Late Quinn goal secures opening round Harty Cup win for Nenagh CBS

TUS Dr Harty Cup - Group 4 - Round 1

Nenagh CBS 1-11

Gaelcholáiste Mhuire an Mhainistir Thuaigh 1-8

Danny Quinn came up with the goods late on in this opening round, group 2 fixture of this year’s Dr Harty Cup as Nenagh CBS finally pulled away from Charleville CBS in a brutal contest in horrendous conditions in Meelick GAA earlier this afternoon.

Silvermines attacker Quinn bagged his team’s last two scores of the game, which included a well-taken goal with the clock in injury time and the sides locked at 0-11 to 1-8; Quinn finishing with a lovely stroke close to goal after being fed by Eoin Doughan to essentially hand victory to a Nenagh to which didn't hit the heights they are capable of throughout.

At that stage, the sides looked destined to play out a draw in Meelick, as the game was essentially ruined as a contest before throw-in because of the heavy and incessant rainfall this morning but despite not being at their best, Nenagh managed to find their way to victory and it gets them off to a winning start in this year’s competition.

Conditions were truly awful for the players as the heavy rain left a lot of surface water on what looked like an already heavy pitch in Meelick, but despite the heavens continuing to open it was the Tipperary school who started the best as they hit the first four points of the game in the first 10 minutes; Darragh McCarthy sending over two frees either side of a Michael Ryan point from play before McCarthy set up Danny Quinn for his first of the day from close range.

Pited with two Cork schools in their group, Nenagh were favourites for this game going in with their Charleville-based opponents coming up to the A ranks for this year, and they looked out of depth in the first half as Nenagh looked the more impressive team, but that wasn’t long changing as a few mistakes from Nenagh keeper Simon Grace gifted the Cork school 1-1 in less than a minute, with the goal coming from an opportunistic Eoin O’Mahony strikes which dribbled into the Nenagh net. The sides level at 16 minutes despite Nenagh being on top.

There was little to know conducive hurling played on the day and all the game amounted to was who could make the least mistakes and take their chances, and Nenagh did that for the rest of the first half with four Darragh McCarthy frees putting them up by three points at 0-8 to 1-2.

It looked as though Nenagh wouldn’t be too troubled with their opponents for the second half, and if they could get it together in attack they could win comfortably but in fairness to Charleville, they dug in and made it a battle and kept it tight from the restart with the three-point gap maintained in the first ten minutes with Joseph Hickey pointing for the young Cork side, while Michael Ryan continued his hard graft to bag his second point of the day on the run.

However, the underdogs began to win the battles around the park, and with the help of some excellent long-range placed balls from goalkeeper Kieran Murphy, they had levelled the game by the three-quarter mark with Nenagh floundering in a big way.

Nenagh’s star player in attack is Darragh McCarthy but he was having an underwhelming game by his standards to this point, but he did come up with a big fetch from a puckout soon after before being fouled; he proceeded to convert the free and put Nenagh ahead again.

That was a short-lived lead though, and Nenagh looked in real trouble by the time Joseph Hickey equalised in the 49th minute as the Cork school had at least three scoreable chances go begging in the next few minutes as the sides looked like they were heading toward a share of the spoils with Danny Quinn scoring a big point only for goalkeeper Murphy to respond with an impressive 65 soon after.

Five minutes remained and it was the Cork boys who looked more likely in that time, but Nenagh came up with a big play a minute into added time with substitute Austin Duff claiming a big clearance before running clear and delivering into Eoin Doughan who went toward the goal at pace, and with Danny Quinn on his shoulder, Doughan offloaded unselfishly to the Silvermines man who ran through on goal and slotted a lovely finish to the back of the net.

And that was that as Nenagh packed the defence in the final minutes to hold out for an important win and a solid start to their campaign. Two teams qualify from this three-team group, so Nenagh has the bulk of the heavy lifting done now and will face Árdscoil Uí Urmaltaigh Bandon in two weeks' time.

Scorers: Nenagh CBS:  Darragh McCarthy 0-7f, Danny Quinn 1-2, Michael Ryan 0-2.

Gaelcholáiste Mhuire an Mhainistir Thuaigh: Kieran Murphy (0-3, 0-2f, 0-1 65), Joseph Hickey 0-3f, Eoin O’Mahony 1-1, Chris Dunne 0-1f.

Nenagh CBS: Simon Grace (Ballina); Conor Grace (Burgess), Andy Hoolan (Moneygall), Gavin McGrath (Kiladangan); Jack Doran (Toomevara), Cian Connolly (Nenagh Éire Óg), Liam O’Callaghan (Portroe); Ciaran Foley (Borrisokane), Conor Cooney (Burgess); Michael Ryan (Burgess), Eoin Doughan (Moneygall), Zac Keller (Nenagh Éire Óg); Danny Quinn (Silvermines), Darragh McCarthy (Toomevara), Aodhan O’Connor (Nenagh Éire Óg).

Subs used: Austin Duff (Toomevara) for Cooney (HT); Darragh Treacy (Silvermines) for O’Connor (HT); Billy O’Brien (Nenagh Éire Óg) for O’Callaghan (62).

Gaelcholáiste Mhuire an Mhainistir Thuaigh: Kieran Murphy (Newtownshandrum); Niall Tobin (Bruree), Tom McCarthy (Newtownshandrum), Fionn O’Sullivan (Ballyhea); Sean Byrne (Ballyhea), Bill Collins (Newtownshandrum), Sean Bresnan (Charleville); Robert Troy (Newtownshandrum), Turlough O’Neill (Newtownshandrum); Eoin Horgan (Granagh Ballingarry), Eoin O’Mahony (Newtownshandrum), Liam O’Mahony (Newtownshandrum); Gareth Gleeson (Charleville), Joseph Hickey (Ballyhea), Conor Horan (Ballyhea).

Subs used: Chris Dunne (Dromina) for Horan (15); Patrick Daly (Ballyhea) for L O’Mahony (33, inj).