De La Salle strike in the air and on the ground – De La Salle 1-21 Dungarvan 0-12

Once John Mullane sliced open the Dungarvan defence barely three minutes in, the writing was on the wall. He wasn’t going to settle for the edgy performances that had sufficed in the quarters and semis. Afterwards Mullane said: “We were hoping that we could hit them early and try to quieten the crowd because there was a big crowd from Dungarvan and thankfully that happened.” Jake Dillon finished with aplomb to the far corner and he had 1-3 to his name by the ninth minute. It quickly became men against boys. Dermot Dee would have pinned his hopes on a solid start but they played catch up hurling for the rest of the afternoon.

In fairness to the home side, they somehow managed to stay afloat and by the 20 minute mark they had pared the deficit down to a point. Shane Kearney and Kenny Moore swept up in the half back line and Cormac Curran dissected the posts with regularity from placed balls. They still needed the tonic of a goal and when Ryan Donnelly broke through one on one you could sense that the roof would come off the place if he could rattle the rigging. Stephen Brenner saved and when he smothered Eoin Healy’s effort a couple of minutes later, two golden opportunities had slipped through their fingers. De La Salle outscored them by seven points to one for the last ten minutes of the half. They made gains in all the areas that were well signposted before the throw in. Phelan, Moran and Madigan repelled anything Dungarvan threw at them and at midfield, Barrett and Twomey imposed themselves. Mullane roamed freely and produced his most effective club performance all season. Jack Kennedy’s aerial ability also caused problems at the edge of the square and he posted two points. They hunted in packs all over the field to disrupt Dungarvan’s short game. They also ruled the skies with some fantastic examples of high fielding from Moran, Phelan, Twomey, Nevin and Kennedy. Seven points clear by the interval with the wind at their backs in the second period, all the heavy lifting was completed.

Dungarvan made a couple of positional alterations but five De La Salle points on the bounce really silenced the strong home support amongst a healthy turnout of 5,500. The third of those from Eddie Barrett came as a result of some great vision from Dean Twomey who delivered an inch perfect pass to his unmarked midfield partner. The two men in the red and white helmets exerted almost total control in that area after Sean Ryan opened brightly. From there to the finish, the margin of victory was the only issue left to debate. Shane Kearney emerged with his reputation intact on the losing side and his consistency all season merits a county call-up this winter. Jamie Nagle and Gavin Crotty couldn’t get on enough to possession to offer the direction and leadership of previous matches. Nagle’s number of plays ended up in the low teens while Crotty only got motoring in the second half. Shane McNulty’s introduction spelled further danger for Dungarvan. The forward unit put together some dazzling combinations and a bit of overplay along with 12 wides (nine in the second half) prevented them from adding to their final total of 1-21. Nine different scorers contributed overall and 1-15 came from open play. Cormac Curran was another that didn’t shirk his responsibilities for the Blues but three points from play is a disappointing return on county final day with three forwards held scoreless.

So for the third year in succession, the county final finished up with a lop sided scoreline. It’s a steep learning curve for a young Dungarvan side that had contributed so much to an enjoyable championship. They needed many factors to fall in their favour including all of their big players to fire on all cylinders and unfortunately De La Salle never allowed that to happen. Derek McGrath made sure they brought their A game and even though Kevin Moran received the man of the match award, the likes of Dean Twomey, John Mullane and Jake Dillon weren’t far behind. Twomey made 15 plays (which was more than Moran), scored a point and played the final pass for two others. His shooting let him down slightly in the second half as he shot three wides. Dillon was on the fringes during their last foray into the Munster and All Ireland series but he is now a leader of that attack as a whopping 6-37 in eight matches proves. Their half back line and midfield gives them the platform for their success but their appetite for work all over the field was also evident on Sunday. Deep into injury time, John Mullane chased a lost cause into his own half. McGrath explained that they followed Brian Cody’s example in that regard. “We tried to take a leaf out of Kilkenny’s book in terms of the work rate of the forward line. That’s what we did and it paid off.” They will be a hard nut to crack and they have already been installed as favourites at 15/8 to collect a third Munster club crown.

On a side issue, the shenanigans before the throw in were frustrating for all in attendance. For starters, so many substitutes and officials should never have been allowed down on the sideline. When the parade was underway, a total of 59 people (33 from De La Salle and 26 from Dungarvan) between managers, selectors, substitutes, etc were lined up. Far too many people are permitted down the sideline but the situation should have been ironed out long before the players were lined up on the field.

County final stats

Wides
DLS: 12 Dun: 7

65s
DLS: 0 Dun: 2

Frees
DLS: 10 Dun: 11

Yellow cards
DLS: 1 Dun: 1

Subs used:
DLS: 5 Dun: 4

Accuracy from placed balls
DLS: Jake Dillon 4/5, Brian Phelan 2/2 Dun: Cormac Curran 9/11

Top scorers
DLS: Jake Dillon 1-5(4f) Dun: Cormac Curran 0-9 (7f, 2 65)

Top scorer from play
DLS: Jake Dillon 1-1 Dun: Sean Ryan, Colm Curran, Gavin Crotty 0-1 each