Heroic display from St Rynagh’s falls just short
For all the progress that has been made in Offaly hurling in the past couple of years, no single result would be able to compare to the victory that was in the palm of St Rynagh’s hands last Sunday afternoon, only for it to be snatched away by Eoin Cody’s equalising goal in the 63rd minute of the game.
Ballyhale Shamrocks, a club that haven’t been beaten in a knockout championship match since 2017, came to Tullamore and they burst out of the blocks with two early goals, suggesting that they were going to put Ken Hogan’s men to the sword.
Instead, what we saw over the 50 odd minutes up until the end of normal time was a performance from the Offaly champions that was the perfect marriage of ferocity and execution. They defended and harassed Ballyhale Shamrocks with the intensity of a team hurling as if their lives depended on it, before then using the ball cleverly and efficiently in a manner that suited the weapons at their disposal.
Nowhere to be seen were the rash, blind deliveries that they aimlessly fed to David King in the county final, as instead they used the pace and movement of players like Luke O’Connor and Stephen Quirke to brilliant effect. Quirke, in particular, was superb and while one point mightn’t look like a lot for a corner-forward, he had a huge hand in any number of crucial scores, including O’Connor’s goal late in the first half.
All of this was made possible by the incredible defensive work and commitment to winning ruck ball that was exemplified by Dermot Shortt and Seán Dolan, with the latter putting in a display that was fresh out of the Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher playbook.
The red card to Ballyhale's Joe Cuddihy was a boost but St Rynagh’s made sure to take full advantage of their good fortune. Stephen Wynne played the role of free man very well, while crucially, the man-marking defenders didn’t switch off mentally on the basis that there was cover in the general vicinity, as sometimes happens.
Their last three games in Offaly this championship season suggested that St Rynagh’s had gone off the boil, and that they were coming back to meet the pack. This was arguably their best performance yet, and there’s every chance that Ballyhale will prove that by going on to win the All-Ireland championship.
After an underwhelming conclusion to the local hurling championship, the stinging sense of regret felt by all Offaly people coming out of O’Connor Park last Sunday was soothed by a renewed sense of hope and optimism about where the county is going in the coming years, thanks to the quality of this display.
Shamrocks will face a step up
Clodiagh Gaels and Shamrocks were also in action last weekend, but as expected there was no joy for Clodiagh Gaels in Wexford. However, Shamrocks did enjoy another good day out, scraping past Maynooth at Hawkfield to set up a Leinster final clash with Mooncoin of Kilkenny.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the Rahan and Mucklagh men now face a huge step-up in class against the Kilkenny champions, who scored a very healthy 5-16 against Wexford side Tara Rocks in the other semi-final.
Fifteen of the last 18 Leinster junior titles have gone to whoever came out of the Marble County, and the evidence would suggest that Mooncoin are at least as good as the average standard of Kilkenny junior winner, and arguably even a little bit ahead of that.
They’ll have the physical power and strength to compete with a Shamrocks side that has no problem in that area, but they also have a huge range of different scoring threats in their forward line, having racked up a rather ludicrous 17 goals in their last four knockout championship matches.
Shamrocks manager Jimmy Conway will be very busy over Christmas planning for this provincial final, and it’s fairly obvious where he’ll have to start, based on that track record.
- Kevin Egan