*Colm Cleary on the attack for St Joseph’s Tulla. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Although they produced a “fantastic” season, St Joseph’s Tulla were understandably disappointed to see their adventure end this weekend.
St. Joseph’s Tulla mentor Tomás Kelly didn’t hide his disappointment with their Croke Cup semi-final loss to St Kieran’s College but he readily accepted that it has been “a fantastic season for the team. Look we are very disappointed, we are sports people and we want to win. We targeted this. The energy just wasn’t there today that was in the Harty Cup. The breaks we got in the Harty cup we didn’t get them today. Congratulations to St. Kierans. They were the better team and we wish them the best of luck in the final”.
Tomás agreed that the game turned in St. Kieran’s favour in a matter of ten minutes in the second half when they got through for three goals. “We were happy enough with twelve or thirteen minutes to go when we were within four points. We always said to the lads if we were within reach down the home straight we would be happy and we were happy at that time. They got us with a sucker-punch of a goal and they got another one within that minute. The game was probably dead then. Sport can turn on fine things and it turned on that two or three minutes. We have no complaints, they were the better team and we wish them the best of luck”.
Continuing he said “they have a massive pick and a massive tradition. We have a tradition ourselves but its probably at a lower grade but we are very proud of our tradition. That was their peak performance today. We had seen them a couple of times and that was the best performance they pulled out all year. They are the days you want to pull them out, in All-Ireland semi-finals. We pulled out our best performance probably in the Harty Cup final and we will always have that to look back on and to cherish”.
The Inagh/Kilnamona clubman said, “we want to be competing at the highest level. We knocked the door down at C and B levels and we are up in Harty level now and that’s where we want to stay. We want to be competitive and to be known as a Harty school. Its going to be very good for Clare hurling. You have Rice College next year and you have St. Flannan’s. Schools hurling is a great launchpad for guys to transfer and to progress and go on and represent Clare. Clare hurling is in a very strong place now at underage when you see what has happened at schools level when you see what has happened with ourselves, with Ennistymon, with Rice College, with Flannan’s, Scariff and Killaloe. We need all those schools to be strong. Everyone needs to be chipping in and to be contributing for the good of Clare hurling”.
An eleven point winning margin suggests that St. Kieran’s Kilkenny comfortably accounted for Harty cup champions St. Joseph’s Tulla in the Croke Cup All-Ireland colleges A hurling championship semi-final at McDonagh Park in Nenagh on Saturday but Ritchie Ruth of the winner’s management team believes that the scoreline is not a reflection of how close the game was.
“The scoreline certainly does not show the hard work we had to put in to get through today. It was an immense battle and we are delighted to get over the line”, he told The Clare Echo.
Ruth acknowledged that the return of Padraig Lennon from injury and the influence of midfielder James Carroll was a big help to the team. “We were delighted to get Padraig back. He got injured against Dublin South five weeks ago and he has done a lot of work to get back on the field. James (Carroll) is small in stature but when it come to the ruck ball. He was excellent today and he came out with a lot of ball, thankfully. It was a physical but very fair game throughout and the scoreline definitely does not reflect the battle that it was”.
The St. Kieran’s mentor felt that they “got a lucky break in one of the rucks, James came out with it and Luke Connellan got on the end of it for the first goal. That little purple patch was the difference between the sides as apart from that it was nip and tuck the whole way”.
