Na Piarsaigh 2-26
Blackrock 0-10
A RETURN OF 15 points from Limerick’s All Ireland U21 winner Ronan Lynch steered Na Piarsaigh into yet another Munster club SHC final.
The Limerick champions will face Waterford’s Ballygunner in the 19 November final in what will be a repeat of the 2015 decider.
It will be a fourth final appearance for Na Piarsaigh, who will bid to add to their title win of 2011, ‘13 and ‘15.
They did of course also win All Ireland honours in March 2016 and showed all that class still remains in this 22-point semi final win over Cork’s Blackrock in front of 1826 in the Gaelic Grounds.
It was one-way traffic from the throw-in with Shane O’Neill’s Na Piarsaigh notching scores from Lynch, Peter Casey and Adrian Breen before The Rockies were off the mark.
By half time the lead was 2-11 to 0-6.
It was 0-8 to 0-3 when Na Piarsaigh fired home two swift goals mid-way through the first half.
Peter Casey scored the first and then 90-seconds later David Breen advanced from the right wing to score from a tight angle along the endline. That had Na Piarsaigh 2-8 to 0-4 ahead with just 16 minutes played.
Lynch and Casey scores saw out the half for the Limerick champions, while Blackrock had scores from Michael O’Halloran frees, John O’Sullivan and David Cashman.
In the second half the scores of Ronan Lynch dominated. The midfielder, taking the frees in the absence of the injured Shane Dowling, finished with 15-points. His tally included Scorers nine frees, two ’65 a lineball and three from play.
In total Na Piarsaigh had nine scorers and Kevin Downes, Conor Boylan and sub Kevin Ryan had points from play in a straight forward second half in which The Rockies hit just four points.
Scorers for Na Piarsaigh: Ronan Lynch 0-15 (9 frees, 2 ’65, 1 lineball), Peter Casey 1-4, David Breen 1-0, Adrian Breen 0-2, William O’Donoghue, Niall Buckley, Kevin Downes, Kevin Ryan, Conor Boylan 0-1 each.
Scorers for Blackrock: Michael O’Halloran 0-4 (4 frees), David O’Farrell, Ger O’Regan, David Cashman, John O’Sullivan, Alan O’Callaghan and Liam O’Sullivan 0-1 each.
Na Piarsaigh
1. Padraic Kennedy
2. Jerome Boylan
3. Mike Casey
4. Niall Buckley
5. Tommy Grimes
6. Cathal King
7. Alan Dempsey
20. Ronan Lynch
9. William O’Donoghue
13. C Boylan
11. David Breen
12. David Dempsey
10. Adrian Breen
14. Kevin Downes
15. Peter Casey
Subs:
24. Gordan Brown for David Dempsey (h-t)
23. Kevin Ryan for Peter Casey (43)
17. Mike Foley for Tommy Grimes (47)
18. James O’Brien for Niall Buckley (53)
21. Kieran Kennedy for Jerome Boylan (57)
Blackrock
1. Gavin Connolly
18. Tadhg Deasy
3. Dylan Stokes
2. John Cashman
7. Niall Cashman
6. Eoin Smith
5. Andrew Murphy
8. Stephen Murphy
9. David O’Farrell
17. David Cashman
11. Alan O’Callaghan
10. Ger Regan
13. Michael O’Halloran
28. Daniel Meaney
15. John O’Sullivan
Subs:
22. Alex Hogan for David Cashman (h-t)
21. Liam O’Sullivan for John O’Sullivan (44)
25. Colin O’Leary for Tadhg Deasy (47)
19. Eoin O’Farrell for Alan O’Callaghan (57)
Referee: Johnny Ryan (Tipperary)
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