Saint Mary’s retain Western Junior Hurling Championship

Saint Mary’s retained the Western Junior Hurling Championship that they won twelve months ago on Sunday afternoon when they overcame the challenge of a strong Tourin side at Fraher Field.

There can be no disputing that the two best sides in the western division qualified for this year’s final, with both sides winning their respective groups.

Tourin reached the final having lost just one game that a 2-12 to 1-9 defeat to Abbeyside who Saint Mary’s beat in the semi-finals two weeks before this game.

Saint Mary’s qualified for the final with full points in their group and then beating Abbeyside in the semi-finals.  However, to reach this stage of the competition, the Touraneena side played just three championship games which included their semi-final win, as they received walk overs along the way from Ballyduff Upper and Dungarvan.

For the second game running Saint Mary’s captain Eoin Kearns proved to be the best player on the field, hitting fourteen points for the winners over the course of the hour.

Both he and Darragh Wilkinson on the Tourin side both had solid performances in their free taking. The Touraneena man in his tally of fourteen scores hit the score of the game, a free close to his own forty five metre line two minutes from time which gave his side a five point lead.

After taking the lead inside two minutes of this game, the Touraneena side never trailed apart from a few seconds in the thirty ninth minute when Tourin hit a goal to give them a 1-11 to 1-10 lead.

Eoin Kearns opened the scoring with a brace of points in the second and third minutes, both from frees.

Darragh Wilkinson pulled a point back for Tourin on seven minutes after which Eoin Kearns with his third of the game and Sean Meaney with the first of his two scores traded scores.

Kevin Sheehan extended the Touraneena sides lead to two on eleven minutes and four minutes later his younger brother Jason Sheehan sent in a delivery from the stand side of the field towards the road goal. Although a number of hurleys were to be seen pulling in the air, from the back of the stand in the middle of the stand, it appeared that Sheehan’s effort went all the back to the Tourin net.

From another free, Eoin Kearns gave Saint Marys a 1-5 to 0-2 lead on sixteen minutes, but the Tourin side coached by former Shamrocks player Dan Casey proved to be the better side in the second quarter as they held the Touraneena men to just two points while hitting eight of their own.

Darragh Wilkinson, Sean Meaney and another from Wilkinson made it a three point game with twenty two minutes on the clock, but Eoin Kearns broke their run of continuous scores with a point from a free on twenty four minutes.

In the next five minutes, Tourin again hit four in a row, firstly through Darragh Wilkinson, then Niall Fives, another from Wilkinson and then David O’Brien to lock the scores on the score board 1-6 to 0-9.

Within seconds Eoin Kearns put over another free but at the end of stoppage time in the first half David O’Brien again pointed to send the sides to the dressing rooms 1-7 to 0-10.

As they did in the first half, Saint Mary’s proved to be the better of the sides at the start of the second half.

Eoin Kearns and Darragh Wilkinson swapped early scores before Eoin Kearns and Aidan Fitzpatrick added points for Saint Marys to give them a 1-10 to 0-11 lead.

Tom O’Brien appeared to get the final touch for Tourin’s only goal of the game on thirty nine minutes to give them a one point lead but that lead soon evaporated as from the restart Saint Mary’s attacked and Aidan Fitzpatrick, no stranger to hitting the back of the net at Fraher Field for the best part of twenty five years did it once more to give his side a 2-10 to 1-11 lead.

Eoin Kearns stretched Saint Mary’s lead with a brace of points and when Kieran Barron a half time sub for Dean Cliffe followed up with another point things were starting to look good for the reigning champions.

Tourin hit another purple patch and they hit the next four scores in a row. Darragh Wilkinson hit the first and the fourth with David O’Brien and Niall Fives hitting the scores in between, which left their side trailing 2-13 to 1-15 with nine minutes to play.

The side now that showed the most hunger would go on to contest the county final against Ballyduff Lower or Ballydurn at Fraher Field in the coming weeks.

Saint Marys opened up a five point lead once more after Eoin Kearns put over four in a row between the fifty first and fifty eight minutes, the latter a massive free scores to the left of centre of the Tourin goal and close to his own 45 metre line.

In the middle of this run the winners had their numbers cut when Timmy Organ sent Kevin Sheehan off on a straight red card which will rule him out of the upcoming county final.

Brendan McGourty who joined the Saint Marys set up earlier this year gave his side a six point lead on the hour mark.

Tourin hit the last two scores of the games, points from Jack Leahy and Darragh Wilkinson, both points but it was goals that they needed.

The side relegated from Intermediate last year however will count themselves somewhat unlucky not to have added a second goal late on and possibly would have but for the bravery of JP Fitzpatrick in the Saint Marys goal, as the man that helped Waterford to win a Minor Munster final back in 1992 bravely put his body in the firing line putting the ball out for an unconverted ’65.

Saint Mary’s: J.P. Fitzpatrick; Conor Tobin, Sean Fitzpatrick, Tom Tobin; Dermot Tobin, Denis Coffey, Owen Barron; Kevin Sheehan, Stephen Coffey; Brendan McGourty, Eoin Kearns, Dean Cliffe; Aidan Fitzpatrick, Mike Kearns, Jason Sheehan. Subs: Kieran Barron for Dean Cliffe, Jack Skehan for Stephen Coffey.

Scorers: Eoin Kearns 0-14, Aidan Fitzpatrick 1-1, Jason Sheehan 1-0, Kevin Sheehan, Kieran Barron, Brendan McGourty 0-1 each.

Tourin: Colm Bennett; Brian Leahy, Daniel Leahy, Mark Landers: Brendan Scanlon, Shane Fives, Jack Leahy; Sean Meany, David Leahy; Sean Leahy, David O’Brien, Niall Fives; Darragh Wilkinson, Tom O’Brien, Daniel Dransfield. Subs: Own Leahy for David Leahy, Daithi Wilkinson for Daniel Dransfield.

Scorers: Darragh Wilkinson 0-9, Tom O’Brien 1-0, David O’Brien 0-3, Sean Meaney, Niall Fives 0-2 each, Jack Leahy 0-1.

Referee: Timmy Organ (Abbeyside)