Outstanding Shane Ryan Helps De La Salle to Second Win in Senior Hurling Championship against Dungarvan

I have heard people say to understand hurling you have to have played it at any level.

As I was born physically disabled almost 44 years ago it has meant that I have never played hurling with the exception of standing in goals pucking around with my brothers at home or with others that I was with in primary school.

If it is true that you have to have played the game to a certain standard, then I must sit down sometime with a modern coach and get them to explain the game to me.

There is two things that really bug me about the modern game. One is the withdrawing of a forward or even forwards to play in their own half of the field to play as extra defenders or sweepers call the system what you like. What you are doing when this happen is robbing Peter to pay Paul. When the ball goes into the opposition half of the field the forwards you have in that side of the field have to work extra hard to get the ball, as the opposition automatically has a numerical advantage whether they play the sweeper or extra man system or not.

The second thing that bugs me is the short puck out. For the life of me I can’t understand it. When I see the short puck out, the amount of times I have seen the passage of play break down is alarming. And when this happens, regardless of who is playing I love to see that team punished, and often they are. I really can’t understand when a goalkeeper has the ball in his hand why he don’t put the opposition under pressure straight away by putting the ball down on top of the heads of his half forward line or if the goalkeeper has a lengthy puck of the ball to put it over the heads of his half forward’s onto an inside forward line coming out who quickly turn their opponents who hopefully is coming with him and put the ball either over or under the opponents crossbar. I am a firm believer in the old saying that the shortest distance between A and B is in a straight line.

There might be some that will thing what is to be said here is a personal attack. The opposite is in fact the truth. What this piece in addition to the game mentioned here is about the system.

A sizeable attendance paying over €2,000, were in Fraher Field on Friday evening to see the first of this year’s County Senior Hurling Championship Round Two games.

Early in the game it looked as if these two sides who are most likely challenge Ballygunner for the News and Star Cup were going to fight out a close battle, one that could well go right to the wire, but as the game went on it was obvious that there was only going to be one outcome to the game and the only question to be answered is by what margin would De La Salle win the game.

Shane McNulty and Cormac Curran opened the scoring in this game with a converted free each from some distance.

The games for goal came on five minutes when Darragh Lyons was caught out overplaying the ball close to his own goal and when it was worked quickly to John Mullane, the former inter county hurler made no mistake in blasting past Darren Duggan.

Gavin Crotty straight away pulled a point back for Dungarvan before Shane Ryan who put in a Man of the Match performance in this game hit the first of his dozen scores in this game on eight minutes.

A minute later Darragh Lyons made up for his mistake four minutes earlier when he scored a brilliant solo goal, attacking the town goal from the back side of the field giving Shaun O’Brien no chance with a well drilled shot.

Dylan Foley edged the city side back in front on 13 minutes and second later they were unlucky not to have gone further in front as Shane Ryan saw a brilliant effort come crashing off the Dungarvan crossbar.

Patrick Curran levelled matters once more on the quarter of an hour mark and seconds later the Old Boro Club took the lead for the only time when Cormac Curran put over the head of Shaun O’Brien.

Points from Shane Ryan and a long range free from Shane McNulty put De La Salle back in front before Stephen Daniels made it a two point game with a brilliant point from under the shadow of the stand.

John Mullane pointed for De La Salle on twenty minutes and from the resulting puck out which was taken short, the Dungarvan defence fumbled and Eoin Madigan was on hand to take control and picked out Shane Ryan who finished to the net to give his side a 2-7 to 1-4 lead.

Points from Shane Ryan, John Mullane and Eoin Madigan quickly followed for De La Salle to put them in cruise control before Cormac Curran and Ryan Donnelly pulled back points for Dungarvan.

But it was De La Salle who would score next as Jack Fagan played in Shane Ryan and the impressive forward made no mistake in stretching his hurley outwards and finishing past the Dungarvan defence to give the city side a 3-10 to 1-6 lead.

Dungarvan to their credit never gave up and they landed three scores in added time at the end of the opening thirty minutes when Cormac Curran put over a hat-trick of frees to leave then trailing 3-10 to 1-9 at the break.

