Masita Paddy Buggy Cup All-Ireland Hurling final: today, 2pm in Semple Stadium, Thurles (Live on TG4)
St Mary’s CBGS Belfast v John the Baptist CS Hospital
The senior hurlers of St Mary’s CBGS Belfast showed a lot of character two weeks ago in Darver to come away with a 3-15 to 1-16 victory over Naas CBS in the Masita Paddy Buggy Cup semi-final.
After such a long lay-off since the Danske Bank Mageean Cup final back at Halloween, St Mary’s needed to hit the ground running and opted to play with the breeze behind them in the opening half against a team that had four knock-out games since the turn of the year.
Despite a bit of hesitancy early on, St Mary’s pulled away to lead by 0-11 to 1-4 at the break, but it looked a narrow enough margin considering the strength of the breeze.
However a Paddy Doyle goal on the re-start gave them a much needed boost and Doyle added a second to keep the west Belfast side just ahead at the start of the last quarter.
In injury-time he went on a solo-run and off-loaded for Tiarnan Murphy to fire home and clinch victory.
So Doyle will now be a marked man for this final in Semple Stadium. But really the whole St Mary’s team needed to step up to the mark and they did.
Their semi-final total of 3-16 was just a point shy of their Mageean Cup final total – but this was a totally different game and the Ulster champions didn’t really hit the form they are capable of.
That was to be expected, but manager Paddy Cunningham was happy enough to get a tough game under their belts and still be in contention for an All-Ireland title.
“There was a lot of character shown in the semi-final. We needed to dig deep and everyone did that, but I think there is more in us. There would need to be, as St John the Baptist are a quality side.”
Former Saffron footballer Cunningham took in the Limerick side’s 1-10 to 1-7 semi-final win over St Joseph’s Galway the same weekend and he was impressed by them.
“Conditions were not great, but they showed similar character to ourselves. They had to battle to get the result, but they made it.”
“They also ran up 1-19 in the Munster final, which was played on a better day and they look as if they can play at a decent level.”
One to watch for the Limerick school situated on the Tipperary border is Dylan O’Shea who hit 11 points in the Munster win over Rice College Ennis. Both O’Shea and his midfield partner Michael O’Grady are on the Limerick minor panel as is centre-forward Paudie Maher from Patrickswell.
The other county minor is Paul O’Heney from Emily in Tipperary who has been very solid at centre-half back.
He will most likely be in a one-to-one with the impressive Colm McLarnon, a player who gets through a lot of hard work over the hour in keeping opponents from impacting on the play.
St Mary’s have more than Doyle capable of landing a few scores; Tiarnan Murphy, Shea Shannon and Odhran O’Callaghan are sharp enough in front of the posts, while CJ McKenna and Shannon are accurate enough from placed balls.
Their defence was under a good bit of pressure against Naas, but by and large held firm with Dominic McEnhill and Nathan Gibson pushing forward on occasion.
The Naas game will have brought them on hopefully to the level at which they finished the Mageean Cup campaign, and they will need to be at their very best to prevent the Limerick school’s midfield diamond impacting on the game.
Judging by how competitive Mageean Cup winners over the past couple of seasons have been, St Mary’s should not be too far away from landing the cup, as long as they do not allow the occasion to get to them.
