Naas 0-25
Round Towers 0-10
Joe Mallon SFC round one
It was all too easy for Naas on Saturday evening as they routed Round Towers in a classy display of attacking football. Five of their starting 15 chipped in with three or more points, and their huge tally contained an eye-catching 21 scores from play.
From the time that Brian Kane clipped over a tenth minute point to usher Naas into a comfortable 0-7 to 0-1 advantage, this game looked like it was only heading in one direction. Naas were free-flowing in attack as scores came from all manner of sources, right from corner-back John Hill to Ciaran Doyle on the top of the left, and their backline never looked in much trouble when shutting down a blunt Towers attack.
A probing run from Ailin McDermott during the first play of the game set Doyle up for the opening score, and Aidan Begley then blasted over from inside the area to get their second. Matthew Kelly responded with a fine point for the Kildare Town side, but Naas reeled off five scores on the bounce to rubberstamp their authority.
A lovely curling effort from McDermott kickstarted their spree, while Ronan Joyce landed a free and Eamonn Callaghan floated over two neat efforts before Kane’s aforementioned point on 10 minutes. Mark Byrne and Joyce then swapped points from placed balls, and though Towers enjoyed their best spell of the half at the midway stage, it only yielded scores from Neil Scanlon and Kelly.
Naas scored four points without reply before the shrill of Billy O’Connell’s whistle to mark half-time, with McDermott, Hill and Callaghan all contributing, alongside a superb run and point from Dallan Gallagher. That left Naas with an almost insurmountable 0-12 to 0-4 half-time lead.
There was little prospect of Towers getting back into this game, but they at least managed to bite into the lead when Scanlon smashed over a point from close range, but Naas upped a gear and racked up nine points without response in a 12-minute spell that left a massive gap on the scoreboard.
Begley started their scoring spree with a straightforward point, before Ross Kelly’s fine catch and pass sent Kane away to slot over his second. Further points came Joyce, Begley and a fine score from Eoin Doyle after he exchanged a neat one-two with Gallagher, leaving Towers facing a rout. Gallagher then scored a couple of points himself, while Paul McDermott burst through to fist over his solitary score of the game.
Half-time substitute Stuart Murphy managed a couple of decent points for Towers after his introduction, and the hard-working Evan Flynn also hit the target, but Glenn Ryan’s side looked absolutely miles off the pace throughout this encounter, which will hardly live long in the memory.
The ease in which Naas won was encompassed by the fact that they passed up the opportunity for goals on numerous occasions in the second half, opting to simply fist the ball over and rack up a massive points tally.
Plenty to work on for Round Towers in the long months ahead, while there is plenty to be positive about for Naas ahead of the group stages.
Scorers for Naas: A Begley 0-5, R Joyce 0-4f, D Gallagher, E Callaghan and A McDermott 0-3 each, B Kane 0-2, E Doyle, J Hill, C Doyle, P McDermott and Brian Byrne 0-1 each.
Scorers for Round Towers: N Scanlon 0-3(2f), M Byrne(2f), M Kelly and S Murphy 0-2 each, E Flynn 0-1.
Naas
Luke Mullins; John Hill, Eoghan Bateman, Brian Byrne; Eoin Doyle, Shane Bergin, Ailin McDermott; Ross Kelly, Paul McDermott; Dallan Gallagher, Eamonn Callaghan, Brian Kane; Aidan Begley, Ronan Joyce, Ciaran Doyle.
Subs used: David Gahan for Bergin 51mins.
Round Towers
James Robinson; Michael Joyce, Stephen Comerford, Davy O’Neill; Jason Dunne, Niall Fleming, Cathal Daffy; Mark Waters, Jamie Flynn; Mark Byrne, Mark Scanlon, Matthew Kelly; Evan Flynn, Jason O’Brien, Neil Scanlon.
Subs used: Stuart Murphy for Daffy HT, Dean Houlihan for Fleming BC 38mins,
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