St Mary’s CBGS outgunned in Paddy Buggy final
Masita Paddy Buggy Cup All-Ireland Hurling final
John the Baptist CS Hospital 2-14 St Mary’s CBGS Belfast 1-8
Apart from three points in a row between the 10th and 15th minutes of this Masita Paddy Buggy Cup final, Mageean Cup champions St Mary’s CBGS struggled to contain a strong forceful team from St John the Baptist Community School in Limerick.
The Munster champions were very quick out of the blocks with Paul O’Heney bursting through to win a free that Dylan O’Shea converted inside the opening minute. O’Shea added a second free in the ninth minute after Eoin Sheehan and Michael O’Grady had picked off points and Hospital were good value for their four points’ lead.
However two points from Darren Grego and a third from Shea Shannon reeled them in by the end of the first quarter, but those three points were to be the only scores the Ulster champions would get in the opening half.
Sheehan, whose pace caused a lot of problems throughout the game, lofted over a point and then in the 22nd minute finished an intricate move involving Sean Teefy twice for the opening goal. Sheehan added his third point when he picked up a half-clearance after Philip Kennedy brought off a good save.
However the hammer blow arrived just on half-time with Ryan McCarthy-Tobin cutting in along the side-line to fire past Kennedy and put his side in at the break with a 2-8 to 0-3 lead.
Less than a minute into the second half Dylan O’Shea landed a massive free from inside his own half and it looked bleak for the Belfast challenge.
Tiarnan Murphy however raised hopes by shooting a 36th minute goal direct from a 20 metres’ free and from then until the end he was the St Mary’s star player, his clever hand-passes opening avenues and winning frees.
In general St Mary’s did themselves more justice over the course of the second half. There were a few runs through from the pacey Limerick forwards and midfield, and Kennedy was called into action on a few occasions, but the Mageean Cup champions were competitive and able to get ball into Murphy to ask questions.
However the Limerick defence was solid and, while they only managed to tag on further points on the break, they never looked like allowing the gap between the sides to close to panic point.
Murphy scored 1-3 during the second half and the half-backs got moving a little more ball so that they edged their opponents by 1-5 to 0-6 over the 30 minutes, but the game was beyond them after the first half.
St Mary’s: P Kennedy, M Napier, N McCann, S Wilson, D McEnhill, N Gibson, A O’Brien, S Shannon 0-2, CJ McKenna capt, D Grego 0-2, C McLarnon, G Smyth 0-1, T Murphy 1-3, 1-2 frees, O O’Callaghan, P Doyle.
Subs : C Crossan for O O’Callaghan (41), O McKenna for P Doyle (60), M Smyth for S Wilson (61).
John the Baptist: B Heavey; M Quinlan, C Phipps, K O’Donnell; B O’Grady, P O’Heney, K Bonar; M O’Grady 0-3, Dylan O’Shea 0-5, 0-4 frees: Seán Teefy, Paudie Maher capt, 0-1, Eoin O’Mahony; Tadhg Leddin, Eoin Sheehan 1-3, Ryan McCarthy-Tobin 1-2.
Subs : B McNamara for T Leddin (46), J O’Donnell for E Sheehan (54).
Referee : G Quilty (Kilkenny).
