THE scoreline may suggest a fairly comfortable victory for the reigning All-Ireland club champions, St Joseph's DooraBarefield; but it was far from that. It was not until the final minutes that the winners wrapped it up with an injurytime goal by Lorcan Hassett.
It was only then that the champions could relax and that their supporters in a near-capacity crowd of some 8,000 could breathe easily. It was a great day for hurling. The sun shone and there was only a very light breeze. However, the playing surface was not ideal as the Milltown Malbay club staged its first hurling county championship final.
The standard of hurling, too, never reached any great heights. The man-to-man marking of both sides was so tight that any effort at classy hurling was immediately snuffed out.
It is significant that the players who made the biggest impact were the Doora-Barefield trio of Hassett, Andrew Whelan and Jamesie O'Connor, who contributed 3-7 between them. On the Sixmilebridge team, the only player to make a similar impact was Niall Gilligan, who managed a total of eight points, four from play. None of his fellow outfield players could manage more than one point each, with the goal coming from goalkeeper Dave Fitzgerald from a 20-metre free in the 24th minute of the second half.
Doora-Barefield had points, to a mere two points, and Sixmilebridge looked like real contenders for the first time.
Doora-Barefield had been in control, and were it not for the heroics of Fitzgerald in the Sixmilebridge goal, they might have been out of sight.
In the space of one minute in the first half, Fitzgerald blocked a fierce shot from Ciaran O'Neill and managed to knock the ball away; but when the ball was not fully cleared, Doora-Barefield thundered back and a Greg Baker shot which was angled across the goal was brilliantly deflected over the bar by Fitzgerald.
Oddly enough, it was a Fitzgerald error in the 12th minute of the second half that gave DooraBarefield their second goal. Jamesie O'Connor and Hassett combined and the latter drove the sliotar wickedly into the Sixmilebridge goalmouth. When Fitzgerald misjudged the flight of the ball Whelan dashed in to nudge it to the net.
The match had never developed any real pattern, with a lot of bunching around the middle of the field. Ollie Baker, however, was having a splendid match and Noel Brodie also helped to rebuff Sixmilebridge's challenge.
Sixmilebridge's John Reddan struggled manfully to match Baker's skill at midfield, and Gilligan continued to out-think the DooraBarefield defenders. Also making an impact were Johnny Swords and Martin Conlon, and a foul on Conlon yielded the free which Fitzgerald goaled.
When that score arrived there were about eight minutes left for play; but hard though they tried Sixmilebridge could not get on terms. When O'Connor placed Hassett in the second minute of injury time, the goal wrapped it up. Sadly both sides became embroiled in a bit of a rumpus shortly after this; but hands were shaken and backs slapped as soon as the referee blew the final whistle.
DOORA-BAREFIELD: C O'Connor; G Hoey, D Cahill, K Kennedy; D Hoey, S McMahon (0-2, one free), D O'Driscoll; O Baker, J Considine; J O'Connor (0-2, one free), N Brodie (0-1), L Hassett (2-3); G Baker, C O'Neill (0-1), A Whelan (1-2). Subs: C Mullen (0-1) for Considine (43 mins).
SIXMILEBRIDGE: D Fitzgerald (1-0, free); C Walsh, P Hayes, J O'Connell; D Murphy, S Fitzpatrick, K McInerney; J Reddan, J Chaplin (0-1); M Conlon (0-1), C Chaplin, J Swords (0-1); M Twomey, N Gilligan (0-8, four frees), David Chaplin (0-1). Subs: M O'Halloran for Hayes (33 mins); Dan Chaplin for Dave Chaplin (51 mins); C Culbert for Twomey (57 mins).
Referee: T O'Sullivan.
