Hurling & Camogie

Tony Kelly the star as Ballyea outdo Glen Rovers to take Munster Club SHC title

Tony Kelly (left) and Damien Burke of Ballyea celebrate after their Munster Club Senior Hurling Championship final win over Glen Rovers at Semple Stadium <br />Picture by Sportsfile
Tony Kelly (left) and Damien Burke of Ballyea celebrate after their Munster Club Senior Hurling Championship final win over Glen Rovers at Semple Stadium
Picture by Sportsfile
Tony Kelly (left) and Damien Burke of Ballyea celebrate after their Munster Club Senior Hurling Championship final win over Glen Rovers at Semple Stadium
Picture by Sportsfile

AIB Munster Club Senior Hurling Championship final:


Ballyea (Clare) 1-21 Glen Rovers (Cork) 2-10

BALLYEA are kings of Munster senior club hurling for the very first time after Tony Kelly’s super-show lit up a bitterly cold Semple Stadium on Sunday.

Kelly, Hurler of the Year in 2013, collected five points from play as Ballyea added to their breakthrough Clare title by landing the provincial crown in their very first final. Cork’s Glen Rovers, back in the Munster decider for the first time in 40 years, had no answers as Kelly called the tune.

Niall Deasy was brilliant too for the winners, hitting four of his seven points from play, and centre back Gearoid O’Connell was another star. O’Connell created the first-half goal for Pearse Lillis and also picked off three points from play in a dominant outing.

In front of 4,583 spectators in Thurles, Ballyea opened up a nine-point lead at half-time - 1-10 to 0-4 - and held off a second-half fightback from the Glen. There may be more silverware on the horizon in the new year as Ballyea’s victory has set up an All-Ireland semi-final against Galway outfit St Thomas’ in February.

Ballyea, remarkably, are just one step away from an All-Ireland club final appearance on St Patrick’s Day. Two Conor Dorris goals in the 32nd and 37th minutes had Glen Rovers back in contention and breathing down Ballyea’s necks, just three points behind.

And that margin separated the sides eleven minutes from home when Patrick Horgan nailed a ’65 for the Glen. But down the home straight, Ballyea outscored their opponents by 0-7 to 0-2, running out convincing and deserved winners.

Ballyea boss Robbie Hogan said: “It feels unreal, if you want to put it into one word.

“I said last week, we didn’t even get to absorb winning a county title and all of a sudden we’re Munster champions and in an All-Ireland semi-final. In Ballyea, we don’t have a speed-bump or a traffic light and we’re taking on a team from a city, we just have great pride in each other and great trust.

“We’re just over the moon. When the bus gets back to Ballyea tonight, it’ll be officially Christmas there, so we’ll take it and we’ll run with it. That has been our motto all year, play every game as a final. We lost the first round of the championship and we had to play Newmarket-on-Fergus and if you lost that you were in a relegation scrap.

“There were some serious teams in it, that day turned the tide for us. There’s great togetherness about the boys. We’ve a jersey with a ‘t’ on the front of it and that ‘t’ is for ‘trust’. The boys trust each other, they’re super lads.”

Gracious Rovers manager Richie Kelleher had no complaints with the end result. Rovers were appearing in their first Munster decider since 1976 but came up well short against Ballyea, the first Clare team to win the provincial crown since Sixmilebridge in 2000.

“Best team won,” said Kelleher.

“I thought they were outstanding on the day. We can have no complaints. We were in a big hole at half-time, we had a few angry words. When we go down, we got to down fighting and I think we did that. We came into it in a big way but they pulled away again.”

And Kelleher admitted: “Being honest, I thought a couple of our bigger guys didn’t turn up today. Some days they deliver for us, some days they don’t. We are not going to knock them, that’s just the way it is.”

And with Cork’s senior team struggling to compete at inter-county level, Kelleher hinted that this defeat for Rovers is symptomatic of a deeper malaise on Leeside: “They were tougher than us, they were better hurlers than us," he added.

“They were really strong in the tackle. When we go back to Cork, we are strong in the tackle. Today, they were stronger than us. Maybe that just shows you the standard of inter-county hurling and where Cork is at the moment. We need to get that bit of steel into us. Cork don’t seem to have that at the moment. That’s everybody’s challenge.”

As Rovers reflected on a disappointing setback, the Ballyea journey story has at least one more chapter to be penned: “I was brought back down to earth there, somebody said it was St Thomas’s we’re playing next," he added.

“They’re a quality team and quality opposition, but look, we’ll enjoy tonight, we’ve a small bit of breathing space now. We’ll have to go looking for pitches again but it’s a great complaint. It’s great for the parish. We’ve had a lot tragedy and heartache down through the years, it’s great to see a community together with smiles on their faces as opposed to the sad days. This day outweighs all the bad ones.”

After the sides were level three times in the early exchanges, Lillis scored a 13th minute goal that handed Ballyea a lead they would hold until the finish. Lillis latched onto O’Connell’s diagonal ball from the right touchline and finished well past Cathal Hickey.

Dorris showed a poacher’s instinct for the Rovers goals after half-time, capitalising on Ballyea’s defensive indecision, but the overall package was too strong from the Clare men.

MATCH STATS


Ballyea: K Sheehan; B Carrig, J Browne, J Neylon; P Flanagan, G O’Connell (0-3), J Murphy; T Kelly (0-5), S Lineen; N Deasy (0-7, 0-3 frees), PJ Connolly (0-2), C Doohan; P Lillis (1-1), G Brennan (0-1), D Burke (0-1); Sub: P O’Connell for Connolly (60+2).


Glen Rovers: C Hickey; C Healy, S McDonnell, G Moylan; D Dooling, B Moylan, G Callanan; D Cronin, D Noonan; D Brosnan, P Horgan (0-5, 0-4 frees, 0-1 65), D Cunningham (0-1); C Dorris (2-1), C O’Brien (0-1), D Busteed; Subs: M Dooley (0-2) for Busteed (38), B Murphy for G Moylan (38), G Kennefick for O’Brien (45).


Referee: J Murphy (Limerick).