Borris-Ileigh and Kiladangan through to novel Tipperary senior hurling championship final

A novel county final beckons after Kiladangan and Borris-Ileigh survived tight affairs in Sunday’s semis at the Stadium. 

Elsewhere the Seamus O’Riain final will be an all-Mid event after Holycross came late and decisively against Templederry and Brackens put in a strong second half to edge out Mullinahone. Sean Treacys and Kiladangan will decide the intermediate.

It was another full-on weekend of hurling action, with the senior semis the main attraction at the Stadium.  You certainly lose atmosphere when you move from country venues into Tom Semple’s field, especially when there’s less than 5,500 in attendance. In this instance the quality wasn’t great either, though both games had the merit of tight finishes to keep us all engaged.

You know the old advertising caveat about past performance being no guarantee of future returns? In the case of Nenagh Eire Og you can turn it on its head and say that past performance tells you everything you need to know about future outcomes. Most years Nenagh come into Semple Stadium full of great expectations but just as often they leave cowed and bowed after another disappointing let-down. On Sunday they were true to past form.

By half-time this game was set up for a Nenagh win when they led by four points. It was a very tame opening half, with lots of soft-touch hurling and none of the fire and thunder I thought Kiladangan would bring to the occasion. Michael Heffernan was very influential for Eire Og at that stage and with Barry Heffernan and company in control back in defence you felt Nenagh were well poised to push on.

The teams had swapped goals in a six-minute spell. Kiladangan struck first through Joe Gallagher. It was a break that had an element of luck. There was a heavy collision involving Barry Heffernan, Daire Quinn and Paul Flynn and when the ball broke kindly for Gallagher he raced in before drilling a shot across goal into the right corner of the net. Credit the referee for allowing advantage.

Eire Og’s response came when Michael Heffernan was twice denied before Jake Morris tapped in the rebound at the second attempt. Eire Og played out the half stronger and were value for their four-point lead at the break.

Alas and alack for Nenagh’s second-half efforts. Kiladangan gradually got a grip on proceedings, Michael Heffernan now finding no space and Jake Morris too struggling for impact. Two goals in four minutes turned the tide. A great run by Dan O’Meara set up Paul Flynn for the first; substitute Sean Hayes gets the credit for the second after his mishit effort somehow went off the fingers of goalie McNamara.

Kiladangan had the initiative now and they weren’t about to let it go easily. They might have been wiser to tap over points instead of driving for further goals but in the end it mattered not. The raw stats show that Nenagh could only manage a mere four points in the second half hour, Barry Hogan denying Jake Morris with a late, great save.

So it’s more gloom for Nenagh; the past is a repeating record. The standard view of them is that they’re chokers, lacking the mental toughness to get the job done on crucial days. Perhaps the kinder view is that they’re simply not good enough from one to fifteen.

It’s not one Kiladangan will be fully pleased with either. Their first half was very poor but there was redemption in the second so that the hope of a first every county title lives on for another day.        

Kilruane MacDonaghs took the field for the second tie with Niall O’Meara at number six following his midweek reprieve in the board room. He’d been charged with interfering with an opponent’s headgear in the quarter final against Clonoulty. Video footage apparently convinced the hearings committee that he was entirely innocent of the charge. 

There was also a reprieve for Brackens player, Lyndon Fairbrother, who’d been dismissed in the Seamus O’Riain Cup game versus Ballingarry, thus enabling him to play a significant role in Mullinahone’s defeat at the weekend. Again it was video footage that came to the rescue.

Earlier this year Brendan Maher was before the same hearings committee and again escaped sanction after being cited by the referee in their game with Clonoulty. Is there a trend in all of this? It won’t have escaped notice that this committee has a reputation for upholding appeals and so a further four are scheduled to go before them this week. That four includes the case of Clonoulty’s Timmy Hammersley, who was sent off with Niall O’Meara, though on a different charge. Interesting to see how the Clonoulty man fares.

At national level over the years it has been notoriously difficult to win appeals against a referee’s decision, unless there was overwhelming evidence that a mistake was made. This all begs the question as to whether or not a different standard applies locally. Most of these local appeals, I’d suggest, would fail at Croke Park.

