All-Ireland club-hurling semi-final: Na Fianna (Dublin) 0-17 Loughrea (Galway) 0-16
In every argument, somebody must have the last word. After more than an hour and of pawing and scratching and falling over each other, Na Fianna produced a move that spanned most of the field and ended with AJ Murphy unmarked inside the D with just 10 seconds left in stoppage time. Until then, nothing about this match had been decisive or clear-cut.
After a campaign of grinding wins and cliffhangers Na Fianna became just the second Dublin champions to reach the All-Ireland club hurling final. Trailing by five points early in the second half, and searching in vain for inspiration, they finally wore down the Galway champions, bit by torturous bit, like an ECB rate cut.
In the entire match Na Fianna led for less than three minutes and didn’t hit the front for the first time until the 57th minute; timing, though, was everything.
Loughrea will wonder how it got away from them. In the first half they were on top all over the field and at one stage hit five points without reply. In a game where scoring was difficult it seemed to cause them less trouble than their opponents and there was a spell in the second quarter when they could have put themselves in a commanding position. Na Fianna, though, held tough.
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Murphy’s winner was his third point from play, but Colin Currie was the simple difference between winning and losing. He finished the game with 10 points, two of them from play in a thunderous second half. Currie missed a couple of frees just after half-time, but he scored with his next five shots, including a long free from near the sideline and a 65 from the same neighbourhood.
In the move that led to the winner he composed himself on the ball long enough to see a pass. The Loughrea wing-back Brian Keary should have made an interception but Currie’s good intention was clear. Ciarán Stacey picked up the ball in traffic and swerved into the fast lane. The Na Fianna wing-forward played the scoring pass.
“To be honest, they got the better of it in the first half. We didn’t really front up enough I don’t think,” said Currie. “They were all over us physically and they’ll probably be disappointed with a few wides. We really turned it around in the second half from a physical standpoint and we probably got on top from that side of things and that’s where the scoring opportunities came from.
“We probably let ourselves down a bit [in the first half]. You don’t want to do that in such big games, the way we played, it wasn’t good enough. We knew we had the second half to turn it around. That’s what this team has been all about, staying in games. We have a lot of talented players throughout the squad but that determination to stay in the game is probably our most important trait.”
Loughrea had much the better of the first half and a four-point lead at the break, 0-10 to 0-6, undervalued their superiority. They were sharper and more aggressive and moved the ball with a clearer purpose than the Dublin champions.
Loughrea dominated the puckout too, on both sides of the ball, and Na Fianna’s consistent failure to get their hands on primary possession inside the Loughrea half was debilitating. With that platform, Loughrea were able to exploit the space in front of their inside forwards with a steady supply of cute ball.
From that source Darren Shaughnessy scored two beautiful points and Anthony Burns landed another. Outside them, Tiernan Killeen was hugely influential at centre forward. Killeen is the only Loughrea player to have made the Galway panel this year and his bustling directness was a problem for Liam Rushe.
Na Fianna couldn’t establish any rhythm. Donal Burke, their best player and most bountiful source of scores, didn’t feel the weight of the ball in his hand for the first 20 minutes, and even then, his first possession was inside the Na Fianna 45. He didn’t have his first shot until first half stoppage time, and finished the game without scoring.
How the game went for him was a crude metaphor for Na Fianna’s performance. Though he got on the ball a little more after half-time, nothing was coming off. He tried to lob the Loughrea goalkeeper with an audacious shot from about 40 metres, but it missed by a good bit and with his next two possessions he was blocked down. A player of his class might go a month without being blocked down.
But when Na Fianna were more like themselves in the final quarter Burke came into it too. He made one crucial intervention on his own 20m line when Loughrea looked like they were going to create a goal chance, and minutes later he was fouled for the free that drew Na Fianna level.
Currie was nerveless with that shot after 55 minutes, and he put them ahead two minutes later. Loughrea mustered an equaliser from Killeen, and in stoppage time they won three Na Fianna puck-outs. Each of those attacks, though, led to nothing. Na Fianna had the last word.
Na Fianna: J Treacy, S Burke, C McHugh, K Burke, P O’Dea, L Rushe, P Feeney, B Ryan (0-1), S Currie (0-2), C Stacey (0-1), D Burke, J Meagher, C Currie (0-10, 0-7 frees, 0-1 65), AJ Murphy (0-3), G King. Subs: D Clerkin for King, 25 mins; T Brennan for Clerkin, 47 mins; S Barrett for O’Brien, 57 mins; D Ryan for Meagher, 59 mins.
Loughrea: G Loughnane, P Hoban, J Coen, K Hanrahan, S O’Brien, S Morgan (0-3, frees), B Keary, I Hanrahan (0-1), Cullen Killeen (0-1), Caimin Killeen, T Killeen (0-5, 0-3 frees), J Mooney (0-1), A Burns (0-2), N Keary, Darren Shaughnessy (0-2). Subs: J Ryan (0-1) for Keary, 40 mins; Dylan Shaughnessy for Darren Shaughnessy, 56 mins; V Morgan for Caimin Killeen, 57 mins.
Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork).
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