Maynooth make amends with superb win over Naas
Maynooth U23 A Hurling Champions. Photos: Sean Brilly.
Maynooth picked up the final piece of hurling silverware on Friday evening last when they had ten points to spare over Naas in the U23 ‘A’ Hurling Final. This was small consolation for a Maynooth side that contained plenty of players who had lost the senior decider to Naas at the end of October.
On a cold and frosty Friday evening in Manguard Park, Hawkfield, it was Naas who made the early running courtesy of points from Mac Dara Moore, Theo Frisby and CJ Boran, while a third minute free from Tom Power brought Maynooth into the game.
Forced to line out without senior captain, Dan O’Meara, Maynooth shrugged off the loss as they hit six points without reply to move 0-7 to 0-3 ahead after 17 minutes. Ciaran Dunne, Tom Power, Ciaran Gorman two from the excellent Conor O’Grady and Oran Byrne all on target as their power and strong running proved too much for Naas.
Centre back Sean Gavigan brought a 16-minute spell without a score to an end for Naas with a point from 65 metres. Tom Power replied with a similar score. Sean Murphy and Ciaran Dunne swapped points to leave four between the sides with ten minutes to the break. Naas were struggling to win primary ball around the middle as former U20 star, Ciaran Flanagan was ruling the midfield battle.
The sides shared four points between them before the break Luke Connolly and substitute Tom Boran on target while two frees from Tom Power maintained the four-point buffer at 0-11 to 0-7 at the end of 30 minutes.
The opening minutes of the second half saw Ciaran Gorman and a Tom Power free extend the Maynooth lead to six. Power added another free six minutes in, but it came between two quickfire Naas goals that reduced the gap to a single point. Firstly, Mac Dara Moore played in Joe Corrigan for a tidy finish and Luke Donnolly made no mistake from Boran's pass for goal number two.
O’Grady stretched the lead to two and Maynooth introduced O’Meara to bring stability. Naas introduced Bill Hennessy who quickly pointed and when Tom Boran added a free the sides were level with only 40 on the clock.
Maynooth quickly returned to their second quarter form and three points in a row gave them breathing space. A Power free was quickly added to by two in a row from Flanagan. Hennessy added his second, but Maynooth responded with the score of the game. O’Grady's pass to Power was pulled on first time for a brilliant goal.
The goal gave Maynooth the injection of life that saw them hit 1-8 to 1-4 from Naas. Joe Corrigan got his second Naas goal to go with three Tom Boran points and a point from Charlie Carroll. Maynooth were on fire throughout those closing 12 minutes. Oran Byrne, O’Grady with two, Flanagan, Ciaran Dunne, Power and Ciaran Gorman all on target before O’Grady rounded off a great individual performance with a second Maynooth goal.
Cillian Madden; Sean Mahon, Cian Brody, Callum Galligan; Kevin McNeill, Cormac Nolan, David Eustace; Oran Byrne 0-2, Ciaran Flanagan 0-3; Ciaran Dunne 0-3, Tom Power 1-10 (8f), Conor O’Grady 1-5; Niall Coogan, Daniel Hever, Ciaran Gorman 0-3.
Daniel O’Meara for D Hever 38, Aaron Larkin for N Coogan 44, Joey NcNulty for K McNeill 54.
Fionn Frisby; Toby Loughlin, Tom McKeon, Liam Mac Conchradha; Fionn Fleming, Sean Gavigan 0-1, James Bedford; Sean Murphy 0-1, Luke Connolly 1-1 (f); Mac Dara Moore 0-1, Paddy Kennedy, Oisin Loughran; Theo Frisby 0-1, Joe Corrigan 2-0, CJ Boran 0-1.
Tom Boran 0-5 (2f) for P Kennedy 24, Tadhg Carolan for O Loughran H/T, Bill Hennessy 0-2 for T Frisby H/T, Charlie Carroll for S Murphy 45, Tom Walsh for F Fleming 46.
Paul Donnelly.
