St Flannan's dig deep to book Harty Cup final date with Nenagh CBS
Harry Doherty of St Flannans. Pic: John Sheridan/Sportsfile
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. When you’ve a local derby like this, we knew it was going to be tough so we expected what we got," admitted victorious St. Flannan’s manager Brendan Bugler after his side had produced a remarkable 10 point second half turnaround to return to a second consecutive Harty Cup Final in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chiosóg, Ennis.
The roll of honour leaders with 22 titles were sucker-punched by a brace of second quarter goals through Matthew Corbett and Liam Murphy that catapulted St. Joseph’s Tulla to a five point cushion, a margin that would still separate the Clare neighbours by the two-thirds mark.
“There was no panic,” Outlined Bugler who also managed the Ennis school to their last Harty Cup crown in 2020 to end a 15-year barren patch. “I thought we played well in the first half so at half-time there was no panic as if wasn’t as if we were playing bad, we still had twelve points on the board.
“However, I think we upped the intensity immensely in the middle third and half-back line in the second half and started delivering a lot more quality ball into the lads inside.”
It created a total sea-change in the narrative as having scored the first two points of the new half, Tulla’s next score wouldn’t be until the hour mark, by which time the tie had effectively drifted from their grasp.
Quickfire goals through Darragh McNamara and Thomas O’Connor in a three minute blitz at the turn of the final quarter put St. Flannan’s into the ascendency for what ended up being a 2-6 unanswered rally to soar unassailably clear.
Such an outcome couldn’t have been foreseen when Tulla twice punished St. Flannan’s lapses to blaze an early trail.
In front of approximately 3,500 supporters, Terence Fahy’s side were never headed in the first twenty minutes despite having to completely reshuffle their pack when their inspirational defender Ryan Hayes suffered a leg injury and had to be catapulted into full-forward.
Level four times in the opening quarter, goals chances for St. Flannan’s proved fruitless as Darragh McNamara’s shot was stopped by advancing goalkeeper Patrick Murphy while Thomas O’Connor’s rebound flashed across the face of goal and wide.
Those missed would be magnified when in the 22nd minute, a monster Matthew Corbett free from his own half came through a forest of players for goalkeeper Leon Talty to block, only for the ball to be adjudged to have crossed the line at 1-6 to 0-7.
St. Flannan’s talisman Harry Doherty answered with back-to-back points, only to be struck by another hammerblow on the half hour mark when a Jerry O’Connor high delivery broke at the edge of the square, with indecisiveness in St. Flannan’s last line allowing Liam Murphy to nip in and flick to the net to power Tulla five in front.
Again St. Flannan’s response was positive as they finished the half with points from play through parishioners Eoin O’Connor and Harry Doherty to lessen the damage to a goal at 2-09 to 0-12.
2022 champions St. Joseph’s Tulla could smell blood and duly maintained that momentum-fuelled drive on the resumption as Matthew Corbett and Michael Vaughan restored a five point advantage.
St. Flannan’s would be left thoroughly frustrated when Darragh McNamara was denied another goal in the 40th minute but their luck did finally turn five minutes later when a Thomas O’Connor shot trickled off the post and McNamara was quickest to react to pull to the net and slash the arrears to the minimum.
However, the wafer-thin margins of such an intense derby was epitomised in the 48th minute when Tulla’s Nicky Belenko raced through and seemed certain to strike on goal, only for James Cullinan to somehow dispossess his at the vital moment.
Within seconds the ball was in the net at the opposite end when St. Flannan’s exploited a defensive error through a superb solo goal for Thomas O’Connor to hit the front at 2-13 to 2-11, there only seemed to be one winner.
Tulla did grab a goal on the hour mark to end a 23 minute barren patch but it was merely a consolation as St. Flannan’s cemented their passage to a record 42nd Harty Cup Final where they meet first round opponents Nenagh CBS once more.
“I said from the start of the year that whoever beats Nenagh will win the Harty Cup. So it has actually come down to that now," Bugler said.
“I could see it the first day that they were a really strong outfit and had a lot of players, both starters and subs, that had played senior club hurling in Tipperary.
"We played them two years ago in a Dean Ryan Cup Final as well and we had a good first half but then they got on top of us in the second half and won by a couple of points in the end.
“So we’re well used to them. There’s a lot of familiarity between the teams but we’ll see how that goes in two weeks time.”
H Doherty 0-7 (5f); D McNamara, T O’Connor 1-1 each; G Ball, E O’Connor 0-3 each; P Finneran 0-2; J Barry, B Talty 0-1 each.
M Corbett 1-5 (1-3f); J O’Donnell 0-3; L Murphy, J O’Connor 1-0 each; R Hayes, Cl Leamy, M Vaughan 0-1 each.
: L Talty (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield); D Murrihy (Inagh-Kilnamona), S McNamara (Clooney-Quin), C Hill (Ballyea); D Ball (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield), J Cullinan (Ruan), C Daly (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield); I Hassett (Clooney-Quin), R Ralph (Clarecastle); G Ball (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield), P Finneran (Clooney-Quin), E O’Connor (Ballyea); D McNamara (Clooney-Quin), T O’Connor (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield), H Doherty (Clarecastle).
D Kennedy (Ballyea) for Ralph (40), J Barry (Inagh-Kilnamona) for Hassett (40), B Talty (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield) for Kennedy (41, inj), J Keane Hayes (Kilmaley) for Finneran (62, inj).
P Murphy (Tulla); R Hayes (Tulla), E Cooney (Tulla), C Maxted (Clooney-Quin); H Nolan (Tulla), M Vaughan (Broadford), L Moroney (Tulla); M Corbett (Clooney-Quin), J O’Connor (Clooney-Quin); Ó Perril (Crusheen), J O’Donnell (Broadford), N Belenko (Tulla); A O’Driscoll (Broadford), C Leamy (Clooney-Quin), L Murphy (O’Callaghan’s Mills).
M Fitzpatrick (Clooney-Quin), H Vaughan (Broadford) for Moroney (52), D Greene (Broadford) for Maxted (58).
J O’Halloran (Limerick)
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