Late TJ Reid heroics see Ballyhale into All-Ireland final
TJ Reid of Ballyhale Shamrocks in action against Conor Cooney, left, and John Headd. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
With this game you start at the end. With the All-Ireland club semi-final three minutes into injury time TJ Reid had a close-in free. His Ballyhale side were two down and the goal-line was packed with St Thomas’ players.
“Luckily enough I put my hurley in a bucket of water last night just to give the bas a bit more weight,” said Reid later.
“I’m just glad it came into use. I struck it very well. I asked the ref what was left and he said thirty seconds, I only had one option, that was to go for goal. Lucky, it went in.
“There were bodies there so I knew if I struck it that someone might get in the way. When there are bodies there people can get blocked off, so I went for pure power and it just went in.
“I got it on the sweet spot, I couldn’t have struck it any better - as soon as I struck it I knew it was going in.”
When the net billowed Reid had snatched a win for Ballyhale that looked very unlikely at times in the preceding 64 minutes. St Thomas’ aggression and positivity overpowered them at times but the Galway champions never put a substantial lead together: even with the hour almost up they’d succumbed to a Reid penalty.
Conor Cooney hit two late points after that to push them ahead with the clock well in the red zone, but then Reid struck. Even then, though, Ballyhale manager James O’Connor was optimistic.
“I never say it’s gone when you’re with Ballyhale because they’ve done this in semi-finals when they seem dead and buried - go back to the Leinster semi-final and it was the exact same, the last ten seconds and today was no different.
“I knew there was a massive challenge here, we held in there not playing well at times, and there’s no point saying otherwise, but we showed our character at the end of the game, never losing our cool, never panicking.”
St Thomas opened the game with four points on the spin and were on top for long stretches of the game. Conor Cooney and Eanna Burke tormented Ballyhale up front and two more Burkes, Fintan and David were inspirational in defence.
St Thomas enjoyed a purple patch in the second quarter, hitting four points in a row to push three ahead and also missed a golden goal chance when Dean Mason saved calmly from Eanna Burke. Still, the westerners led at half-time 0-13 to 0-11 and snapped two early points on the resumption.
Ballyhale stayed in touch thanks to Joseph Cuddihy and TJ Reid, but St Thomas maintained a four-point lead to the water-break and beyond. The Kilkenny side leaned heavily on route one and it paid off with five minutes left, when Colin Fennelly won a penalty.
Reid obliged to level the game, 1-15 to 0-18; Cooney hit those two late frees; and then, incredibly, Reid found the net with an even later free. Glory.
C. Cooney (0-11, 10 frees, 1 sideline); E. Burke (0-4); B. Burke (0-2); Darragh Burke, B. Farrell, J. Regan (0-1) each.
TJ Reid (2-5, 1-0 pen, 1-3 frees); E. Cody (0-4); J. Cuddihy (0-3); P. Mullen, C. Fennelly, A. Mullen (0-1 each).
G Kelly; D Sherry, F Burke, C Mahony; J Headd, David Burke, C Burke; E Duggan, B Burke; J Regan, C Cooney (c), E Burke; O Flannery, Darragh Burke, B Farrell.
V. Manso for Farrell (45); M. Caulfield for Duggan (58).
D Mason; K Mullen, J Holden, D Mullen; E Shefflin, R Reid, D Corcoran; C Phelan, P Mullen; B Cody, TJ Reid, A Mullen; J Cuddihy, C Fennelly (c), E Cody.
E. Kenneally for Phelan (29, inj); B. Butler for K. Mullen (inj, 42); C. Walsh for D. Mullen (55); E. Reid for Kenneally (58).
R McGann (Clare).
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