Clinical Clonmel High School impress in Cork to qualify for Corn Uí Mhuiri semi-final

TUS Corn Ui Mhuiri U19A Football Quarter Final

Clonmel High School 1-6

Clonakilty Community College 0-5

Clonmel High School are the toast of Tipperary football after battling their way to a deserved, hard-fought win over Clonakilty Community College in the TUS Corn Ui Mhuiri U19A Football quarter-final in Pairc Uí Rinn on Wednesday afternoon.

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Played in truly atrocious conditions, this one was never going to be a high-scoring classic, but a clinical first-half display from the Tipperary school made all the difference as they led 1-4 to 0-1 at the interval, with Andrew McAndrews goal within two minutes setting the tone for the eventual winners.

Patience was evident in a lot of the first half performance from the High School, and in the post-match interviews, manager Paddy O’Gorman highlighted that he instructed the players to remain patient in possession. While that was true for much of the game, the first ten minutes were far more direct and clinical from the players when the opportunities presented themselves.

After winning the throw-in, the Tipperary school went into a phase of possession for 90 seconds that ended with Aaron McAndrew being fed in on goal, and the Tipperary minor footballers from last year made no mistake, slotting low to the back of the net. A brilliant start for his side.

Clonakilty struggled to gain any traction in possession as the High School dominated restarts from that point and had built up a 1-2 to nil lead by the 11th minute, with a Luke Foley free and a beautifully struck point from Mikey McGuire finding the target.

To highlight the early quarter dominance of the High School, it took Clonakilty 14 minutes to have a scoring effort, that attempt drifting wide, but they would eventually find the target in the 15th minute with an excellent run and finish from powerful Tom Whooley.

Despite that, there were very few other sighters for the Cork school in the first half, as the High School took their chances when they came, first from Aaron McAndrew in the 22nd minute to add to his early goal, before Mikey McGuire got his second and easily the score of the game with a lovely outside-of-the-boot effort that floated over a minute later.

Those scores were really class given how poor the conditions were, and in all reality, Clonmel could have been more ahead by half-time but let their opponents off the hook with slack shooting, as they took a six-point lead at the interval.

With conditions worsening with every passing minute, the High School management would have been happy to have gotten their scores early in the game, as the second half descended into a really scrappy affair with mistakes aplenty on both sides under the incessant rain in Pairc Ui Rinn.

Clonakilty were more prominent in possession early in the half, but it took them ten minutes to register their second point, and the game's first of the second half, thanks to a fine long-range score from Oisin Harrington, finding the target.

A powerful run from Paddy Spellman drew a close-range free for Dylan McCormack to convert in the 43rd minute to keep the scoreboard ticking over, but the Cork school were in the ascendancy at that point and had reduced the gap to four points with four minutes remaining.

It could have been worse, though, as one of those two points for the side in blue very nearly hit the back of the net; James O’Brien in the High School goals produced a brilliant save from a powerful strike by Mike Collins to keep the two-score lead at 1-5 to 0-4.

Clonakilty manufactured a few half-goal chances as they came looking for the scores to salvage the game, and that led to openness at the back that gave the High School chances, and despite butchering a few goal chances, they finally got the security score from Conor Freaney on the stroke of 60 minutes to push them into a five-point lead.

Try as they might, Clonakilty couldn’t find the space to raise green flags late on, and while they did nick the final score of the game through a second for Oisin Harrington, the result was made safe for the Tipperary school, who advance to the final four.

A brilliant win for Clonmel High School. They haven’t been in a Corn Ui Mhuiri final since 2016, and this crop could be the ones to end the decade-long wait, but will need to improve further as they look ahead to a semi-final clash with Presentation Secondary School, Milltown on Saturday, January 24.

Scorers: Clonmel HS: Aaron McAndrew 1-1, Mikey McGuire 0-2, Conor Freaney 0-1, Luke Foley, Dylan McCormack 0-1f each.

Clonakilty CC: Oisin Harrington 0-2, Tom Whooley, Mike Collins, Jack Byerly all 0-1 each.

Clonmel HS: James O’Brien (Moyle Rovers); John Lyons (Grangemockler Ballyneale), Rian Galko (Clonmel Óg), Harry Lawlor (Clonmel Commercials); Luke Hannigan (Clonmel Óg), Andrew Ryan (The Nire), Paddy Spellman (The Nire); Mikey McGuire (Kilsheelan Kilcash), Luke Foley (Moyle Rovers); Aaron McAndrew (Kilsheelan Kilcash), Killian Smith (Clonmel Commercials), Briain Morrison (Moyle Rovers); Conor Freaney (Kilsheelan Kilcash), Finn Napier (Clonmel Commercials), Dylan McCormack (Clonmel Óg).

Subs used: Jamal Yousif (Clonmel Óg); Conall Morrison (Moyle Rovers); Jack Kealy (Clonmel Óg); Oisin O’Reilly (Clonmel Óg); David Ryan (The Nire). 

Clonakilty CC: Rory Twohig (Kilmeen); Oisin Harrington (Kilmeen), Olan Murphy (Kilmeen), Tim Bailey (Kilmeen); Callum Collins (Ibane Gaels), Dylan Harrington (Kilmeen), Jerry O’Leary (Ballinascarthy); Mike Collins (Ibane Gaels), Eanna Deiseach (Clonakilty); David Harte (Clonakilty), Sean Whelton (St James's), Jason Murray (Kilmeen); Tom Whooley (Clonakilty), James Maguire (Castlehaven), Eric Hicks (Carbery Rangers).

Subs used: Jack Byerly (Clonakilty); Conrad Murphy (Ibane Gaels); Riley O’Donovan (Ibane Gaels); Howard O’Donovan (Kilmeen); Andrew McCarthy (Ballinascarthy).

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