First Connacht Crown for Tooreen Hurling Club

 

Tooreen (Mayo)             1-15

Ballinderreen (Galway) 1-11

In Athleague (Roscommon).

 

Sunday 5th November 2017 will go down in the annals and folklore of the Tooreen Hurling Club as the day that saw the East Mayo Hurling nursery claim their first adult Connacht Title as they overcame Galway Intermediate Champions Ballinderreen in a thrilling encounter in Athleague.

 

This game was the thirteenth edition of the Connacht Intermediate Championship since its inception in 2005, with all titles up to this going in the direction of the Galway contenders. This game was also Tooreen's thirteenth Connacht final, having lost eleven previous Senior finals and one previous Intermediate final as recently as 2013 against Kilnadeema/Leitrim.

 

 

Early Ballinderreen Dominance

 

After only six minutes of the game, it looked as if Ballinderreen would be keeping the usual Galway winning cycle going, as they raced into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead. Tooreen took a while to get to the pace of Ballinderreen's play before referee Paud O'Dwyer from Carlow awarded Tooreen a penalty in the 10th minute. Tooreen's Cathal Freeman duly despatched the penalty past Ballinderreen 'keeper Rory Foy and hope was restored for the Mayo travelling support. Indiscipline from Ballinderreen continued out the field with frees being converted by Tooreens Shane Boland to keep things pretty even. However - a hammer blow for Tooreen soon followed - as indecisiveness from the Tooreen rear-gaurd presented Ballinderreens Shane Larkin with a goal-scoring chance and he duly obliged low past Tooreen 'keeper Stephen Leneghan

 

Red Card

 

With the game in the balance, the most talked about moment of the game came just before half-time. After some excellent defensive fielding and clearing by Tooreen's David Kenny, Ballinderreen full-forward and target man David O'Connor received a red card for an off-the-ball infringement, to the dismay of the travelling Galway support. And when Kenny Feeney converted a Tooreen line-ball just before the short whistle, an upset looked definitely on the cards as Tooreen headed in at half-time, trailing by the minimum on a scoreline of 1-8 to 1-7.

 

 

Extra Man

 

The resumption saw Tooreen using their extra player - David Kenny - sitting back to mind the house forming a shield in front of the Tooreen full back line of Daniel Huane, Michael Morley and Aiden Henry. This worked a treat as Ballinderreen were forced to shoot unsuccessfully from distance, while at the other end of the field the Boland brothers - Shane and Fergal - kept the scoreboard ticking over. Ballinderreen - like all Galway Champions - showed true grit through midfielder Kevin Lane, who scored a brace of points in the 43rd and 46th minutes to put the Green & Whites a point up heading into the final ten minutes. Tooreen never panicked and with the extra man and the high fitness levels, Paul Hunts charges eventually began to break down Ballinderreen.

 

 

Tooreen Finish Strong

 

The final ten minutes of this game will be forever remembered by all Tooreen supporters present, as Tooreen reeled off five unanswered points in succession to make history. Ciaran Charlton opened the floodgates as he pointed from close range to bring things level. Kenny Feeney's 65' put Tooreen one to the good, and when the game needed to be finished out, it was the Boland brothers again - both points from play from out the country - who sent Ballinderreen into a spin. A late onslaught forward by the South Galway charges resulted in a close-in free, but Stephen Leneghan kept his goal intact. Eventually deep in stoppage time Kenny Feeney drove over a monster on the counter attack and finally there was no doubting the outcome.

 

 

Connacht Champions At Last

 

When referee Paud O'Dwyer eventually drew proceedings to a halt - there was an outpouring of 60 years of emotion by players, mentors, families, former players and supporters. Sixty years previously in 1957 the club had been formed, and 28 county senior titles and 13 Connacht final appearances had eventually bore provincial fruit. Nobody was in a hurry as Connacht Council President Mick Rock waited patiently for over 30 minutes to perform his duties. Shane Boland's seven point haul (five frees) earned him the Man of the Match Award. And when captain Tooreen captain Stephen Coyne had made his acceptance speech, again nobody was in any rush to depart the on-field celebrations. An hour elapsed before the Tooreen heroes left the field. It took sixty years to get to this moment, so another hour wasn't going to make any difference.

 

Heroes All Round

 

A hurling team from Mayo doesn't get to a stage like this without exceptional people driving the thing on. With just four Senior Hurling clubs in Mayo the level of competition isn't regular or consistent enough to reach the standard of a well seasoned South Galway traditional hurling club. Previous losses at this stage highlighted the need for regular challenge games against seasoned Senior Hurling clubs in Galway. Kiltormer, Abbeyknockmoy, New Inn, Ballymacward, Lackagh and Craughwell have become regular challenge game venues for this band of Tooreen trailblazers as they have endeavoured to better themselves on the provincial and national stage. Coupled with commitments to other sports more traditional to Mayo, the players and management of this Tooreen side have battled through this over the past few months and have been justified in their belief that this day was possible. In the past, Mayo sides entered this cauldron in hope, but from today the roadmap for entering such a spectrum has been drawn, with belief being the headlights along the way. To the players and management we salute your efforts thus far, and will be there when the new year brings Tooreen and Mayo hurling to an even higher pedestal.

 

Tooreen: Stephen Leneghan; Daniel Huane, Michael Morley, Aidan Henry; Conor Henry, Cathal Freeman (1-0,pen), David Kenny; Stephen Coyne, Conor English; Brian Morley, Fergal Boland (0-3), Shane Boland (0-7,5f); Sean Regan, Kenny Feeney (0-4,1lb,1f,1'65), Ciaran Charlton (0-1). Subs: Shane Morley for Conor Henry, David Harrison for English, Sean Kenny.

 

Ballinderreen: Rory Foy; Brendan Burke, Colm Meehan, Kieran Meehan; Keith Helebert, Sean Collins, Kieran Gill; Robbie Lane, Kevin Lane (0-4, 1'65); Shane Coen, Shane Larkin (1-1), Oisin Burke (0-3); Roy Lane (0-2), David O'Connor (0-1), Cathal Gill.

 

Ref: Paud O'Dwyer (Carlow)

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