Sarsfields 0-21 0-19 Midleton
The Seán Óg Murphy Cup ended up in Glanmire in a fitting tribute to mark the passing of former great Teddy McCarthy, the last man to win All Ireland senior football and hurling medals in the one year - 1990.
And it took the exploits of one man, Aaron Myers who hit 0-12 to make sure the foundation was laid for this two points win in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Sunday.
Eight years without the trophy, Sars showed their fighting qualities to come back from a four point deficit at the break to get over the line with their noses in front. They can now add the championship to the league title they won earlier in the season… a nice double which McCarthy would surely be proud to see.
Midleton went 0-13 to 0-9 ahead with Myers accounted for all but two of his side’s scores in that moiety. Whatever was said during the interval in the dressisng room transformed the team when they came back out.
From the second throw in they dominated every sector with clever play and a passion that Midleton sought but couldn’t match.
It started to rain Sars scores with Myers, Daniel Hogan, and Colm McCarthy lifting the big Sars following in the smallish 11,000 crowd. Midleton steadied with two points of their own but once the winners hit four on the trot unanswered, the complexion of the game changed totally.
Once they levelled, it was ding dong to the finish with three Myers’ scores and one from Cathal McCarthy proving the difference though Tadhg O’Leary Hayes point left it a two-point game with anything liable to happen. It didn’t and the Sars were champs once again.
They will now measure their progress further in the Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship, when they take on Waterford kingpins Ballygunner at Walsh Park early next month.
Sarsfields: D McCarthy; C McCarthy (0-4), C O’Sullivan, P Leopold, B Murphy, E Murphy, L Elliot, C Leahy, D Kearney (0-1), J O’Connor (0-2), S O’Regan, C Darcy, D Hogan (0-1), C McCarthy (0-1), A Myers (0-12, 0-8f) Subs: L Hackett for O’Regan (44); J Sweeney for Darcy (49), B Nodwell for Hogan (53).
Kilcormac-Killoughey 3-26 Shinrone 3-8
They say there is no motivation like revenge and KK didn’t wait for it to cool as they served up their own version with a red-hot showing at St Brendan’s Park, Birr on Sunday.
After losing in dramatic circumstances to the same opposition last year, the winners produced a brand of audacious hurling that left their opponents reeling from the throw-in to the final whistle by producing arguably the finest ever display witnessed in the county by a title-winning SH team.
A measure of their dominance can be gleaned in the fact that it was only in the last 10 minutes by which time the game was well and truly over that Shinrone got their three goals. By then the KK players were celebrating and thinking of their journey ahead in the Leinster SH club campaign.
By half-time the big crowd back in Birr for a final were wondering what they were doing there at all as KK led by 1-17 to 0-06 at that stage. That was bad but once they tagged on another unanswered five points by the seventh minutes of the restart, the exit signs beckoned for all but the truly committed or partisan set in the victor's support group.
Charlie Mitchell got in for their second goal 11 minutes on and then Cathal Kiely’s speculative shot ended up nestling in the back of the net four mins later.
All over bar the shouting. I suppose we have to credit the old champions for not giving up with Dara Maher frees finding the net and one from Jason Sampson adding a trace of respectability to the scoreboard. But on a day when the KK club strode majestically across the pitch, that’s all it was for the well-beaten losers.
Kilcormac-Killoughey: C Slevin; B Kavanagh (0-1), O Mahon, T Spain; J Quinn, C Kiely (0- 2f), E Grogan; C Kiely (1-1), D Kilmartin (0-1); J Screeney (0-3), C Mahon (0-6), C Mitchell (1-4); C Spain, J Gorman (1-0), A Screeney (0-7, 0-5f and 0-1 '65) Subs: P Geraghty for Gorman (44m), G Healion for C Mahon (49m), T Geraghty (0-1) for C Kiely (52m), K Leonard for J Screeney (58m), S Guinan for Kilmartin (58m)
