*Tom McDonald takes on Darren Hickey. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
ST JOSEPH’s Doora/Barefield qualified for the willwego.com Cusack cup (senior football league) final when they overcame a fancied Kilmurry Ibrickane side on Friday evening.
St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield 0-10
Kilmurry Ibrickane 0-5
Venue: Páirc Naomh Mhuire, Quilty
Friday’s semi-final fell well short of expectations and, overall proved to be a most disappointing low scoring contest.
Two pointers have become fairly common in club and county competitions this season but this tie failed to produce one.
Kilmurry Ibrickane followers will be particularly disappointed as they could only manage one point in the second half.
The home side had the better of matters in the opening quarter at the end of which they led 0-4 to 0-1, the visitors having been guilty of failing to find the targets from a couple of frees.
St. Joseph’s finished the first half strongly, landing four points in just over five minutes to lead by the minimum margin at the break when the score was 0-5 to 0-4.
Kilmurry had a great chance of a goal early in the second half but Cathal Talty, hero of last week’s one point win over neighbours Miltown to seal a semi-final place, blazed wide.
A Caoilfhionn O’Dea point levelled the tie at 0-5 each, five minutes into the half but from here on St Josephs enjoyed the better of the exchanges.
A Paddy Bugler 20m free had the visitors back in front eight minutes into the half and from here on they were never headed.
Charlie Hannan marked his introduction when he pointed to put his side two clear for the first time in the tie.
Two Paddy Bugler efforts had them four clear with five minutes to play and Tom McDonald rounded off the evening when he landed the final score of the game two minutes from the end.
This was a very disappointing contest in which both sides were guilty of a lot of misses.
Both were short a number of regulars due to Clare’s All-Ireland championship tie against Louth on Sunday while injuries ruled out a couple of players.
The win puts the Doora/Barefield men through to face county champions Éire Óg in the final. These sides met in the final group game a few weeks ago when the Ennis men won comfortably.
They will meet twice in the space of a few weeks as their league final meeting will be followed by a clash in round two of the senior championship as they have been included in the same group.
Om Friday evening Eoghan Boyle, Conor O’Brien, Michael Nash, Tom McDonald and Paddy Bugler were prominent while best for a disappointing Kilmurry Ibrickane were Colin Considine, Conor Kearney, Josh Moloney and Caoilfhionn O’Dea,
St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield: Tom O’Brien; Sam Costelloe, Eoghan Boyle, Conall Dorgan; James Curran, Conor O’Brien, Cian McDonagh; Michael Nash (0-2), Odhran O’Connell; Liam Clune, Eoghan Thynne, Nicki Hardiman; Tom Curran (0-1, f), Tom McDonald (0-2), Paddy Bugler (0-4, 2f);
Sub; Charlie Hannan (0-1) for L. Clyne;
Kilmurry Ibrickane: David Sexton; Conor Kearney, Maurice Donnellan, Cillian Darcy; Colin Considine, Darren Hickey (0-1), Josh Moloney; Caoolfhionn O’Dea (0-2), Diarmuid King; Shane Hickey (0-1), Jason Cushen, Kevin Tubridy; Oisin Sexton, Cathal Talty (0-1, f), Joe Campbell;
Subs: Tomas Sexton for J. Campbell; Daryn Callinan for D. Hickey; Damien Lynch for K. Tubridy;
Referee: John O’Connell (Cooraclare)
