Clonoe boys cruise to the Minor League Grade Two title

Clonoe 5-12 Pomeroy 0-7

CLONOE marched to the Grade Two Minor League title with an emphatic victory over Pomeroy on Saturday.
There was never any doubting the dominance of the O’Rahilly’s in this clash. They led right from the start, scored freely almost throughout and enjoyed the benefit of a number of strong performances from key players.

Only the expert goalkeeping of Padraig Harvey kept the Plunketts in touch during the opening stages. He prevented a certain goal from Pauric Taggart for Clonoe, but could do little subsequently as the Rahilly’s went on a scoring spree.

Daire Devlin opening their goal account, and they were firmly in control by the end of the first quarter. Eoin Mansell’s accuracy from play was crucial to them, as he put them 1-4 to 0-1 ahead.

Mansell then raced through for a well-taken goal and the Pomeroy pain didn’t end there either. Moments later, TJ O’Neill fired home Clonoe’s third goal and in the 20th minute James Adamson made it 4-5 to 0-1 for them.

Pomeroy worked hard to try and stem the tide and gain some small inroads before the end of the first half. Martin Quinn fired over a 45 for them, to be closely followed by a well-taken score from Shea Rafferty. Ryan McCallan added another soon after to further boost their confidence.

Nevertheless, this game was over as a contest even at that relatively early stage and Clonoe’s total control was emphasised again when Caolan Hughes registered their fifth goal. That put them 5-6 to 0-4 ahead at the break.
Swapped points between Darragh Devlin for Clonoe and Ryan McCallan for Pomeroy ensured that there was no real change on the resumption either.

Although the regularity of the Clonoe scores perhaps understandably diminished they still controlled matters. TJ and Ben O’Neill both pointed for them to leave the score 5-10 to 0-7 in their favour approaching the closing stages.
Peter McGoldrick and Caolan Hughes responded for the Plunketts, and they finished with a respectively enough seven points in a game which could have been a whole lot worse for them.

The final whistle brought joy for Clonoe who should now move into the top grade with plenty of confidence for 2025.

The Scorers
Clonoe
Eoghan Mansell 2-4, Daire Devlin 1-1 (1f), TJ O’Neill 1-3, James Adamson 1-0, Sean Og McCabe 0-1, Caolan Hughes 0-1, Ben O’Neill 0-1.
Pomeroy
Ryan McCallan 0-3 (1f), Peter McGoldrick 0-2 (1 45), Martin Quinn 0-1 (1f), Shea Rafferty 0-1.