Photo: @AIB_GAA
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final
Borris-Ileigh 1-21
St Thomas’ 1-14
Kevin Galvin
Just like they did at Intercounty level, Kilkenny and Tipperary will do battle in the All-Ireland Senior Club championship final, after Borris-Ileigh again defeated the odds, and now have their first ever trip to Croke Park to look forward to at the Senior grade.
The image of Brendan Maher, throwing the half-broken hurley he used to score his tenth point of the game into the air will be seen in the shops and pubs around the village for years to come, but for St Thomas’ this is one they’ll want to forget as soon as possible.
Galway’s St Thomas’ may have struck the net after just 10 minutes - through a spectacular combined effort from two of the six Burke’s on their starting 15, Fintan setting up Éanna to drill the sliotar into the top right-hand corner from 20 yards out - but too many wides had them behind at the break.
The Tipp side hadn’t seriously troubled James McCormack in the Thomas’ goal in the opening period, but they had a number of tidy scores themselves. Brendan Maher’s opening point reminiscent of the one replayed since their Munster semi-final, scooping the ball out of danger and sending it over from the left touchline.
Borris’ talisman added four further points from the set piece before the break, and having survived a second Éanna Burke effort, namesake Kevin Maher knocked over a superb point in the key passage from the first-half.
The Galway side adjusted their sights at half-time, and profited on a slow Borris restart to first eat into their two point advantage, and then take the lead for the first time since the early stages through a Darragh Burke free.
However their wayward ways returned before long, hitting wide after wide, and after Kevin Maher blocked down an attempted Thomas clearance and popped Borris’ 17th point of the game over the bar, the Tipperary side could smell the spring Dublin air.
The Connacht champions scored 1-14 and had 15 wides, the six consecutive blanks they shot in the second-half will particularly sting, having worked so hard to turn a two point deficit into a point lead after the interval.
However, this was Borris’ day and indeed their season after all the anguish and tragedy they suffered in 2019 - and the emotions burst out in the last play of the game, as James Devaney burst in from the right flank and fired past Thomas’ goalkeeper James Barrett.
Some of these panel have already tasted success against Kilkenny at Croker in the last 12 months, and now the cockerel is heading to Croker!
Borris-Ileigh scorers: B Maher: 0-10 (0-6f, 0-2 65’), Kevin Maher: 0-5 (0-3f), J Devaney: 1-1, C Kenny: 0-3, J Kelly: 0-1, Kieran Maher: 0-1.
St Thomas’ scorers: Darragh Burke: 0-5 (0-3f, 0-1 65’), É Burke: 1-0, C Cooney: 0-3, B Burke: 0-2, O Flannery: 0-1, J Regan: 0-1, S Cooney: 0-1, David Burke: 0-1.
Borris-Ileigh: J McCormack; S Burke, P Stapleton, L Ryan; S McCormack, B Maher, R McCormack; T Ryan, D McCormack; C Kenny, N Kenny (J Hogan 57’), J Devaney; Kevin Maher, J Kelly (C Cowan 62), Kieran Maher.
St Thomas’: J Barrett; C Mahoney, S Skehill, C Burke; D Cooney, S Cooney, D Sherry; J Regan, David Burke; C Cooney, Darragh Burke, B Burke; O Flannery, É Burke, F Burke.
Referee: P O’Dwyer (Carlow).
