Borris-Ileigh marching on to Croke Park
GAA: AIB All Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship Semi-Final
Borris-Ileigh 1-21
St Thomas’ 1-14
By Shane Brophy at the LIT Gaelic Grounds
MATCH DIGEST
Man of the Match: Brendan Maher (Borris-Ileigh)
SCORERS – Borris-Ileigh: Brendan Maher 0-10 (6 frees, 2 65s); Kevin Maher 0-5 (3 frees); James Devaney 1-1; Conor Kenny 0-3; Jerry Kelly, Kieran Maher 0-1 each.
St Thomas': Darragh Burke 0-5 (3 frees, 1 65); Conor Cooney 0-3; Eanna Burke 1-0; Bernard Burke, David Burke 0-2 each; Shane Cooney, Oisin Flannery 0-1 each.
The Borris-Ileigh wave continues to roll on as they booked their place in the All Ireland Senior Club Hurling final following a seven point victory over Galway champions St Thomas' on Sunday.
St Thomas’ wasted little time getting on the scoresheet through Bernard Burke inside forty seconds with Conor Cooney doubling the lead.
Borris were slow to settle and it took another classy score from Brendan Maher to get them going with Jerry Kelly and Conor Kenny following with fine scores from play by the seventh minute.
Three minutes later, St Thomas got through for a goal with Fintan Burke shepparding off Seamus Burke to win a high ball before offloading to brother Eanna who fired to the roof of the net.
Eanna Burke was inches away from a second goal a minute after as his angled drive flew wide but Borris-Ileigh responded to the St Thomas' surge with three converted threes from Kevin Maher and Brendan Maher (2) before Darragh Burke landed a free on the quarter hour to tie the game up once again.
Conor Cooney landed another fine effort before James Devaney broke free to point with Kevin Maher landing a fine 24th minute effort after Borris had a few nervous moments at the other end.
Conor Kenny was beginning finding some joy and he landed a super point from the wing, which was cancelled out by an Oisin Flannery effort. A third Brendan Maher free was cancelled out by David Burke before Maher converted an injury time 65 as Borris-Ileigh led 0-11 to 1-6 at half time.
The trend of the game didn't change much after the break with Borris-Ileigh responding each time St Thomas rallied, despite the Galway men nudging ahead 1-11 to 0-13 after 42 minutes with the help of three Darragh Burke points plus an excellent long range effort from Shane Cooney.
Borris-Ileigh's only scores in that period came from frees from Kevin & Brendan Maher which were crucial in surviving a St Thomas' barrage but their wastefulness in front of goal would prove costly.
Forced turnovers have been a calling card of the Borris-Ileigh team and two such instances led to scores for Kieran Maher, Conor Kenny Kevin Maher, and with the latter adding a free for good measure, Borris-Ileigh were four to the good on 53 minutes.
A relatively quiet Conor Cooney and David Burke pointed from play to add to a Darragh Burke free as St Thomas got back within two in the first of three minutes of added time but Borris-Ileigh never showed an element of panic with Brendan Maher following up a free afew minutes earlier with another following a foul on Ciaran Cowan, in which he broke his hurley in the process. But before he could get a new one, Maher played on and managed to deflect a St Thomas clearance which evetuallt came back to him and despite only half a hurley, managed to split the posts for an iconic score.
James Devaney put the icing on the cake with a goal with the last puck of the game as Borris-Ileigh booked their ticket to Croke Park and a final date with defending champions Ballyhale Shamrocks on Sunday, 19th January.
TEAMS - Borris-Ileigh: James McCormack; Seamus Burke, Paddy Stapleton, Liam Ryan; Sean McCormack, Brendan Maher, Ray McCormack; Tommy Ryan, Dan McCormack; Conor Kenny, Jerry Kelly, James Devaney; Kevin Maher, Niall Kenny, Kieran Maher. Sub: Jack Hogan for N Kenny (56); Ciaran Cowan for Kelly (60+1).
St Thomas’: James Barrett; Cian Mahony, Sean Skehill, Cathal Burke; Donal Cooney, Shane Cooney, David Sherry; James Regan, David Burke; Bernard Burke, Darragh Burke, Conor Cooney; Oisin Flannery, Fintan Burke, Eanna Burke.
Referee: Paud O’Dwyer (Carlow)