Shinrone 1-8 Seir Kieran 0-10

[Lone Shark]

It won’t have made the most pleasant viewing for any representatives of the Offaly senior hurling team management who might have been scouting for outstanding individual displays in Rath last Sunday, but at least the Offaly county board will be pleased that on a day when the other five senior championship matches were decided by an average margin of twelve points, at least one encounter engaged the viewing public right up to the final whistle.

To say this game was “slow to ignite” is probably as kind a description as we can give it. In fairness however this was as much due to the conditions as the participants. The breeze was deceptively strong and blowing from the road end of the ground, while the rain showers all morning left the surface very greasy, making underfoot conditions extremely tricky. This handicap only goes someway to explaining the poor fare on offer though. We also saw more wides than points and only three players managing more than one point from play, both more harsh reflections on a game where neither side looked like they will make any real impact on the Senior hurling championship this year.

Shinrone started with the aid of the elements, but Clareen had the better of the early exchanges. James Mulrooney, Darragh Coughlan and in particular Eanna Murphy had the upper hand in their individual battles, and that platform around midfield and half back meant that Shinrone were struggling to carve out real scoring opportunities. Tomás Hannon did open the scoring after a good Martin Keeshan run and layoff on two minutes, but scores were to prove extremely rare as the game wore on.

Clareen were creating chances, but on several occasions the breeze caught players out, with three balls being dropped short and into the hand of Tomás Brereton in the first ten minutes. A Joe Bergin free on eight minutes did get them off the mark after Billy Dooley was fouled, though the Clareen attacker lost a lot of sympathy when he got up and gestured to the referee that a card should have been shown. A clear cut free it was, a malicious tackle it certainly wasn’t and a man of Dooley’s experience at every level of hurling shouldn’t be engaging in such tactics.

If that was the worst of Billy Dooley, he quickly redeemed himself with a very well taken score to give his side the lead some five minutes later, working hard to win possession off a Kevin Kinahan clearance and dropping the ball over the black spot. Eddie Bevans levelled matters on 15 minutes, but the remainder of the half was more about the chances missed than the chances taken. From Clareen’s perspective Joe Bergin will look back on a series of badly taken frees that were well within scoring range even allowing for the breeze, while Shinrone were regularly shooting from long distance or out on the sideline, no doubt hoping that the wind was going to work miracles for them. They finished the half with nine wides, many from positions where shooting was ill advised, though there were several scorable opportinuties spurned too. They also had the best goal chances of the half when Seán Ormond had successive goal bound shots smothered from relatively close range around the twenty minute mark.

As the half wore to a close Seir Keiran’s control of their own half back line was matched by the dominance that Mark and Derek Morkan were displaying at 5 and 7 for Shinrone – Derek Morkan in particular confirmed his status as one of the brightest prospects in the county with this display – and he rounded out the scoring approaching the break with a fine score from 70 metres out. Even so, at 0-3 to 0-2 at half time and with Clareen’s wind advantage to come, it looked like the Slieve Bloom boys were set to open their campaign for a win.

Shinrone’s fortunes started improving even before the teams took the field for the second half. A heavy shower of rain fell, taking the sting out of the breeze and making conditions a lot more even. Shinrone then opened the half well with scores from Tomás Hannon and Michael Cordial, though MJ Corrigan had a fine score for Clareen in between.

With ten minutes of the second half elapsed the game finally got the kickstart it needed. Martin Keeshan had been struggling to get any change out of Eoin Coughlan on the left wing, but he broke free and went on a good run diagonally across the goals. It looked like he had taken too much out of the ball when he was closed down at the edge of the square, but one last burst gave him enough space to get his shot away and rattle the net. All of a sudden Shinrone had a five point lead and some leeway. Two minutes later Clareen had the chance to cancel it out with a 20m free, but Joe Bergin’s freetaking again let him down and the shot was saved.

Both sides were guilty of a little bit of tactical naivety throughout this game. Clareen have arguably the best hurler in the county in Joe Bergin in their side, but he was starved of possession at full forward and needed more involvement in the game, if only to sharpen his touch for free taking. At the other end Shinrone lacked aerial presence and yet persisted in lorrying high ball in on top of Kevin Kinahan, with predictable results. Kinahan was the lord and master of his vicinity throughout this game, and it was he who kickstarted the Clareen comeback, pointing a free from all of a 100 yards with ten minutes to go.

That rousing score had the desired effect and Joe Bergin, Stephen Hynes and James Mulrooney all followed up with excellent points from play in the next five minutes to leave the bare minimum between the sides. Michael Cordial steadied the ship with an excellent score into the breeze with three minutes remaining, but Clareen were on a roll, and two Bergin frees either side of another Hynes point saw them hit the front as normal time elapsed.

There was time for one last twist though. Shinrone were handed a very soft free two minutes into injury time and Michael Cordial duly accepted the gift and levelled matters, but just when it looked like a draw was to be the result, Shinrone dug deep and pure hard work moved the ball up the field one last time for Eddie Bevans to step up and deliver the crucial score with the last play of the game.


Shinrone – Tomás Brereton; Colin O’Meara, Willie Comerford, Gerard Egan; Mark Morkan, Daniel Hoctor, Derek Morkan (0-1); Michael Cordial (0-3, 0-2 frees), Aidan Cleary; Eddie Bevans (0-2), Eoin Comerford, Martin Keeshan (1-0); Sean Ormond, Tomás Hannon (0-2) Darren O’Meara.
Subs: Mark Bevans for Martin Keeshan (Blood), Mark Bevans for Seán Ormond.

Seir Kieran – Liam Coughlan; Damien Murphy, Kevin Kinahan (0-1, free), Donal Coughlan; Eoin Coughlan, Darragh Coughlan, Eanna Murphy; James Mulrooney (0-1), Barry Bergin; Kevin Murray, MJ Corrigan (0-1), Stephen Hynes (0-2); Billy Dooley (0-1), Joe Bergin (0-4, 0-3 frees), Dermot Mooney.
Sub: Kieran Dooley for Kevin Murray
Referee: Padraig Freeman