Prendergast Stars As Ardmore Claim All-Ireland Title

Ballymacarbry Senior Ladies Footballers have done it. Lismore Camogie Players have done it, and now Ardmore Junior Hurlers have done it.

Ardmore’s junior hurling team today came from behind with time almost up to win this year’s All-Ireland Junior Club Hurling Final and in doing so became the first Waterford team to win an All-Ireland Club Championship at G.A.A. Headquarters.

In recent years De La Salle’s Senior Hurlers, Ballysaggart’s Junior Hurlers and Lismore’s Camogie team have come close to winning at G.A.A. headquarters on All-Ireland Final day but up to now, no Waterford Club had climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand on the biggest days in the club calendar year.

This was a final that had those that travelled to G.A.A. Headquarters to support the Round Tower Club men sitting on their seats in the Hogan Stand right to the end, and they did so for longer than the allotted sixty minutes as this game needed a further twenty minutes to find a winner.

For much of the sixty minutes it looked as if it was Ardmore were going to emerge winners even if it was the Wexford Club had the better of the start in this game.

While Ardmore will receive and should take a lot of plaudits for the way they won this game, great credit must go to the Saint Mogues side from the Fethard-on-Sea area of Wexford for the roll they played in this game, as it always takes two sides to serve up a memorable game.

The Ardmore side sent out by Ardmore manager Tommy Cronin and his management side was one which contains a blend of youth and experience. Right now it remains to be seen if the experienced players some of whom are closer to 40 than 30 will commit to another year in the Blue and White shirt of Ardmore, but if they were not to, nobody could ever argue that they did not end their playing career on a high, and there is no greater high than with an Celtic Cross in your collection of medals.

Seamus Prendergast put in a Man of the Match performance for Ardmore in this game hitting 1-8 for his side over the eighty plus minutes which he played in. But this was no means a one man team as throughout the side the team had its hero’s including rising star Seamus Keating at centre back, team Captain Declan Prendergast at full back, corner forward John Gartland who hit two vital goals and Kenny Murphy in the middle of the field, while for their opponents had his side won the game Mark Wallace who finished the game with fourteen points would have got the Man of the Match Award.

While there is expected to be great celebrations in the Ardmore area this evening and in the coming days, things could well have been much different.

With the sixty minutes played and the game in stoppage time, the Round Tower Club side found themselves one point in arrears despite leading for most of it, and it took a massive point from David Gartland with the last puck of the game to send this game to extra time to try and find a winner.

Heading into this game while they might not have seen the Wexford side in action, there is no doubt that team manager Tommy Cronin, team coach Wayne Power and the rest of the side would have done their homework on their opponents for this game, and no doubt one name that of Mark Wallace would have come up time and time again.

When presented with chances from any indiscipline shown by Ardmore the Saint Mogues man seldom missed. He made an early impact scoring a brace of early points after Seamus Prendergast had given Ardmore the lead with a free, and Michael Dwyer helped to stretch the Wexford’s side lead (0-3 to 0-1) with eleven minutes played.

But after this the Round Tower men upped their performance. They added to their tally on the scoreboard on twelve minutes when a Seamus Keating free from distance fell into the danger zone in front of the Saint Mogues goal and with a strike along the ground Seamus Prendergast beat Sean Foley to put his side back in front by a point.

 The Wexford and Leinster Champions responded with a point from Mark Wallace, but Ardmore would soon get back in front and would head to the dressing rooms with a 1-4 to 0-6 advantage showing on the giant scoreboards around Croke Park with Seamus Prendergast hitting 1-3 of his sides tally in those opening thirty plus minutes, and Seamus Keating putting over a massive score from his own half of the field.

Seven minutes after the restart Ardmore struck for a second goal when the Wexford sides goalkeeper Sean Foley had an attempted clearance hooked by Seamus Prendergast after which the ball fell to John Gartland who finished to the net, a score that gave the winners a 2-5 to 0-7 lead.

The Wexford side however would hit back with three points from Mark Wallace and from the latter when Garrett Foley got the ball in the middle of the field he sent it straight back in and over the head of Jack Walsh who returned to the team after missing the semi final win over Setanta a week earlier to level matters on the score board.

On sixty minutes the sides were all square on the score board but one minute into stoppage time Mark Wallace put over a massive free from his own ’65 metre line to give his side the lead once more and it was beginning to appear that victory would be going to the Wexford side.

But no game is over till the final whistle is sounded and just as referee Shane Hayes was about to put his whistle to his lips for the last time in this game David Gartland landed a free with the last puck of the game to level matters for the eight time in this game and to send it to extra time.

Both sides were clearly going to tire in the added twenty minutes playing on the massive surface that is Croke Park and the side that were to prove the hungrier would win on the day.

Conceding that late score when they obviously felt victory was going to be theirs seem to have knocked the stuffing out of the Wexford side in extra time.

In the first period of extra time it was Ardmore who showed the greater hunger as Seamus Prendergast landed a brace of scores and David Gartland hit another vital score to push their side three in front, but the Wexford side courtesy of another placed ball score from Mark Wallace brought the Wexford side to within two (2-11 to 0-15) as the sides changed ends for the second half of extra time.

Ardmore in the second half would score just once more, but that score proved crucial as John Gartland again popped up and netted a third goal shortly after Michael Dwyer had made it a one point game after the restart.

It was now the turn of Saint Mogues to show what they were made of and in the time that remained Mark Wallace and Edmund Power split the Ardmore posts to leave two between the sides, but the all important score that they needed to get something from the game failed to arrive.

ARDMORE: Jack Walsh; Niall Hennessy, Declan Prendergast, Daniel Power; Gavin Williams, Seamus Keating, Ritchie Hennessey; Kenny Murphy, Wayne Hennessy; Sean Barron, David Gartland, Michael Cronin; James Flavin, Seamus Prendergast, John Gartland. Subs: James Kennedy for Michael Cronin (ht), Kieran Conway for Daniel Power (43), Stephen Keating for Wayne Hennessy (69), Michael Cronin for James Kennedy (73), Wayne Hennessy for Gavin Williams (79)

Scorers: Seamus Prendergast 1-8 (7f), John Gartland 2-0, David Gartland 0-2, Seamus Keating 0-1

FETHARD ST MOGUES: Sean Foley; Martin Power, Ruairi Tubrid, Daniel Mullan; Richard Waters, Kevin Rowe, Joe Sutton; Garrett Foley, John Tubritt; Edmund Power, Mark Wallace, Daire Barden; Ciaran Dwyer, Graham O’Grady, Michael Dwyer. Subs: Darren Foley for Graham O’Grady (43), Bryan Power for John Tubritt (49), Brian O’Donoghue for Edmund Power (62), Edmund Power for Brian O’Donoghue (70), Graham O’Grady for Ciaran Dwyer (70).

Scorers: Mark Wallace 0-14 (12f, 1 '65), Michael Dwyer 0-2, Garrett Foley 0-1, Edmund Power 0-1

Referee: Shane Hynes (Galway)