{"id":323160,"date":"2026-03-01T08:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323160\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:52:12","slug":"three-goal-carrigaline-see-off-ballincollig-in-opening-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323160\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-goal Carrigaline see off Ballincollig in opening round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">\n             Carrigaline 3-14 (3-1-12)\u00a0\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n             Ballincollig 1-13 (1-2-9)\u00a0\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The club season is back, and Carrigaline have kick-started the new campaign with a solid win at home over Ballincollig in the McCarthy Insurance Group Division 2 Football League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Both sides had their purple periods, but were it not for Ballincollig\u2019s final quarter burst the hosts\u2019 control would have been more obvious on the scoreboard on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Michael Meaney\u2019s side had put in the work early in the first half to go in front \u2013 2-9 to 0-4 at the break \u2013 and they put the game to bed in the 38th minute when Kevin O\u2019Reilly raised their third green flag.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">O\u2019Reilly was very impressive. He ended last season\u2019s league campaign with 2-17 and finished with 1-4 here, while brothers Niall and Brian Coakley combined for 1-8 overall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">O\u2019Reilly\u2019s goal \u2013 a composed finish beyond Chris Walsh \u2013 arrived after Niall Coakley\u2019s lofting delivery, and it put them 3-10 to 0-7 in front.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4985771_3_articleinlinemobile_IMG_8626.jpeg\" alt=\"Ballincollig's Sean Dore and Carrigaline's Pa Mellett contest the high ball.\" title=\"Ballincollig's Sean Dore and Carrigaline's Pa Mellett contest the high ball.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Ballincollig&#8217;s Sean Dore and Carrigaline&#8217;s Pa Mellett contest the high ball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It was from here Ballincollig began to pick off scores, as they profited from the introduction of half-time substitute Dara Dorgan, and he clipped their second two-pointer with 20 minutes to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">They would put together an impressive run of 1-4 unanswered in the final quarter \u2013 each score from a different man \u2013 with the goal finished by Kevin O\u2019Leary to the bottom corner, following Cian Ahern\u2019s pass with four minutes to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The major reduced arrears to five points, but Carrigaline would end their 16-minute spell without a score from an O\u2019Reilly free, and Niall Coakley\u2019s added time white flag left the margin at seven by the finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Aspects of the contest will have pleased both sides. Carrigaline were impressively sharp for a February outing. They hit just one wide all game, though they did register five short attempts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ballincollig strung the ball around nicely in the middle third but struggled to put together scoring chances in the first half, and were punished for the seven wides they struck across the hour.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4985774_3_articleinlinemobile_IMG_8603.jpeg\" alt=\"Carrigaline's Kevin O'Reilly tackles Ballincollig's Conor Dalton.\" title=\"Carrigaline's Kevin O'Reilly tackles Ballincollig's Conor Dalton.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Carrigaline&#8217;s Kevin O&#8217;Reilly tackles Ballincollig&#8217;s Conor Dalton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">They were hit for 1-4 unanswered from throw-in, Brian Coakley clipping a two-point free and then nailing a goal from his brother\u2019s pass after five minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">O\u2019Reilly and Mossy Vaughan tacked on points, and while Ballincollig hit the next two scores, they couldn\u2019t find any rhythm. Carrigaline made the visitors pay with a second goal, O\u2019Reilly working it through Darragh King before Billy Pope\u2019s close-range finish left the lead at nine with 23 minutes played.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The outcome looked likely to be going the hosts way from there, even if Ballincollig gave them something to think about in the closing stages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Scorers for Carrigaline: K O\u2019Reilly 1-4 (0-1 f), B Coakley 1-3 (1 tpf), N Coakley 0-5 (0-2 f), B Pope 1-0, T Vaughan, N O\u2019Keeffe 0-1 each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Scorers for Ballincollig: P O\u2019Neill 0-4 (1 tp), K O\u2019Leary 1-0, D Dorgan (1 tp), C Ahern 0-3 each, C Dalton, S Dore, P Kelly 0-1 each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            CARRIGALINE: S Mellett; D King, C O\u2019Herlihy, F O\u2019Connell; K Kavanagh, K McCarthy, J McCarthy; C Barry, P Mellett; N Coakley, B Coakley, B Pope; K O\u2019Reilly, N O\u2019Keeffe, T Vaughan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Subs: R Kenneally for King (HT), C Kearney for O\u2019Connell (40), R Delaney for Pope, S Andrews for Vaughan (both 46), D Greene for O\u2019Keeffe (59).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            BALLINCOLLIG: C Walsh; S Murphy, L Jennings, S O\u2019Donoghue; K O\u2019Leary, C Dalton, D Desmond; S Dore, P O\u2019Neill; T O\u2019Connell, C Ahern, D O\u2019Mahony; R Noonan, P Kelly, J Murray.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Subs: D Dorgan for Noonan (HT), C O\u2019Connor for Murray (42), C Power for O&#8217;Donoghue, A Rose for Kelly (both 47), Noonan for O\u2019Leary (58).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Referee: A O\u2019Connor (Ballygarvan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carrigaline 3-14 (3-1-12)\u00a0 Ballincollig 1-13 (1-2-9)\u00a0 The club season is back, and Carrigaline have kick-started the new campaign&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2110,4365,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-323160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-sport","tag-gaelic-football","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}