Portroe dig deep to clinch the first ever Premier Intermediate North title

North Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship Final

Portroe 2-24

Roscrea 2-23 AET

It took yet more extra time in the North Premier Intermediate championship to separate this year’s inaugural finalists, as Portroe claimed the very first Liam Devaney Cup after a pulsating 80 minutes of hurling in Nenagh earlier today.

Portroe looked to have done enough in normal time as they held onto a well deserved two-point lead with all of the second half added time played, but Roscrea somehow managed a late goal from Sam Conlon, and when John Sheedy pointed with the last puck of the game, more extra time was required.

Despite the close finish on the scoreboard, Portroe more than deserved the win as they had the greater spread of scores once again in extra time, as the likes of AJ Willis, Ruan Mulrooney, and Kevin O’Halloran had fantastic games to finish off their rivals to claim the win by a single point.

Portroe started the match at frantic pace from the off and looked the sharper team in the opening five minutes, with Sam Madden clipping over the game’s first point after two minutes from a tight angle.

Roscrea were, even in the earlier exchanges, looking very open at the back as Portroe exploited that early space in the 4th minutes, when John Sheedy broke onto a ball inside the 14-yard line and produced a deft hand pass over the shoulder to AJ Willis to power the ball low to the Roscrea net from close range to give Port a brilliant start.

Luke Cashin pointed his first of the day from a placed ball after eight minutes to get the town men off the mark, but Portroe continued to increase the intensity with Robert Byrne pointing before Kevin O’Halloran slotted over a lovely sideline cut from the stand side of the pitch. 

Roscrea were getting some openings now, but some really poor shooting was letting them down and sucking the energy out of their effort in the blistering heat, but Dan Ryan was the exception to that rule, pointing a brace of points from play; his first a really well taken effort off the hurley after breaking out of his own half back line.

Port led 1-4 to 0-3 points at the end of the first quarter, but Roscrea had a brilliant opportunity in the 15th minute when a long delivery was misjudged by the Port half back line which put Jason Gilmartin into oceans of space to bare down on goal, but a fantastic hook from Robert Byrne as Gilmartin was about the strike denied the Roscrea corner forward, and his side had to settle for a pointed free at the end of that passage of play.

The sides traded scores in the following five or so minutes with two John Sheedy frees keeping Portroe ticking over, before a brilliant Jason Fitzpatrick point from distance narrowed the gap back to four points for Roscrea by the 20 minute mark, Port ahead 1-6 to 0-5.

But Roscrea were continuing to cough up cheap opportunities, particularly in their full back line, as Sam Madden once again found himself with space in the far corner after a long delivery, and much to Port’s gameplan from the previous games, they went for the jugular. Madden put the head down and, from the end line, delivered a ball across the face of goal to Ruan Mulrooney, and despite a poor first touch, he had the coolness to flick the ball back to AJ Willis who finished brilliantly to the bottom corner of the net for his second goal of the day.

Roscrea were in trouble now, and were their own worst enemies at times, with poor puckouts giving Portroe easy scores for Jack Moloney and Ruan Mulrooney, and despite Jason Gilmartin finishing the half strongly with two points from play, they had it all to do in the second half with the scoreboard reading 2-10 to 0-10 in favour of Port.

The men in red needed to hit the ground running in the second half, and despite Ruan Mulrooney getting the first score of the half in the 33rd minute, they got just the kick up the back side they needed in the 40th minute. Jason Gilmartin was again the threat up top, and after latching onto a ball inside the 45, he found Michael Campion on the overlap and the wing back adjusted his feet nicely to lash the ball into the top corner and breathe life into his team.

Port very nearly nullified that goal when AJ Willis had an effort for his hat trick brilliantly saved at the near post by Enda Moloney and, despite a major point from Kevin O’Halloran from distance, that passage led to another purple patch of scoring for Roscrea with Kenny Lee and Shane Fletcher - now operating in the inside forward line - pointing in the 45th and 47th minute respectively to bring the game back into the melting pot at 2-13 to 1-14.

The red wave was coming now as Port were struggling now and an inspirational Luke Cashin score from under the stand at half way brought it back to a single point, and when Sam Conlon set up Shane Fletcher for his second of the game in the 55th minute, it was all square with a frantic last five minutes to come.

Port were getting chances thereafter to re-take the lead through John Sheedy from a free and from play, but he couldn’t hit the target much to the dismay of the Portroe support, but he eventually found the target from a free in the 57th minute to give them back the lead.

Entering injury time, the nerves were starting to show as well as the tiredness in the white heat in MacDonagh Park, but a quick sideline from Ruan Mulrooney led to a quick link up with Kieran McKeogh who fed it back to Mulrooney to fire over a beauty from a tight angle to make it a two point game with only two minutes of injury time left.

But there was still time for drama, as Roscrea went for a hail mary with a late free, dropping the ball into the square where somehow, Sam Conlon got onto the ball in the sea of bodies to kick the ball home with what seemed like the match winning goal.

However, Port dug very deep indeed as Alan Tierney allowed one last play and they somehow managed to manufacture a late free close to goal which was gleefully dispatched by John Sheedy. Extra time again in the North championship!

Portroe nearly threw away the game in normal time after doing the most hurling throughout, and they hurled the beginning of extra time with great purpose, with scores in the first half coming from John Sheedy (free), James Moloney, AJ Willis, and Ruan Mulrooney with Roscrea’s only two scores coming from Jason Gilmartin and a late pointed free from Jason Fitzpatrick leaving Port in control with 2-22 to 2-18 lead at half time.

Roscrea weren’t done though and a dominant second ten minutes with three Jason Fitzpatrick frees sailing over in the first five minutes, as John Sheedy had another free sandwiched in between those Roscrea points, and by the time Jason Gilmartin pointed with a minute to go in the game, it was just down to a three point game. (2-23 to 2-20).

But in truth, Roscrea were chasing the game for the remainder with Ruan Mulrooney responding to another Fitzpatrick free to keep the three point gap, and despite Jason Fitzpatrick points from frees, it was Port who held on to win the Liam Devaney Cup.

Scorers: Portroe: John Sheedy (0-7, 0-5f), AJ Willis 2-1, Ruan Mulrooney 0-6, Kevin O’Halloran 0-4, Sam Madden, Jack Moloney 0-2 each, Robert Byrne, Mark Gennery all 0-1 each.

Roscrea: Jason Fitzpatrick (0-7, 0-6f), Luke Cashin (0-6, 0-5f), Michael Campion, Sam Conlon 1-0 each, Jason Gilmartin 0-4, Shane Fletcher 0-3, Dan Ryan 0-2, Kenny Lee 0-1

Roscrea: Enda Moloney; Shane Davis, Keith McMahon, Conor Phelan; Michael Campion, Darren O’Connor, Darragh Tynan; Dan Ryan, Shane Fletcher; Joe Carroll, Jason Fitzpatrick, Evan Fitzpatrick; Jason Gilmartin, Kenny Lee, Luke Cashin.

Subs used: Conor Dooley for E Fitzpatrick; Sam Conlon for Carroll; James Synott for Cashin.

Portroe: Diarmuid Boyle; Michael Creamer, Michael Breen, Justin Conroy; Jack Moloney, Robert Byrne, Christopher Riordan; Colm Gleeson, Kevin O’Halloran; Anthony Burke, John Sheedy, AJ Willis; Ruan Mulrooney, Mark Gennery, Sam Madden.

Subs used: Ian O’Donnell for Gennery; John Moroney for Riordan (inj); Kieran McKeogh for Burke; Mark Gennery for O’Donnell (inj).

Referee: Alan Tierney (Shannon Rovers)