Sarsfields shade five star final - Thurles Sarsfields 1-21 De La Salle 1-16

Let’s start with a question. Would De La Salle have won Sunday’s final if they had kept fifteen players on the pitch? Leaving the refereeing decisions aside for a moment, what may torment the Waterford champions in the days and weeks to come when they rewind the tape is the amount of scores that they left behind. By contrast their opponents looked slicker and far more clinical in attack and that’s what stood to them in a final brimming with quality.

De La Salle were playing catch up from the very start and although they drew level on three occasions, they never took the lead. Sarsfields’ attack lived up to their billing and punched holes from the opening minutes. It quickly developed into a fast paced shoot out with 22 scores posted by the interval and another 17 added after the break. Despite the heavy rain en route to Cork, the pitch was in surprisingly good nick apart from the sideline in front of the covered stand. The firm surface created the conditions for a scoring feast. That’s not the type of game that suits Derek McGrath’s outfit but they adjusted and realised that they had to fight fire with fire to survive. You got the feeling however that Thurles were in their element. Their movement and neat inter play between the forwards gave them plenty of space to exploit. It was evident that their speedy inside line put the De La Salle full backs under the cosh. Placing Pa Bourke at the edge of the square gave him a bit of freedom to display his full range of skills and he bagged five from play. And in Denis Maher they possessed a real ball winner who could also pick out a better placed colleague with a killer pass. They were economical in their shooting during the first half and also punished two poor clearances. By full time, 1-18 of their 1-21 total had come from play with eleven different players on target.

De La Salle managed to dig in and stop the rot mid way through the first half which Derek McGrath refered to in his post match comments. “Mid way through the first half we just felt we were getting a hold on it. The gap between our half back line and half forward line was getting narrower and Eddie Barrett was coming into the game and our midfield was coming into the game.” The ever industrious Paudie Nevin made a nuisance of himself all afternoon and tucked away his goal with aplomb. John Keane’s dismissal a minute later put them on the back foot again however. In a gripping game like this, the major talking point was the man in the middle unfortunately. In the only flare-up over the sixty minutes, Shane Hourigan was perfectly placed to make the call but he came down hard on Keane and Denis Maher’s reaction must have influenced him also. Arguments have been made on both sides over whether the red card was merited or otherwise but what everyone could agree upon was that Jake Dillon deserved a penalty with five minutes to go. One minute of injury time at the end also seemed mystifying considering that five substitutes entered the fray. These decisions frustrated players and management but McGrath didn’t linger on the refereeing debate in his post match comments.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, they pounded the Thurles goal at the start of the second half. They re-emerged early clearly with intent to fight for a cause with everything they had. Maybe they were over exuberant in those few minutes after the break when a bit of calmness was required. For instance, Dean Twomey doesn’t normally assume the free taking responsibilities and he should have left that 21 metre free for Jake Dillon to tap over. Even after posting three wides on the trot, they hauled themselves level twice. Crucially though Sarsfields issued an immediate response on both occasions to keep their noses in front.

Cracking efforts from Eoin Madigan and Kevin Moran continued to give De La Salle hope but they couldn’t find a way past Patrick McCormack. The angle was too tight for Nevin to squeeze home his second goal and David Greene doesn’t usually find himself with a clear sight of the target as he had with a couple of minutes to go. As McGrath observed, those chances could have been converted under different circumstances. “We showed in patches during the second half and first half when we got on top that their back line was there to be got at. A couple of chances fell to fellas who wouldn’t be killers on our team; balls fell to players who are more workers.” Thurles could also spring the subs which De La Salle were lacking and Ger O’Grady in particular proved a handful down the stretch as himself, Richie Ruth and Pa Bourke wrapped it up.

The De La Salle half back line didn’t exert their usual influence and Denis Maher was partly the reason for that. Kevin Moran was also carrying a knock which didn’t help matters. Of the six defenders, Brian Phelan was the pick of them and neatly dispossed Lar Corbett in the first half. The back line as a unit found it difficult at times to keep tabs on the Thurles attack and reign in the flow of scores. They improved in the second half as Corbett and a few of his colleagues didn’t make as much of an impression as they had done in the first. Pa Bourke and Maher posed a constant danger and Ger O’Grady could have ended up with four or five points to his name if he took all of his chances when introduced.

They won the midfield battle primarily through the endeavours of Eddie Barrett. He put them on the front foot in a resilient second half effort and pressed on to help out the attack more than usual. He finished up with three points from play and he brought the sides level twice. The half forwards however faced a formidable barrier all afternoon. David Kennedy acted as the spare man, Padraic Maher’s influence grew as the game progressed and Michael Cahill curbed John Mullane’s contribution. With Mullane on the fringes, Jake Dillon took up the slack. A point only three minutes in settled him down and he always made a dent on the Sarsfields’ defence whenever he seized possession thereafter. Even when switched into the full forward line after half time with an extra defender for company, he still won the race for the sliotar.

So Padraic Maher raised the Munster cup for the first time in the history of the Thurles club and all things considered, they were worthy winners of a Munster championship that featured plenty of exciting fare. After the presentation and the speeches, all the De La Salle players and backroom team gathered together in a circle and vowed to return stronger in 2013. Next year, they must modify to remain one step ahead of their local rivals. They lost two tidy corner backs in Darren Russell and Michael Doherty which left them short on defensive cover and that hurt them last Sunday. Shane McNulty will probably receive more game time and look to nail down a permanent spot. Other young players also need to push the established names all the way for a starting place. Until the Waterford championship starts up again however, they are left with the what ifs from Páirc Uí Chaoimh; some of which were in their control and some of which they had no control over at all.