Powerhouses St Thomas' and Loughrea into mouth-watering Galway SHC final

Defending champions Loughrea saw off a Turloughmore who again failed to produce at the business end of the season

IMPRESSIVE: Loughrea’s Darren Shaughnessy scored four points in the Galway SHC semi final win over Turloughmore. Pic: Evan Logan, Inpho

St Thomas’ proud record of never having lost a Galway SHC final will come under serious scrutiny in two weeks when they contest their ninth decider against neighbours Loughrea.

It will be a repeat of the 2022 final which St Thomas’ won by a point after a replay and also of the 2012 decider when the Kilchreest/Castledaly/Peterswell outfit made their breakthrough with a 3-11 to 2-11 win over Loughrea.

Three players who started that final 13 years ago — 2017 All-Ireland winning captain David Burke, his brother Darragh and Conor Cooney — lined out in this semi-final at Pearse Stadium on Saturday night, while two others in the starting 15, Eanna Burke and Shane Cooney, came on in that historic county final win in 2012.

That breakthrough success had led to eight county titles and two All-Ireland club successes in a golden era for a club with around just 200 houses, and their capacity to win tight matches has been again evident this year as they march into the final scoring eleven goals in five games and conceding just one.

That ability to find the net served them well in this 4-18 to 0-19 semi-final win in the Salthill rain as they saw off the challenge of another neighbouring club Craughwell.

They led by just 1-10 to 0-9 at the break having played with the breeze, with captain Eanna Burke finding the net three minutes from the interval when Conor Cooney broke a ball to set him up.

Craughwell, with Ciaran Leen and Tom Monaghan leading the way, started the second-half strongly and hit four points without reply to tie the game.

But 2017 All-Ireland winning captain Burke settled St Thomas’ with a good point and they got a foothold again and struck a big blow when Victor Manso got the first of his two goals to lead by 2-13 to 0-14.

Conor Cooney, who finished with 0-10, extended the lead before Evan Brady set up Manso for his sixth goal of the campaign to put nine points between.

Champions Loughrea advanced to their tenth Galway SHC final in 23 years when they saw off a Turloughmore 1-17 to 0-15.

Last year’s win over Cappataggle ended a losing run of five county finals for Loughrea, with their 2006 success over Portumna their only other triumph in their nine appearances since 2003.

Now they are in line for a fourth Galway title — they won their first back in 1930 — after another accomplished display in a game which hung in the balance until a late goal from Kieran Hanrahan wrapped up the issue in stoppage time.

A strong finish to the opening half helped Loughrea lead by 0-12 to 0-7 at the break having played with the wind.

Loughrea outscored Turloughmore by 0-7 to 0-1 in the closing eleven minutes of the half. Shane Morgan, Tiernan Killeen, Brian Keary and the impressive Darren Shaughnessy led the way in that onslaught.

Turloughmore’s plight would have been greater were it not for two great saves either side of the break by goalkeeper Darragh Walsh which kept them in contention.

The sides twice exchanged points after the restart but Loughrea pushed the lead out to 0-16 to 0-9 at the end of the third quarter.

Three pointed frees from Conor Walsh cut the gap to four before Shaughnessy hit back for Loughrea to put five between them.

An exciting finish was set up when Walsh and Sean Linnane pointed to leave a goal between them.

Walsh’s eighth pointed free cut the gap to two a minute into injury-time but Loughrea sealed the win when a long range effort from Hanrahan ended up in the net and they will now look forward to another showdown with neighbours St Thomas’.

Two of the side, 2017 All-Ireland winner Johnny Coen and Paul Hoban, also started in the 2012 county final loss to St Thomas’ while Jamie Ryan, whose return has made a biggest difference in recent games, came on as a sub in that decider.