There’s also the issue of reaction by referees, who see their decisions now regularly challenged. Anyway the hearings committee has a busy time ahead – victims, maybe, of their own generosity?

Meanwhile back to the second semi-final and Borris-Ileigh’s late push which saw off Kilruane by the minimum margin. 

It was another disappointing game, redeemed somewhat by the late drama. The first half was uneventful, ending seven-six to Kilruane. It lacked scores and it lacked quality. Kilruane had the best chance of a goal when the break fell kindly to Kian O’Kelly but he rattled the shot off the butt of the post. Otherwise you could forget about the opening half.

Illness apparently delayed Cian Darcy’s return to the action, so you had the curious case of Sean McAdams who came in for Darcy, then was replaced by the same player and later came back on again, this time as replacement for Kian O’Kelly. In all of this Kilruane were struggling woefully to find any cohesion to their play.

Then came the dismissal of Borrisoleigh’s Liam Ryan, which surely would give Kilruane the edge for the final quarter. Not at all. In fact it was Borris-Ileigh who found deeper reserves, as well as the man for the occasion when Conor Kenny fetched and fired a sequence of match-deciding points, including one sublime effort from the Old Stand sideline.

Kenny’s input tipped the scales. Kilruane fought doggedly to retrieve it as the game went over seven minutes into added time (where did that come from?). A Justin Cahill point pulled it back to the minimum but they couldn’t find the leveller. 

It was a big win for Borris’. Defensively they’ve a solid structure. Paddy Stapleton totally dominated Brian O’Meara and Brendan Maher offered a sound anchor at centre. Dan McCormack did his usual grafting and Conor Kenny was the undeniable hero of the win. The sparseness of scores from the other forwards will be a concern.

After a year of high hopes it’s a big let-down for Kilruane. Jerome Cahill’s loss was certainly a heavy burden but they’ll be hugely disappointed with the overall quality of their play. 

They moved Niall O’Meara to midfield in the second half when chasing the game and perhaps they should have moved him further into attack as a last throw of the dice. 

So it will be a novel final on Sunday week as Borris’ try to close a 33-year gap and Kiladangan chase a first-ever title. Both lost recent finals to Sarsfields so there should be no stage fright on the big day. It promises to be a good one.

The Dan Breen final will be preceded by the Seamus O’Riain where Holycross and J.K. Brackens face off in the secondary competition – let’s not use the ‘B’ word! 

The Holycross semi-final win over Templederry was quite extraordinary, with the North side in control for much of the game but then being outscored 11 points to 1 in the final quarter. Templederry had Matthew Hogan sent off just before the winning push but I think it’s a bit too simple to rationalise the turnabout solely on that incident.

Holycross looked very vulnerable at the back in the first half but they moved Cathal Barrett to half back for the second period and reshaped their defence with telling effect. Templederry were now finding scores more difficult and Holycross had an individual match-winner in Darragh Woods, who hit an incredible 20 points over the hour from a combination of play, frees, ‘65s’ and even a sideline. It was an incredible tour de force. 

The sending-off alone doesn’t explain the turn around. It was one of those occasions where Holycross got on a roll, with everything Darragh Woods hit going over, and they simply built an unstoppable momentum, even getting the breaks on several marginal frees. 

In the second semi-final Mullinahone had the perfect start when Eoin Kelly steered home a goal in the opening seconds. Graham Horan had a second midway through the half and they led by seven at the interval. From there it looked good for the South side.

However, they couldn’t maintain the momentum and Brackens came strongly on the restart with a Dean McEnroe goal igniting their rally after just five minutes. Fitter and full of football-style running, the Templemore side pushed on from there to eventually win by three. Mullinahone managed just four second half points, a mere two from play.

It will be a very interesting final. If Andrew Ormond returns from injury it will be a major boost for Brackens. Not easy to call a winner in this one, which is why I won’t even try. Unfortunately the South division will now be without a Dan Breen team for 2020.

The intermediate final too will be fascinating. Sean Treacys are back as seniors after many years and must have decent prospects against Kiladangan in the final. The West’s quota of seniors goes back up to four, which is a welcome boost for the region.