Smith O’Brien’s triumph in U-14B final

Smith O’Brien’s  5-10   Feakle-Killanena  2-6
In a very entertaining U-14B hurling championship final at Cusack Park on Saturday evening, Smith O’Brien’s caused an upset when they overcame the challenge of favourites Feakle-Killanena.

The game was played before a big attendance and produced some excellent scores and some outstanding individual performances.
The foundations for the success for the Killaloe side were laid in the opening 12 minutes when they scored 3-2 without reply. This left Feakle-Killanena with a huge task and, while they battled to the very end, they were unable to get back into contention.
While both sides had many stars, the performances of Smith O’Brien’s corner-forwards, Eddie Burke and David O’Shea, were particularly impressive. Arguably the two smallest players on the pitch, they were outstanding throughout and while O’Shea didn’t get his name onto the scoresheet he helped ‘set up’ many of his team’s scores.
Burke opened the scoring with a goal in the fourth minute after the opportunity was created by centre-forward and captain Shane Moloney.
Two pointed frees by midfielder Caimin Quigley were followed by a goal from the same player before Darren Byrnes finished to the net.
Feakle-Killanena finally got on the scoresheet in the fourteenth minute when Con Smith pointed and this was followed by a like score from Stephen Conway. Tommy Reddan, another of the winners’ stars, had a point but a Cathal Noonan point followed by an Enda Noonan goal had the Feakle-Killanena supporters in full voice with the score at 3-3 to 1-3 after 20 minutes.
Eddie Burke struck for his second goal after great work by David O’Shea but a Paddy McNamara goal kept the runners up in contention as half time approached. The winners finished the half strongly with another Burke goal and a point from Caimin Quigley to go to the break 5-7 to 2-4 in front.
Scores were much harder to come by in the second half as defences dominated. Feakle-Killanena had the first two points of the half to cut the leeway to 10 points at the three-quarter stage. In the final quarter, however, Smith O’Brien’s dominated and they added three points to run out deserving winners, a result which sparked off tremendous celebrations amongst their followers.

Smith O’Briens: Seamus Monaghan; Cathal Stritch, Nathan Wood, Declan Power; Aaron Conroy, Vincent Lyons, Eoin Sheedy; Brian Pearse, Caimin Quigley (1-6); Mike O’Shea (0-1),Shane Moloney (capt), Tommy Reddan (0-3); David O’Shea, Darren Byrnes (1-0) Eddie Burke (3-0).
Subs: Oisín Moloney for E Burke and Stephen Howard for D O’Shea.
Feakle-Killanena: Michael Burke; Padraig Minogue, Evan McMahon, Cathal Linnane; Andrew Flaherty, Martin Daly, Seán Glynn; Jason Keehan, Con Smyth (0-2); Eric Conway, Enda Noonan (1-0), Stephen Conway (0-1); Cathal Noonan (0-1), Cian Harrington, Paddy McNamara (1-2).
Referee: Tony McCarthy, Newmarket.

North v East in U-14C final
Cusack Park will be the venue on Sunday for the final of the U-14C hurling championship. In opposition will be St Breckan’s and Broadford and the throw in time is 3.30pm.
A win for St Breckan’s would see this title go to North Clare for the first time.

U-14 D
Ogonnelloe  3-10   Ennistymon  1-2
Ogonnelloe won back-to-back U-14D championships when they defeated Ennistymon in this one sided affair at Cusack Park last Saturday.
The foundations for this victory were laid in the first half when the winners hit 3-4 with Ennistymon managing just one goal in reply. Eimhin Ryan got Ogonnelloe off to a flying start when he hit 1-1 inside the opening few minutes. Two points from James Kiely followed before Ennistymon replied with a goal of their own from Liam Devitt.
However Ogonnelloe hit back with goals from Cian Fitzgerald-Bradley and David Kiely to effectively kill off the game before half time. Try as they did Ennistymon could not find a way to breach the Ogonnelloe defence in the second half while the winners had further points from Cian Fitzgerald-Bradley, Jack Orme and James Kiely to run out winners on a 3-10 to 1-2 scoreline.
Best for the winners were Finbarr Kiely, Benjamin Kikkers, Mark Walsh and James Kiely.
After the game Bord na nÓg chairman Sean O’Halloran presented the trophy to the Ogonnelloe captain, Jack Orme.

Ogonnelloe: Martin Vaughan; Cathal Curran, Finbarr Kiely, Luke Dillon, Jack Orme, Benjamin Kikkers, Cian Fitzgerald-Bradley, Gerard MacMahon, Eimhin Ryan, James Kiely, Mark Walsh, Fergal Collins, David Kiely.
Sub: Colin Hart.
Ennistymon: Jamie Dooley; Cathal Frawley, Shane Doyle; Jack Devitt Adam Ralph, Kieran McCormack; Simon Ralph, Jack Fitzgerald; Michael Davenport, Liam Devitt, Seán Garrihy; Sean Garrihy, Padraig Malone.
Sub: James Lehane, Tony Malone and Derek McInerney.
Referee: Bernard Dowd, Clooney-Quin.