South Tipperary Junior Hurling “B” Semi-Final
Mullinahone Advance to meet St. Marys
Mullinahone C.J.Kickhams 2-11 Carrick Swan 0-09
As a result of their win over Carrick Swan in Anner Park Cloneen, Mullinahone have qualified to meet St. Marys in the South Tipperary Junior Hurling “B” final. While the Kickhams had to battle hard to overcome a feisty Swan, St. Marys received a walkover from Moyle Rovers in the other semifinal. While Saturday’s semifinal was a reasonably good game the whole set up calls the competition into question.
Conditions for the game in Anner Park were good. However while we had a referee we didn’t have either neutral umpires or linesmen. This put a strain on the referee with two committed teams in action. The absence of team sheets didn’t help either but a team conceding a divisional semifinal casts aspersions on the competition. However if we return to the action in Cloneen we find that patrons enjoyed a competitive game with good bouts of skill on view from both sides. Each team had plenty of youth on view laced with some seasoned veterans. The two principal “evergreens” were Swans Mark O’Halloran and Kickhams Kyran Vaughan. Swan suffered a setback just before the throw in when midfielder Jamie Lonergan had to drop out to be replaced by Ray Dunne. It wasn’t a good day for midfielders as after three minutes Kickhams midfielder Chris Horan had to retire and was replaced by Liam Hicks who went on to have a fine game.
Mullinahone began the game with a well struck goal from Joe Hogan less than sixty seconds after Micheál McCormack set the game in motion. Anthony Grace replied straight away with a point from a free for Swan and he followed with another from play straight away. He was to become Swans leading scorer mostly from frees, but at the other end Niall Cronin was to produce similar scores for C.J.Kickhams. In the sixth minute, Gerard Horan was right to have had a go for a goal, but Swan goalie, William Loughman made a brilliant save. Cronin pointed three frees before both teams received yellow cards in the l6th minute, as action became heated. A disputed 65 was pointed by Swan in 18 minutes. This resulted in one of the stand-in umpires retiring from duty. Half a dozen points were exchanged in the last ten minutes of the half which left the score at half time, Mullinahone 1-06, Carrick Swan O-6.
The third quarter was dominated by the free-takers, Grace and Cronin. After 15 minutes, Mullinahone led by 1-8 to 0-9. After 16 minutes Mullinahone were awarded a long distance free which was taken by goalie, Richie Walsh. The ball seemed to be going over, but came back off the crossbar and was crashed to the net by John Murphy. Gerard Horan pointed immediately and suddenly Mullinahone were six points clear. With ten minutes remaining, Cronin pointed yet another free. The biggest cheer came in the 23rd minute when Denis Connolly returned to action for Mullinahone. In the 24th minute Walsh made a good save in the Mullinahone goal. Three minutes later he made an even better save as Swan tried to pull the game out of the fire. It was now too late and Mullinahone hurling with confidence took over and in added time Connolly crowned his comeback with an excellent point from play. The long whistle then brought this competitive game to an end with C.J. Kickhams worthy winners over stern opponents.
Teams: Mullinahone C.J. Kickhams: Richie Walsh, Paul Luttrell, Martin Costello, Ciaran O’Shea, Richie Neary, Kyran Vaughan, Darragh Kelly, Chris Horan, Michael Cody, Davy Walzer, Gerard Horan, Niall Cronin, Joe Hogan, Joe O’Meara, Sean Walzer
Sub: Liam Hicks.
Carrick Swan: William Loughman, Sean Barrett, Darren Watters, Dean Clery, Seanie Boland, Jamie Sweetman, Mark O’Halloran, Simon Butler, Jamie Long, James Barrett, Roly Fitzpatrick, Sean Barrett, Davy Drohan, Jason O’Dwyer, Anthony Grace
Sub: Ray Dunne
Referee: Micheál McCormack.
Report by Ricky Sheehan
