*David McInerney wins the race for possession ahead of Adam Maloney. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
TULLA their place in the new premier intermediate hurling championship for 2025 with this merited win over Smith O’Briens in Bodyke on Saturday evening.
Tulla 0-21
Smith O’Briens 2-10
Venue: The Evicted Field, Bodyke
This win marked their second in a row in this season’s championship but losses to both Parteen/Meelick and Whitegate in the opening two group games proved costly and prevented them from emerging from the group for the knockout stage.
Smith O’Briens had started their group games with a win but they then lost out to Ruan and Clarecastle which meant that they didn’t manage to make the play offs either.
As a result of their failure to emerge from their groups, they were amongst four clubs fighting for two places in next season’s premier intermediate competition.
Tulla made the better start on Saturday and opened up a good lead but a Mike Gough goal for the Killaloe side gave them hope and when the half time whistle sounded just two points separated the sides with Tulla leading, 0-10 to 1-5.
The winners again pulled out a comfortable lead in the third quarter but Gough struck again and his second goal helped close the gap.
They fought back to within a point of the Tulla men but that was as good as it got and helped by the accuracy of Seanie Withycombe from placed balls, Tulla stretched their lead again and this was enough to see them through.
The result is particularly disappointing for the Killaloe outfit. Having been in the senior ranks two seasons ago, they will now compete at level three next season, the new intermediate championship.
Paul Lynch, Ronan Molloy and Darragh Corry were prominent throughout for the winners for whom Sean Withycombe top scored with 0-7 to his credit while his brother Dan contributed 0-5.
Tulla: Dan Vaughan; Feargal Kearney, Paul Lynch, Fionn Ryan; Padraic Mulconry, David McInerney, Jimmy O’Gorman);Ronan Molloy (0-1). Eanna Culloo (0-1); Mark Lynch (0-1), Dan Withycombe (0-5), William Halpin (0-2); Andrew Conheady (0-1), Darragh Corry (0-2) Sean Withycombe (0-7, all frees));
Subs: Colm McInerney for M. Lynch; Emmett Mulcahy (0-1) for A. Conheady; Liam McInerney for W. Halpin;
Smith O’Briens; James Power; Colin Balfe, Stephen Geraghty, Diarmuid Coleman; Dwayne Sheedy, David Gough (0-1) Sean McMahon (0-1); Mike Gough (2-1), Eoin Heffron; Micheal Ryan, Mark O’Halloran, Jason Monahan (0-6); David O’Shea, Shane Geraghty (0-1), Eddie Bourke;
Subs: Dara Nolan for Burke; Adam Maloney for O’Halloran; Mark McInerney for Ryan;
Referee: Ger Hoey (Killanena)
