*Wolfe Tones captain John Guilfoyle lifts the Paddy Browne Cup. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
WOLFE TONES have bounced back to the Clare senior hurling championship after edging out Tubber by the smallest of margins in dramatic circumstances.
Wolfe Tones 1-17
Tubber 0-19
Venue: Cusack Park, Ennis
Late frees from man of the match Cian O’Rourke saw Wolfe Tones claim their third ever Clare intermediate hurling title at the expense of an aggrieved Tubber who fumed with the decision making of match official Gus Callaghan.
They had cause to be annoyed as the Feakle referee and his officials were poor. First and foremost they did not go out to have a bad game nor did they have an agenda. Umpires were slow to react and signal with two instances where they had no idea whether it was a score or not, Gavin Carrig’s wide on forty one minutes one of these and the other was Dean Devanney’s twenty fourth minute point where to his credit Callaghan consulted with his linesman.
In the second half, Tubber had to earn their frees while Wolfe Tones got them somewhat softer, Aron Shanagher led with the elbow into Patrick O’Connor’s neck on thirty six minutes and somehow ended up winning a free which O’Rourke converted bringing them back to a point. In the opening half, Tubber won double the amount of frees than the Shannon side. It must also be noted that Tubber did manage to hit four pointed frees from the forty ninth to fifty third minute.
On the restart, the referee tried to pull for more frees which hurt the flow of the game while the match-winning free which was brought forward and back and forward again is one that won’t be forgotten in either club. Poor decisions are made by players and mentors all over the county but don’t warrant the same scrutiny, the better players and mentors learn from their mistakes so hopefully Callaghan will also.
To win despite losing Aaron Cunningham and Daithí Lohan to injuries is tesatament to Wolfe Tones and how they are a mentally stronger side this year, possibly boosted by the presence of Newmarket-on-Fergus native Keith Begley in their backroom, a respected sports psychologist.
From the off, they seemed intent to go for goal and try kill off Tubber. Patrick O’Connor made a superb dive across the line to deny Cian O’Rourke who left his marker for dust before beating Ronan Taaffe with a batted effort when the game was a mere forty two seconds old.
In their next attack, Rory Hayes made a tremendous run up the field only to be dispossessed when about to pull the trigger.
Such interventions fueled the belief of the Tubber side who hit the first two points of the final via Blaine Earley. Wolfe Tones settled and hit four points on the bounce, three frees from O’Rourke and captain John Guilfoyle scoring from play.
With thirteen minutes on the clock, Oisin O’Rourke managed to make three saves in a very short period of time as Mark Earley twice and Senan Dunford had shots on goal which were thwarted, Osgar Dunford did manage to rescue the situation for Tubber with a point to make it 0-4 0-3.
What looked to be a fifty fifty jostle for possession saw Pappy Taaffe penalised for fouling Aaron Cunningham allowing O’Rourke to extend the gap back to two points on sixteen minutes.
Clive Earley won a Ronan Taaffe puckout, controlling the sliotar and quickly offloading for Dunford to get his second score which was soon followed by a Blaine Earley free after Liam Murphy chopped down on Mark Earley.
Cunningham was the creator for the only goal of the game. He won possession, dinked to either side and did well to find Evan O’Gorman who equally was composed to slot the sliotar under Ronan Taaffe and across the line on twenty minutes.
All-Ireland winner Cunningham managed to carve out another goal chance for the Tones, this time playing an acute ball to Dean Devanney but his effort went above the cross bar and had followed an Aron Shanagher score to have them leading by four points.
That four point lead was successfully tackled by Tubber who hit the final five scores of the half across a six minute spell to head into the dressing room ahead by a point. Cathal Droney picked off two of these scores, making well-timed runs and winning breaks off puckouts along with James Howard. Senan Dunford also picked off a nice score off balance with Clive and Blaine Earley registering as they led 0-11 1-7.
Two points for each side inside the opening six minutes of the second half kept the one point margin, Tubber went eleven minutes without a score to allow the Tones equalise and then go in front following a Stephen Donnellan point.