Shane Ryan and Darragh Lyons began the second half with an early exchange of points, before Shane Ryan put over two more placed balls including an impressively struck sideline cut from a very tight angle on thirty nine minutes which gave his side a 3-13 to 1-10 lead.

Cormac Curran pulled a point back for Dungarvan before De La Salle struck a brilliant fourth goal on forty one minutes when Eoin Madigan blasted at Darren Duggan who did brilliant to save the De La Salle man’s effort but the power that was behind the shot was enough to see it cross the line giving his side a 4-13 to 1-11 lead.

Colm Curran, Jake Dillon who came on for Tom Moran at the break, Colm Curran (again) and Eoin Madigan all scored by the midway point in the second half, the latter coming as a result of yet another of a short puck out that De La Salle managed to break down.

Cathal Curran and Shane Ryan swapped scores before Michael Kiely broke up the bank side of the field towards the country goal twice in a minute to put over a brace of well taken points which left the Old Boro outfit trailing 4-16 to 1-17 with five minutes plus stoppage time to play.

Shane Ryan and Adam Farrell cancelled out the efforts of the former Sliabh gCua/Saint Mary’s club player to keep ten between the sides with three minutes plus to play.

Shane Ryan extended the De La Salle lead before Aaron Donnelly drew a good save from Shaun O’Brien with the game just gone into stoppage time.

Another Shane Ryan point on sixty two minutes made it a twelve point game, one for which the city side were full value for, but Dungarvan showed lots of hunger late on in the game and moments after Shane Ryan had split the posts at the other end, Colm Curran from close range rattled the De La Salle net for the second time.

And Dungarvan were not finished yet as they won the restart and again quickly played the ball in around the De La Salle goalmouth and when it came to Patrick Curran he showed that he is equally as good a footballer as he is at hurling as he kicked to the net to leave six between the teams.

This proved to be the final attack of the game as before De La Salle could restart Referee Anthony Fitzgerald who is must be said had an outstanding performance on the night indicated that time was up and called on Shaun O’Brien to play the ball to him as he blew the full time whistle.

De La Salle will take two wins from two games in this year’s senior hurling championship. Dungarvan will not be too put out with the defeat as they know that they should have it within them in their three remaining games to get enough points to secure one of the quarter final sports in Group One, but will also know that they don’t want to drop to many more points as they don’t want to be given what is often perceived to be a tough quarter finals against one of the stronger teams in Group Two, something that could well happen as they have a very good Ballygunner side still to play.

De La Salle: Shaun O’Brien, Paddy Kenneally, Ian Flynn, Stephen Dalton; Shane McNulty, Kevin Moran, Stephen Daniels; Eddie Barrett, Tom Moran; Jack Fagan, Dylan Foley, David Greene; Shane Ryan, Eoin Madigan, John Mullane. Subs: Jake Dillon for Tom Moran (HT), Adam Farrell for David Greene (47), Eddie Meaney for John Mullane (47), Tom Moran for Eoin Madigan (58).

Scorers: Shane Ryan 2-10 (0-5f, 0-1 SL), John Mullane, Eoin Madigan 1-2 each, Shane McNulty 0-2 (2f), Dylan Foley, Stephen Daniels, Jake Dillon, Adam Farrell 0-1 each.

Dungarvan: Darren Duggan; Aaron Donnelly, Conor Sheridan, Luke Egan; Kieran Power, Jamie Nagle, Michael Kiely; Cathal Curran, Darragh Lyons; Gavin Crotty, Colm Curran, Liam Ryan; Ryan Donnelly, Cormac Curran, Patrick Curran. Subs: John Curran for Conor Sheridan (16), Jack Lacey for Liam Ryan, Sean Crotty for Gavin Crotty.

Scorers:  Cormac Curran 0-8 (7f), Colm Curran 1-2, Patrick Curran, Darragh Lyons 1-1 each, Michael Kiely 0-2, Cathal Curran, Gavin Crotty, Ryan Donnelly 0-1 each.

Referee: Anthony Fitzgerald (Passage).