Dungarvan Colleges advance to All-Ireland Final

Dungarvan Colleges (Dungarvan CBS and St Augustine’s College) are through to a first ever Dr Croke Cup (All-Ireland Senior ‘A’ Hurling Colleges) final after they recorded a comprehensive win over Saint Kieran’s from Kilkenny in a re-arranged semi final at the WIT Sports Campus at Carriganore.

The West Waterford combination won this game with ten points to spare and in truth were worth every sent of their victory.

At half time they held a 4-3 to 0-6 lead. Darragh Lyons proved to be the West Waterford’s side’s hero on the day hitting three goals in the opening half with fellow Dungarvan Club man Patrick Curran netted in the opening half, with another Dungarvan Club man Ryan Donnelly hitting the fifth goal early in the second half.

The first goal of the game came on two minutes when Lyons finishing to the net, but Graham English between the posts for Saint Kieran’s unlucky not to have kept the Dungarvan mans effort out.

Dungarvan College’s second goal of the game came in twenty minutes when Lyons again finished to the net and two minutes later, Darragh Lyons went from goal scorer to goal provider, setting up Patrick Curran and on twenty four minutes Darragh Lyons completed his hat-trick using his footballing skills to finish past Graham English.

Saint Kieran’s had done well to regroup after their Leinster Final defeat against Kilkenny CBS to regroup and beat Our Lady’s from Templemore, who Dungarvan Colleges beat in the Munster Final, at the quarter final stages recently, but having conceded three goals in less than five minutes in this game, to regroup and come out and make a game of things in the second half was always going to be a big task.

Any chance that the Kilkenny side however had of advancing to an all Kilkenny All-Ireland Final quickly evaporated in the opening moments of the second half as Patrick Curran set up Ryan Donnelly for a fifth goal.

On the day the Kilkenny side depended on Chris Bolger to do most of their scoring. The Clara club man hit 1-6 for his side, the six points all came from placed balls, the goal coming very late in the day and proved to be nothing more than a consolation score.

Dungarvan Colleges opponents in the All-Ireland Final which will take place in Thurles on Saturday Week (Easter Saturday) are Kilkenny CBS.

Like all Kilkenny sides, they will prove to be stiff opposition, and will have had watched today’s semi final at Carriganore. No doubt they will be in contact with the Nore-side Rivals to get their thoughts on the Dungarvan side and try and counter act on where strengths and weaknesses lie in the Dungarvan Colleges side’s team.

It will be interesting to see what the bookies think the final will go. Despite this impressive win, and Dungarvan College’s win in the Munster Final (Dr Harty Cup Final) against Our Lady’s from Templemore, the Kilkenny side, with the tradition of Hurling there is in Kilkenny, Kilkenny CBS have to go into the game as favourites, and that is how most would want it to be, especially as Waterford sides often play best when written off.

DUNGARVAN COLLEGES: Laurence Power (Abbeyside); Michael Cronin (Ardmore), Brian Looby (Abbeyside), Keelan Looby (St Oliver’s); Tadhg Burke (Clashmore), Kevin Daly (Dungarvan), Tom Devine (Modeligo); Cormac Curran (Brickeys), Colin Dunford (Colligan Emmets); Christy Breathnach (An Rinn), Michael Harney (Bunmahon), Seamus Keating (Ardmore); Darragh Lyons (Dungarvan), Ryan Donnelly (Dungarvan), Patrick Curran (Dungarvan). Subs: David Gartland (Ardmore) for Harney, Jack Mullaney (Stradbally) for K Looby, Sean Daly (Abbeyside) for Donnelly, Eamon Crotty (Abbeyside) for Keating.

Scorers: Darragh Lyons 3-1 (0-1f), Patrick Curran 1-2 (0-1f, 0-1 65), Ryan Donnelly 1-1, Christy Breathnach 0-2, Tom Devine & Seamus Keating 0-1 each.

ST KIERAN’S: Graham English; Sean Morrissey, James Tyrrell, Ciaran Breen; Shane Parsonsn, Eoin Gough, Eoin Walsh; Chris Bolger, Stephen Farrell; Liam Blanchfield, James Maher, Patrick Hickey; Michael Kenny; Vincent Teehan, James Deasy. Subs: Patrick Mullen for Deasy, Josh Haines for Hickey, Ricci Drennan for Blanchfield, Luke Tennyson for Parsons.

Scorers: Chris Bolger 1-6 (0-6f), Stephen Farrell, Liam Blanchfield, Vincent Teehan & Patrick Mullen (0-1f), 0-1 each.

 

Referee: Fergal Horgan (Tipperary).