Munster
Champions
There may have
been no dust flying in the square last Sunday in Kilmallock
but in a
typical Cork v Tipp Munster Final, Bride Rovers were crowned
Munster
Intermediate Club Hurling Champions for 2003/04. To win any
championship
at Divisional or County level is a major achievement but to go
on then and
win Provincial Honours is mighty. Make no mistake about it, this
was a
well-earned win in a hard fought game in testing conditions. In
comparison
with the earlier Ardmore and Broadford games this tie was much
harder to win.
The strong wind made conditions for hurling difficult but in
fairness the
two teams produced a top class contest. We suffered a major set
back before
the game when illness forced Pat Walsh to withdraw from the team
– Walshie was
so sick he wasn’t even able to attend the game. The Clare
Champions
Newmarket-on-Fergus defeated Cork winners Dromina by 3-10 to 1-10
in the Junior
decider though Dromina led at the break after playing against
the strong
wind.
We won the
toss and elected to play against the elements. Tipperary
All-Star, Mark
O’Leary, opened the scoring when he cut a line ball over the
bar in the
first minute. We opened our account in the fourth minute when
Sean Ryan shot
a point. Kilruane got 3 points in a row from frees by Brian
Gaynor. In
between them Jerome got two from placed balls for us to leave it
0-4 to 0-3
after 13 minutes. With David Lawlor getting great length with his
puckouts, our
half back line of the two Barrys and Brendan were in constant
action. In the
19th minute a great side line cut from Terry was sent over by
Richie Cahill
but almost immediately the Kilruane centre back Pat Williams
had a long
distance strike to put the Tipp side 0-5 to 0-4 ahead. Despite
playing
against the gale, our defence was coping well. Aidan Collins had a
great game and
Niall and James Murphy made some great interceptions. Brian
Gaynor and
Jerome supplied points from frees to leave it 0-6 to 0-5 with
less than 5
minutes to go till the break. Padraig and Brian Murphy played
deep in
defence to help out on several occasions and it looked like we’d go
in just a
point behind. Kilruane however, finished the half strongly with
two points to
leave it 0-8 to 0-5 at half time. Kilruane hit 6 wides in the
opening 30
minutes to our 2. We doubled our tally of wides in the first two
minutes of the
second half. With the wind it was quickly obvious that our
forwards were
causing immense problems for the Kilruane defence. Brian
Murphy, Mike
Hogan, Donal Ryan and Terry were all involved in a move, which
saw Barry
Johnson, strike a great point in the 5th minute. Richie Cahill
narrowed the
gap to one a minute later. Gaynor returned the two-point lead
for the Tipp
side. A point from a free by Jerome in the fifteenth minute
left us just
0-8 to 0-9 behind. We were now creating plenty chances and the
strong running
of our forwards was a feature of the game. From a free Gaynor
made it 10
points to 8 in the 16th minute. A great point from wing back
Brendan Walsh
was a huge boost to the team. The scores started to come. Sean
Ryan levelled
the scores 0-10 each in the 18th minute. Jerome put us ahead
for the first
time. Our huge following were now roaring the team on. Sean
Ryan put us
two up. Terry hit a sweet point and then super sub Pat Cotter
gave us a
four-point lead in the 24th minute. We were 0-14 to 0-10 ahead and
looking good.
We hit three wides then which could have finished the game
off. The Tipp
champions didn’t give up and the last five minutes plus 3
minutes of
added time were fought out at a frantic pace. Aidan Collins got a
red card –
rather harshly I thought, so our defence was pounded in the
closing
stages. Mark O’Leary had several shots on goal – all saved. Kilruane
got a point in
the 28th minute and then in the remaining time fought like
tigers to get
a levelling goal. Our back-line was magnificent and when Barry
Johnson soloed
out of defence with the sliotar Denis Richardson sounded the
final whistle.
Bride Rovers were Munster Champions. Nine months to the day
since we beat
Mallow in Ballyhooley and five months since the County Final.
This win was a
brilliant achievement – 63 teams in the six Munster Counties
set out to win
their various County Championships last year and last Sunday
was the
culmination for all Intermediate teams in the province of Munster.
Sean Fogarty
presented the Hoare Cup to captain Sean Ryan after the game. In
his acceptance
speech Sean thanked all involved with this historic win, the
first ever
Munster Championship at this grade. He paid special tribute to
the three
selectors and Jack Russell and our supporters and then asked for
the customary
3 cheers for Kilruane. Well done lads on a simply great
display of
hurling. This bunch of players went back training in January and
have put in a
huge effort. This was well illustrated on Sunday week last
March 14th.
The Panel went to Kilmallock for a training session and then
drove on to
Patrickswell for a practice game. Kilruane, on account of their
inter county
players, were hot favourites last Sunday but our lads dug deep
when they had
to, to fashion this great win.