Nenagh CBS join Dean Ryan Cup roll of honour in style

GAA: TUS Munster Post Primary Schools Junior ‘A’ Hurling - Dean Ryan Cup Final

Nenagh CBS 2-15

St. Flannan’s 0-18

Report: Thomas Conway

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Eoin Doughan (Nenagh CBS)

SCORERS – Nenagh CBS: Eoin Doughan 2-10 (1-0 pen, 0-8 frees); Eoin Grace 0-2; Austin Duff, Patrick Hackett, Cormac Hoolan 0-1 each.

St Flannan’s College, Ennis: Darragh Kennedy 0-7 (3 frees), Harry Doherty (frees), Donncha Mahon 0-3 each; Jason Keane Hayes 0-2; James Cullinan, Darragh Ball, Conor Ralph 0-1 each.

The die was almost cast, but then it wasn’t. By right, Nenagh CBS should never have won this game, never have captured their first Dean Ryan Cup (Under 17 ‘A’), never got the chance to celebrate in the streaming November sunshine in Kilmallock but that’s what they did last Friday afternoon.

At half-time they trailed by 0-12 to 1-4 to St Flannan’s College Ennis, having struggled to withstand the sweeping breeze which whistled and howled and made life altogether too difficult for the Tipperary school.

They weren’t quite out of contention, but victory looked a distant prospect. Cue an exhilarating second-half performance, a virtuoso display from their main marksman Eoin Doughan, and a brilliant all-round collective effort. Somehow Nenagh snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, bursting back into the game and escaping with three points to spare.

This game had all the hallmarks of a vintage final, a second-level schools classic played out amid blustery conditions on south Limerick turf. It was tight, tense, and hugely absorbing from start to finish, a pure hurling battle characterised by intense physicality and relentless work ethic.

St. Flannan’s should have pulled away, but instead they evaporated in the second period, leaving the door ajar for Nenagh to sweep in and claim an historic title. But make no mistake, the margins were fine.

It began as a tit-for-tat affair, both sides exchanging scores more or less one after the other. Flannan’s ace Darragh Kennedy was sublime, whipping over a stylish effort in the thirteenth minute before edging his side 0-4 to 0-3 in front some two minutes later via a long-range free. He would eventually knock seven between the sticks, four of those points from play, most of them coming in the first-half during a period in which the Clare school dominated their opponents.

And it wasn’t just Kennedy who shone during that purple patch. Full-forward Donncha Mahon was almost equally potent, knocking over his second in the nineteenth minute and extending the Flannan’s lead to four points.

Unable to contain an electric Flannan’s forward line, Nenagh were struggling, until a lifeline appeared in the form of a 24th minute penalty. It was a high pressure strike, but Doughan was a picture of calm. The Moneygall man rifled the ball into Micheál Ó Coileáin’s bottom left-hand corner, sparking his side to life and creating a pathway back into the game.

But Flannan’s responded superbly. By half-time they had sunk twelve points. Nenagh, on the other hand, had managed just five scores and had been comprehensively outplayed in most sectors of the pitch. It looked ominous for the Tipp school, but the narrative started to change just after the interval.

Eoin Grace kick-started the Nenagh come-back with a classy early point, before Doughan whittled the lead down further. Minutes later, the Moneygall maestro would carve open a glorious opportunity to slot his second goal, but his close-range effort was repelled sensationally by Ó Coileáin. But Doughan would get another chance to strike just moments later, and on this occasion the Moneygall man made no mistake, latching onto the rebound of another superb Ó Coileáin save and shovelling the sliotar skilfully into the net. With 37 minutes gone, the deficit had been reduced to just one, Nenagh now trailing 0-14 to 2-7.

But yet again Flannan’s responded, racing up the field and landing two further scores in quick succession to offset the Nenagh momentum. At this point things had become frantic. Doughan and Ó Coileáin were engaged in their own little battle in front of the Flannan’s goal. The full-forward should really have completed his hat-trick in the 43rd minute, but the keeper showed extraordinary instincts to pull off another wonderful save.

As it happened, Nenagh did not require a third goal. Instead, they tore through Flannan’s with points, ripping the Clare school apart in the closing ten minutes with an avalanche of sublime scores. Eoin Doughan was absolutely immense, slotting his placed-balls with brilliant precision, but the collective effort from Nenagh was nothing short of heroic. Patrick Hackett sent them ahead in the 58th minute, somehow finding the target amidst a sea of bodies from 45 metres.

From there, Nenagh assumed control. Doughan landed another long-range free before the mercurial Austin Duff rounded off the scoring with a stylish on-the-run effort just as full-time approached. There was jubilation at the final whistle - uncontained joy for Nenagh. This one will go down in the annals as a famous victory. Nenagh deserve to savour it. They don’t come much sweeter.

TEAMS - Nenagh CBS: Evan Sherlock (Kiladangan); John Grace (Burgess), Daniel McKelvey (Silvermines), Diarmuid Fogarty (Kiladangan); Brehon O’Donnell (Silvermines), Conor Grace (Burgess), Liam O’Callaghan (Portroe); Emmet Jones (Nenagh Éire Óg), Cormac Hoolan (Moneygall); Austin Duff (Toomevara), Patrick Hackett (Toomevara), Matthew Madden (Portroe); Eoin Grace (Silvermines), Eoghan Doughan (Moneygall), Joe O’Dwyer (Burgess)

Subs: Darragh O’Dwyer (Kiladangan) for O’Donnell (37); Patrick Steed (Silvermines) for Jones (53); Charlie Kennedy (Kilruane MacDonaghs) for Madden (60).

St. Flannan’s College, Ennis: Michéal Ó Coileáin; Sean McNamara, Conor Hill, Bernard Keating; Patrick Finneran, Conor Ralph, James Cullinan; Darragh McNamara, Dara Kennedy; Michael Cotter, Darragh Ball, Jason Keane Hayes; Harry Doherty, Donncha Mahon, Graham Ball.

Subs: Rory Ralph for G Ball (44); James Murphy for Mahon (55)

Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick).