Ballyhale Shamrocks 3-24
St Rynagh’s 2-18
(after extra time)
Kevin Egan reports from Bord na Móna O’Connor Park
AFTER FOUR YEARS without a knockout championship defeat, Ballyhale Shamrocks came as close as possible to elimination from the Leinster club championship this afternoon in Tullamore, only to be saved in the last minute of additional time by a scrambled goal from Eoin Cody that broke the hearts of Offaly champions St. Rynagh’s.
Tame exits from the Leinster championship on their last two attempts in 2016 and 2019 – combined with some mediocre form in the latter stages of this year’s Offaly championship – suggested that St. Rynagh’s would be out of their depth this afternoon against the All-Ireland champions. This prediction was borne out by the early exchanges when Ballyhale carved open the Banagher club’s full back line at will, creating a series of goal chances, two of which were converted.
Cody short the first from a tight angle, followed by a close range flick from Colin Fennelly that diverted Cuddihy’s shot past Conor Clancy.
Brian Cody, Eoin Cody and Evan Shefflin all fired over additional points to stretch the gap out to nine points, 2-6 to 0-3, at the first half water break, and it seemed like it was going to be plain sailing from there.
Gradually however, St. Rynagh’s dug their heels in and some good use of the ball up front meant that they started to pick off scores even though Simon Óg Lyons, who started the game in the forward line, had dropped back to play as sweeper.
Stephen Quirke ended the game with just a single point to his credit but he was exemplary in his use of the ball, setting up a string of points for his brother Paul and then laying off to Luke O’Connor, who surprised everyone by applying a burst of pace and then batting the ball into the bottom corner of the net from 15 metres out.
Having dragged themselves back into contention, St. Rynagh’s were given a further boost when Joe Cuddihy came in late to a tackle and made contact with the head of Matthew Maloney, leading referee Chris Mooney to consult with his linesman and eventually show a straight red card to the Ballyhale wing forward just before half-time.
That proved to be a game changer as St. Rynagh’s use of the extra man was absolutely exemplary. Stephen Wynne picked up a series of short puckouts and hoovered up any amount of loose long deliveries, while some uncharacteristically poor shooting from the Ballyhale forwards also contributed to St. Rynagh’s chipping away at the lead and drawing level by the second half water break, 2-11 to 1-14.
The sense that the shock of the year was about to take place in O’Connor Park really heightened when at the start of the final quarter, Aaron Kenny picked up a dropping ball in the right corner and played it across to Ronan Hughes, who found the net from close range to put the Offaly side three points up.
Scores continued to be hard to come by for the remainder of the game but it looked like two further Luke O’Connor points was going to be enough to see them home, given that Ballyhale Shamrocks seemed unable to create the goal chance they badly needed.
All St. Rynagh’s needed to do was hold out but the somewhat needless concession of a 65 proved catastrophic as Richie Reid floated in a high ball and when it wasn’t cleared at the first attempt, Cody got his stick to a breaking ball and whipped in the equalising goal.
With St. Rynagh’s deflated and Ballyhale restored to 15 for extra time, the additional 20 minutes was one-sided, with Ballyhale outscoring their opponents by 0-11 to 0-2 to take some additional momentum into next Sunday’s provincial final against Clough-Ballacolla.
Scorers for Ballyhale Shamrocks: Eoin Cody 2-3, TJ Reid 0-7 (0-5f), Adrian Mullen 0-5, Brian Cody 0-3, Colin Fennelly 1-0, Evan Shefflin 0-2, Ronan Corcoran 0-2, Eoin Kenneally 0-1, Eoin Reid 0-1
Scorers for St. Rynagh’s: Luke O’Connor 1-8 (0-6f), Ronan Hughes 1-2, Paul Quirke 0-4, Aidan Treacy 0-3 (0-2f), Stephen Quirke 0-1
Ballyhale Shamrocks
1 Dean Mason
21 Kevin Mullen, 3 Joey Holden, 4 Brian Butler
5 Evan Shefflin, 6 Richie Reid, 7 Darragh Corcoran
8 Ronan Corcoran, 22 Eoin Kenneally
10 Adrian Mullen, 15 Eoin Cody, 12 Joe Cuddihy
9 Brian Cody, 14 Colin Fennelly, 11 TJ Reid
Subs: 24 Patrick Mullen for Kenneally (49); 2 Darren Mullen for Butler (52); 13 Eoin Reid (15th man for ET); 22 Eoin Kenneally for Fennelly (62); 19 Conor Phelan for Shefflin (70)
St. Rynagh’s
1 Conor Clancy
2 Conor Hernon, 3 Pat Camon, 4 Stephen Wynne
5 Matthew Maloney, 6 Ben Conneely, 7 Dermot Shortt
8 Joseph O’Connor, 14 Aidan Treacy
17 Paul Quirke, 18 Simon Óg Lyons, 12 Garry Conneely
13 Luke O’Connor, 11 Séan Dolan, 10 Stephen Quirke
Subs: 9 Ronan Hughes for Camon (3); 15 Aaron Kenny for G Conneely (41); 20 Ciarán Flannery for S Quirke (60+1); 10 S Quirke for Flannery (full-time); 20 C Flannery for S Quirke (69); 19 Niall Wynne for Kenny (69); 21 Brian Rigney for Lyons (76)
Referee: Chris Mooney (Dublin).