Senan Dunford and Cian O’Rourke swapped scores from play before O’Rourke a former Clare minor had the Tones ahead by two points on forty six minutes.
Tubber found another scoring burst, this time of four pointed frees in succession to build a two point lead with fifty three minutes on the clock.
Two O’Rourke frees had the Tones level again with fifty seven minutes played, Blaine Earley stuck Tubber back in front on fifty nine minutes with a free before wides followed from Evan O’Gorman and Aron Shanagher at the other end.
There was no such mistakes from O’Rourke who hit two more frees, the last from his own half-back line to ensure that the Shannon side would prevail at the sounding of final whistle.
Spirit has always been part of Tubber’s performances and it was no different in the intermediate final. Patrick O’Connor led at centre back to nullify Aron Shanagher with James Howard and Domhnall McMahon also doing well in the half-back line. Cathal Droney, Joey Droney, the Dunfords Osgar and Senan plus Clive Earley stood out for the side who were chasing a return to the top tier following their 2015 relegation. This is the fourth final to have lost since dropping down but it will be the sorest given their frustration with the refereeing decisions in the dying moments, a hurt that they must channel to come back fighting in 2025.
Fuelled by the pain of last year’s relegation, Wolfe Tones have bounced back in admirable fashion. With the caliber of players in their ranks plus the fact that Shannon is Clare’s second largest town, the Tones should not be down at intermediate level and they are a side well capable of competing in the knockout stages of the senior grade, they contested quarter-finals in two of their last three seasons in the top tier.
Barry Keane came in with a plan when he took over as manager, it worked and he was boosted by the addition of quality coaches such as Alan Cunningham. Most notably in the first half, they worked and carried the ball out of defence with the full-back line trio of Liam Murphy, Sam Meaney and Daithí Lohan to the fore in this regard. Rory Hayes gave a tremendous display at wing back with Cian O’Rourke starring with one hundred percent accuracy from his frees, scoring eleven from eleven.
Following the game, O’Rourke received the man of the match accolade while his older brother John Guilfoyle was presented with the Paddy Browne Cup by Clare GAA Chairman, Kieran Keating. Keating was jeered by the Tubber faithful when speaking on the difficulties of refereeing in finals while the referee was confronted and booed by the Tubber faithful when leaving the field.
An away Munster semi-final to the Cork champions is the next outing for Wolfe Tones’ hurlers on November 17th while their footballers will look to cap off a double when they meet Naomh Eoin in the football final next weekend.
Scorers Wolfe Tones: C O’Rourke (0-12 11f), E O’Gorman (1-0), A Shanagher (0-2), J Guilfoyle (0-1), D Devanney (0-1), S Donnellan (0-1).
Scorers Tubber: B Earley (0-10 8f), C Earley (0-3 1f), O Dunford (0-2), S Dunford (0-2), C Droney (0-2)
Wolfe Tones:
1: Oisin O’Rourke
3: Daithí Lohan
4: Liam Murphy
7: Sam Meaney
5: Rory Hayes
8: Darragh Lohan
17: Dylan Frawley
6: John Guilfoyle
13: Dean Devanney
11: Evan O’Gorman
15: Aron Shanagher
12: Colin Riordan
10: Stephen Donnellan
14: Aaron Cunningham
9: Cian O’Rourke
Subs:
22: Gavin Carrig for Cunningham (30) (inj)
18: Daithí O’Connell for Daithí Lohan (43) (inj)
30: Jack Cunningham for Frawley (59)
20: Sean Costelloe for Donnellan (62)
Tubber:
1: Ronan Taaffe
2: Joey Droney
3: Pappy Taaffe
4: Fergal O’Grady
5: Domhnall McMahon
6: Patrick O’Connor
7: James Howard
8: Darragh O’Connor
9: Cathal Droney
10: Osgar Dunford
11: Ronan Monahan
12: Blaine Earley
15: Clive Earley
14: Mark Earley
13: Senan Dunford
Subs:
17: Joe Clancy for M Earley (44)
Referee: Gus Callaghan (Feakle)
