Wolfe Tones continue on their upward trajectory
Daragh McMahon fires home one of Wolfe Tones' three goals against Moorefield in The Westgrove Hotel Senior Hurling League Division 2 semi-final in Kill
The remarkable rise of Wolfe Tones hurling club continues. Promoted from Division 3 two years ago, the Kill/Sallins amalgamation are only sixty minutes away from reaching Division 1 of the Westgrove Hotel Senior Hurling League after a well-merited fourteen-point win over Moorefield at Kill on Friday night.
Wolfe Tones, who will be plying their trade in the Junior Hurling Championship which throws in next month, now meet senior team Clane in the Division 2 decider, having disposed of an out-of-sorts Moorefield outfit who were playing at senior level themselves in 2025.
It was a performance as emphatic as it was impressive. Wolfe Tones snapped into their opponents from the off, snapping up scores superbly while defending resolutely at the other end to tie up Moorefield key attackers Conn Kehoe, Alex Bell and Reece Gavin.
The winners had 2-4 on the board before Moorefield finally opened their account in the fifteenth minute, reached half-time with an eight-point advantage (2-8 to 0-6), and essentially put the game to bed with their third goal, from full-forward Aaron Carney, on 39 minutes.
That left Moores fourteen points behind and having to resort to going for goal in the closing stages. They finally found the net five minutes into injury time through a Bell rasper, having gone down to fourteen men late on thanks to the sending off wing-back Malvin Moloney Wolfe Tones had three points on the board inside four minutes, thanks to a David Cronin free and two from play from Conor Egan and wing-back Daragh McMahon, but they really laid down their marker with two goals in a minute in the eighth and ninth minutes.
Corner-forward Mark Kiernan had already brought a fine save out of ‘keeper Eoin Carroll when influential midfielder Jack Fogarty’s delivery from the left wing bounced up high on the hard ground and Kiernan improvised skillfully to double on the ball in the air and finish to the net.
From the next move, the home side were nine points clear thanks to Jack Couch’s fine low finish past Carroll, with Moorefield struggling to get a foothold.
Vinny Teehan stretched the advantage to ten before Bell went low from a free, producing a fine save from Niall Gorry, the full-forward opening Moorefield’s account from the resultant ’65.
That gave Moorefield some impetus and Bell landed two more frees, and full-back Sean Maher a free and ‘65, while county man Kehoe landed one from play as they reached half-time eight in arrears. Kiernan and Couch with two apiece had kept the Tones scoreboard ticking in that period.
After the break points from Couch, Carney and Egan to one in reply from Gavin stretched the lead to 2-12 to 0-7 before Fogarty and Cronin set up Carney for the finish to Carroll’s net to make it 3-12 to 0-7.
Couch and Kiernan kept the scoreboard moving from frees and substitute Ross Doyle added one from play as Wolfe Tones saw the game out with Moorefield adding a free and a ’65 from Maher and two frees from Gavin while Bell and Gavin efforts at goal were repelled by Gorry.
Bell finally beat the Wolfe Tones keeper in the dying moments, but it was too late for the Newbridge side, who will spend another year in Division 2 in 2027. Meanwhile, the only way is up for Wolfe Tones.
Niall Gorry; Ronan Forde, Ciaran O’Gorman, Jonathan Freurgaard; Daragh McMahon 0-1, Paddy McGrath, Rian O’Gorman; Jack Fogarty, Jack Heading; Jack Couch 1-6 (0-4fs), Vinny Teehan 0-1, Conor Egan 0-2; Mark Kiernan 1-4 (0-2fs), Aaron Carney 1-1, David Cronin 0-1 (f).
Darragh Brennan for Cronin 44, Reece Donohoe for Egan 52, Ross Doyle 0-1 for Teehan 56, Matthew Cummins for Carney 60+4.
Eoin Carroll; Shane Delmer, Sean Maher 0-4 (2’65s,2fs), Cian Brannigan; Malvin Moloney, Graham Cregoe, Oisín Kelly; Tommy Walsh, Paul Dawson; Reece Gavin 0-3 (2fs), Conn Kehoe 0-1, Gavin McDonnell; Eoghan Corrigan, Alex Bell 1-3 (2fs,1’65), Mark Tobin.
Cian Potts for Delmer HT, Cormac O’Connor for Dawson 32, Charlie Cummins for Corrigan 46.
Diarmuid Ó Loing.
