*Conor Henry keeps the sliotar from Joe Carmody. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
HURLING hath no fury than a Mills scorned it seems as the Premier Intermediate champions edged a real battled to advance to their first Clare Cup Final in three years.
O’Callaghans Mills 1-15
Kilmaley 0-17
Venue: Clarecastle
Having controversially seen their Munster Intermediate Club Final dreams unceremoniously snatched from their grasp last December, O’Callaghan’s Mills channeled their understandable frustrations into making a real impact back at senior level, epitomised by a nine-match unbeaten run that has catapulted them to within thong distance of silverware once more.
Even more impressively, the East Clare side did so without key protagonists Jacob Loughnane, Gary Cooney, Colm Cleary, Fionn Hickey and Ciaran Cooney which will be particularly pleasing for manager Sean Doyle and his management team.
Liam Murphy’s opportunist eleventh minute goal ultimately proved decisive as despite getting the deficit back to the minimum on six subsequent occasions, Kilmaley just could never regain full parity for the final 50 minutes of the tie.
In truth, for a team with genuine senior championship ambitions, Kilmaley lacked a consistent inside threat as while Colm Killeen was lively early on and Mikey O’Neill excelled in a roaming role, they never troubled or even attempted to trouble Killian Nugent’s goal at any stage.
Contrast that with the perennial danger posed by the Mills electric two-man full-forward unit of Sean Boyce and Liam Murphy and Kilmaley have a lot to work on ahead of commencement of the Canon Hamilton race in five weeks time.
Murphy’s powerful shot from an acute angle following a superb ball over the top from Conor Cooney was a welcome boot to a low-scoring yet intense wrestle for supremacy from the outset at 1-3 to 0-4.
Killian Nugent’s accuracy from long range frees and Aidan O’Gorman’s superb defensive anchoring ensured that they kept Kilmaley at arm’s length even if their opponents had the sizeable conditions to come at 1-7 to 0-8 by the break.
However, that blow-for-blow pattern would be maintained for the entire second period too as without a goal of even the intention of manufacturing one, Kilmaley just couldn’t sustain a run of points to alter the narrative.
Tom O’Rourke’s frees and two boomers for Mikey O’Neill kept the pressure on the leaders but they needed more from their attacking division as eight second half wides never fully tested the Mills resolve to its optimum at any stage. The Mills even ended up with fourteen for a brief spell when referee Chris Maguire showed Aidan Fawl what he thought was a second yellow card and then a red, only to realise moments later that he hadn’t booked the Clare panellist earlier in the tie.
Going for broke, Mikey O’Malley was pushed forward late on but Cormac Murphy (2) and Liam Murphy matched anything that Kilmaley could throw at them at 1-15 to 0-15 by the hour mark.
Kilmaley did carve out an injury-time goal sighting to potentially force extra-time when Tom O’Rourke passed inside to Cian Neylon. However, the substitute volleyed just over the bar before a further O’Rourke free slashed the arrears to just one with additional time almost elapsed.
There would be one further play but Kilmaley couldn’t get a shot away by a defiant Mills side that clung to their minimum advantage to hold out for a Clare Cup Final showdown against Scariff or Newmarket-on-Fergus in a fortnight’s time.
Gallery of photographs by Ruth Griffin.
Scorers for O’Callaghan’s Mills: Sean Boyce 0-5 (3f), Liam Murphy 1-2, Killian Nugent 0-4 (4f), Cormac Murphy 0-3, Sean Cotter 0-1
Scorers for Kilmaley: Tom O’Rourke 0-8 (7f), Mikey O’Neill 0-3, Colm Killeen 0-2, Evan Cahill 0-2, Mikey O’Malley 0-1, Cian Neylon 0-1
O’Callaghan’s Mills
1: Killian Nugent
2: Cathal McNamara
3: Conor Cooney
4: Keith Donnellan
5: Sean Cotter
6: Aidan O’Gorman
7: Aidan Fawl
8: Niall Melody
9: Cormac Murphy
12: Stephen Donnellan
11: Colin Crehan
10: Conor Henry
13: Sean Boyce
14: Bryan Donnellan
15: Liam Murphy
Subs
19: Mark Pewter for Donnellan (19, inj)
24: Sean O’Gorman for Crehan (61, inj)
Kilmaley
1: Bryan O’Loughlin
4: Colin Carmody
3: Colin McGuane
2: Thomas McGuire
5: Aidan McGuane
6: Mikey O’Maley
7: Daire Keane
8: Eanna McMahon
9: Cian Moloney
10: Evan Cahill
11: Tom O’Rourke
12: James Fitzpatrick
13: Joe Carmody
14: Mikey O’Neill
15: Colm Killeen
Subs
25: Conor Cahill for O’Malley (19-20, BS)
28: Peter Ronan for Fitzpatrick (37)
25: Cahill for Carmody (48)
19: Cian Neylon for E. Cahill (53)
23: Martin O’Connor for Neylon (56-58, BS)
Referee: Chris Maguire (Wolfe Tones)
