What a crazy, crazy game. Certainly, for a team who looked dead and buried for practically three-quarters of the match, St Flannan's of Ennis provided a pretty effective imitation of resurrectionalists at Croke Park yesterday to snatch the All-Ireland colleges senior hurling championship title from under the noses of their traditional rivals, St Kieran's of Kilkenny.
Ignore the five-point winning margin, a scoreline that smothers the truth. Indeed, it took a quite extraordinary final quarter for Flannan's to turn around a seven-point deficit into a victory that had black and white-clad Kieran's players throwing themselves onto the ground in exasperation at the final whistle. Perhaps fittingly, though, this win enabled Flannan's to join Kieran's at the top of the All-Ireland schools roll of honour with 13 titles.
Yesterday's win was the least likely of all, however, and required incredible character and perseverance from every single Flannan's player on the pitch. The last 15 minutes or so of the match went against everything that had preceded it: Kieran's, who had amassed 2-10 by then, failed to score again in that decisive period and, in contrast, Flannan's scored a total of 2-6 to turn the game on its head and retain the title, their third of the 1990s. It was magical stuff, spectators almost needing a pinch of snuff or smelling salts to bring them to their senses. But it was real enough alright.
Kieran's had led virtually from the throw-in until the time that it mattered most. In the very first minute of the game, the unfortunate Flannan's corner-back Thomas McNamara suffered a pulled hamstring - but the decision to leave him on the pitch rather than withdraw him immediately looked to be a costly one when, a minute later, a ball into the corner was pounced on by Brian Carroll and eventually found its way to Patrick Reid, who smacked home the game's first goal.
The Kilkenny team held a 1-3 to 0-0 lead after that dazzling start but, slowly and surely, Flannan's dragged themselves back into the game and, by half-time, the Kieran's lead was a solitary point, 1-6 to 0-8. However, Kieran's totally dominated the opening 15 minutes of the second-half and the wizardry of Eoin Kelly, in particular, looked like guiding them to success.
Kelly, who gave his Tipperary minor team-mate Dermot Gleeson a pretty torrid time until switching in to full forward and continuing the trend on his new marker Ronan Looney, scored what looked like his side's all-important second goal in the 36th minute. And, when he pointed a free in the 45th minute, it stretched Kieran's lead to seven points, 2-10 to 0-9. But they weren't to score again, and Flannan's hit back relentlessly.
Tony Carmody, Flannan's powerful centre half forward, provided the glimmer of light with a stunning goal in the 48th minute. It was the catalyst for the revival, and Brendan Gantley and Andrew Quinn tagged on a point apiece to reduce the gap to just one point as the clock ticked into its 59th minute. Then it happened. Brian Colbert, introduced as a second-half substitute, made a real nuisance of himself and held off a number of Kieran's defenders before passing the sliotar to Quinn, who blasted to the net to give Flannan's the lead for the first time in the match.
There was no way back for Kieran's. Flannan's - via the sticks of Gantley and Quinn (twice) - tagged on three more quicksilver points.
ST FLANNAN'S: S Hawes; G Farmer, R Looney, T McNamara; J McMahon, C Plunkett, D Gleeson; G Quinn (0-2), T Griffin; D Kennedy (0-1), T Carmody (1-0), R Conlon; B Gantley (0-2), B Dunne (0-3), A Quinn (1-7, six frees). Subs: D Walsh for McNamara (3 mins); B Colbert for Conlon (45 mins); K McNamara for Kennedy (58 mins).
ST KIERAN'S - J Power; M Phelan, M Kennedy, B Griffith; T Murphy, D Walsh, P O'Brien (0-1); H Gannon, J Coogan; E Kelly (1-6, four frees), J Moran, G Whelan; B Carroll (0-3), D Dowling, P Reid (1-0). Subs: J O'Keeffe for Coogan (35 mins); S Hennessy for Moran (48 mins); L Heffernan for Reid (59 mins).
Referee: P Horan (Offaly).
