sam Briody, Ben Reilly; Christopher Drew, , Paddy Clarke, Brian Reilly; Matthew Halpin, Shane McCormack (0-3, 2f); Paddy Tobin, David Lynch, Ray Reilly; Oran Meehan (0-1f), Shane McDonnell (0-3,2f), Ronan Lynch.

Sub: Lee Morris for Ronan Lynch.

Referee: Donal Smyth.
Report: Pascal Reilly PRO.