Shelmaliers have doubled their Wexford senior hurling honours and now they boast a record that says every time they get to the final, they win.
Two from two as the Castlebridge outfit won their first championship since their first championship, back in 2014, and they did it with the sort of swagger of a team that’s used to these big days.
It was only their second ever senior final but they waltzed around Wexford Park with panache and poise as they rattled Naomh Éanna and took them for a seven-point scalp to become the first side to win a championship since the Covid-19 lockdown.
Nine different scorers contributed to Shelmaliers’ 3-18 haul with Ross Banville racking up 1-8 and a mouth-watering assist that couldn’t have been weighed more perfectly if he put it on a scale.
The centre forward caught brilliantly above his head, spun and scanned and locked in on the run of James Cash and dropped the sliotar on a string over the top of the defence and neatly into the path of Cash’s run who buried with aplomb.
Ross BANVILLE!
The weight of that pass 🤤@shelmaliers pic.twitter.com/lCOzEmFKcF
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) August 23, 2020
But from the very start, Shelmaliers were in the groove and the first score of the decider was a piece of ingenuity.
From the sideline on the left hand side, at the 13 metre line, Joe Kelly and Glen Malone combined to take the entire Naomh Éanna defence out of it and give Malone a brief sight at goal, which he stuck over to get them motoring.
From the left corner forward spot, the right half back was released to score.
And it looked so simple but so do all the best things.
With a bit of movement, the Shelmaliers forward line cleared out the space and gave Malone a path to surge into from wing back.
Of course, it all depends on pin-point execution from a sideline, to lift a sliotar over a defence and onto a run but Joe Kelly was happy enough with that task.
By the time Malone is winding up the shot, the green shirts are scrambling to try and stop him at the edge of the 21.
Malone drilled it over and Shelmaliers set the tone for what was to come – creation, excitement and a flawless performance.
Nice sideline finished in a point by Glen Malone for @shelmaliers to open the Wexford Senior Hurling Final! pic.twitter.com/UeB964F5JJ
— The GAA (@officialgaa) August 23, 2020
Big players make big plays in big games. Shelamliers had a few stepping up to the plate today.
Just hope Davy wasn’t too pre-occupied.
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