Leinster Club SHC semi-final: Na Fianna (Dublin) 1-16 St Martin’s (Wexford) 0-15
Na Fianna’s rise through Leinster hurling was maintained when qualifying for a second successive provincial final at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon. In a match that played out like a definition of winter hurling, they responded to a robust challenge from Wexford champions St Martin’s and finished as deserved winners, if only because they produced their best when threatened both in the final quarter and just before half-time.
“Listen, semis are there for winning. I’m really looking forward to next week now,” was the relieved reaction of their manager, Niall Ó Ceallacháin, soon to take charge of Dublin.
In the 53rd minute, they had fallen behind to a point scored by Barry O’Connor, who led the charge for Martin’s in the second half, for only the second time since the first minute.
Trailing 0-13 to 0-14 isn’t the end of the world with at least 10 minutes remaining and within a minute they conjured a marvellous goal which reset the co-ordinates of the contest.
Colin Currie, who was top scorer on the day, killed a long clearance from defenceand played the ball into the path of Ciarán Stacey, whose tap along the ground was picked up by AJ Murphy. Showing the presence of mind and vision to spot replacement Seán Ryan running in from the right, Murphy laid off a perfect pass and Ryan did the rest.
An excellent goal to reclaim the lead, it wasn’t however as if it drained Martin’s resolve and caused them to throw in their hand.
Instead, they kept competing and a defiant point from Rory O’Connor cut the margin back to one. But it was the Dublin champions who wrested back the initiative to finish with three unanswered points: one from the busy Dónal Burke and two frees from Currie.
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It was an impressive salvo to put away a match during most of which they had looked the more likely winners but an enervated third quarter saw them firing wides and in effect, incrementally encouraging their opponents.
For Ó Ceallacháin, the recovery from such an outage made the victory all the more heartening. “There were sloppy wides by both teams but that’s the game at the minute. It’s winter hurling. I suppose what I’d be proud of is how the lads stuck at it, even though those few mistakes happened.”
As befitted such challenging conditions – heavy pitch, howling wind – defences were more on top than attacking units.
The first half had already indicated as much. Early exchanges had Na Fianna 0-3 to 0-1 ahead with scores that included a commendable line ball cut over by Gavin King and some alert opportunism when a dropping ball from Dónal Burke was only parried out by Dylan Byrne in the Martin’s goal. A quick rummage of the possession set up Stacey for a fourth point.
Jack Meagher put in a good run through the middle of the defence but was well blocked by Conor Firman. Overall, though, the Dublin champions were on top in the early stages, more clinical with opportunities and better at creating them.
Too many balls into the Martin’s attack ended up being returned to sender with minimal fuss. Conor McHugh, the former Dublin senior footballer, did a good job marking Rory O’Connor and alongside him, Seán Burke was excellent.
The Wexford team did put in a strong 10 minutes up to the cusp of half-time, cutting a four-point deficit back to one – mostly frees from Rory O’Connor but the highlight coming in the 19th minute after a slickly-pieced exit after defusing an attack enabled David Codd to score from distance.
That briefly encouraging scoreboard was bent into something more challenging when the Dubliners rattled off 0-3 in the three minutes before half-time for a 0-10 to 0-6 lead.
Martin’s resumed with some intent. They overhauled the interval deficit by outscoring the opposition, 0-5 to 0-1. The scores flowed from play: Darren Codd, an otherwise subdued Jack O’Connor, whom Liam Rushe handled effectively, and replacement Ben Stafford.
Their defence tightened as well with Daithi Waters and Joe Barrett going up the gears. Na Fianna couldn’t get their radar right and shot a sequence of wides but their own defence was very good.
Not alone did they mark tightly but also held their shape with the result that as Martin’s urgency grew, their ambitious long deliveries were frequently plucked down by waiting defenders.
“Our lads showed huge resilience, huge character,” was Ó Ceallacháin’s verdict. “But so did they. Sometimes you just need to get those couple of breaks. They had a couple of balls that they launched into the square in the last few minutes. It could have broken their way as well. So, just really proud of our lads.”
They will play Offaly champions Kilcormac-Killoughey, winners in 2012, in next Saturday’s final in Croke Park.
NA FIANNA: J Tracey; C McHugh, S Burke, P O’Dea; K Burke, L Rushe, P Feeney; B Ryan, S Currie; J Meagher (0-2), D Burke (0-1), G King (0-2, 1sl); C Currie (0-9, 8f), AJ Murphy (0-1), C Stacey (0-1). Subs: D Ryan for P O’Dea (h-t), S Ryan (1-0) for B Ryan (43 mins), D Clerkin for King (46).
ST MARTIN’S: D Byrne; P O’Connor, C Firman, E O’Leary; P Dempsey, J Barrett, D Waters; David Codd (0-2), J O’Connor (0-1); Darren Codd (0-1), J O’Connor (0-1), J Devereux; B O’Connor (0-1), K Firman, R O’Connor (0-8, 7f). Subs: L Kavanagh for Devereux (36 mins), B Stafford (0-1) for K Firman (43), S Audsley for P O’Connor (55).
Referee: S Cleere (Kilkenny).
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