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2023 AIB All-Ireland Club JHC Final – Tullogher Rosbercon (Kilkenny) 2-21 St. Catherine’s (Cork) 1-13
Tullogher Rosbercon (Kilkenny) defeated St. Catherine’s (Cork) by 2-21 to 1-13 in the 2023 AIB GAA Hurling All-Ireland Junior Club Championship Final on Saturday January 13th at Croke Park.
REPORT: @TullogherGAA produced a dynamic display to defeat @StCatherinesGAA in the @AIB_GAA All-Ireland Club JHC Final at @CrokePark #GAA
— The GAA (@officialgaa) January 13, 2024
AIB All-Ireland Club JHC Final: Walsh inspires Tullogher Rosbercon
Tullogher Rosbercon 2-27 St Catherine’s 1-13
Report By Paul Keane at Croke Park for GAA.ie
A full 15 years on from their agonising AIB All-Ireland junior hurling championship final defeat at Croke Park, Tullogher Rosbercon have finally made amends.
A terrific first-half display, made memorable by a wonder solo goal from Kilkenny star Walter Walsh, who hit 1-3 in all, laid the platform for the win.
Walsh’s goal helped his team to open up an 11-point lead after just 20 minutes and they never looked back, streaking to a big win and an 11th title at the grade for a Kilkenny club.
There were huge performances too from Man of the Match Pat Hartley and free-taker Cian O’Donoghue who struck 10 points. Marty Murphy fired the other goal for Tullogher Rosbercon and it arrived in the opening minutes to put them on the road to success.
Having blasted 18 goals since capturing the Kilkenny title, it was another impressive show of their scoring ability from Michael Doyle’s side who will operate at the intermediate ranks in Kilkenny in 2024.
St Catherine’s dared to dream after bouncing back from their county final defeat – victors Erins Own couldn’t compete in Munster because it was their second team – with a strong provincial campaign that included a win over former All-Ireland junior winners Ardmore of Waterford.
But they struggled to put Sligo champions Easkey away at the All-Ireland semi-final stage, winning by 0-12 to 0-11, and were under real pressure straight away here.
It didn’t help that they were shorn of key figures like Daniel Mangan and Darragh Morrisson through injuries picked up earlier in the campaign though both were named as substitutes.
Tullogher Rosbercon took full advantage and with only nine minutes played were already 1-5 to 0-1 up.
They dominated in all the key areas; off their own puck-out and, crucially, off the St Catherine’s puck-out while their power and stickwork and the individual ability of Walsh all combined to leave the Munster champions with a giant headache.
Murphy sniped the first Tullogher Rosbercon goal after just three minutes and showed his ingenuity to strike to the net with a batted finish from close range, making sure trailing defender Kian O’Donoghue didn’t have the opportunity to hook him.
A great catch from Oisin Fitzgerald was a feature of the buildup to that goal and when Walsh made a similar catch in the 15th minute and took off on a blistering solo run through the centre, there seemed only one outcome.
It duly transpired that way as the 2012 All-Ireland final replay hero for Kilkenny hammered the ball to the net for his team’s second goal. Walsh hit 1-3 on his Kilkenny debut in that famous game against Galway in 2012 and had 1-2 racked up by half-time on this occasion.
Free-taker O’Donoghue filled his boots too, racking up eight points in the first-half alone. St Catherine’s player Shane Cotter talked beforehand about competing in a 2006 All-Ireland minor semi-final for Cork at Croke Park, a day when a young Joe Canning slotted a point from a sideline cut for victors Galway.
Cotter winced again 18 years on as O’Donoghue this time sliced over a score from a line ball beneath the Cusack Stand. It was all too easy for the Kilkenny men and one passage of play summed up their dominance.
Rory Galvin sniped a 14th minute point for St Catherne’s after a ball was kicked out of a ruck to him, a rare score that relied on a piece of craft. Yet just seconds later Tullogher Rosbercon had the ball in the net at the other end when Walsh grabbed the ball out of the air at his ease and struck that stunning goal.
Now Tullogher Rosbercon were the ones in dreamland with a 2-14 to 0-9 half-time lead.
The St Catherine’s management responded with a trio of half-time changes, bringing on two fresh defenders and an attacker.
They had their full quota of changes made by the 52nd minute but while they were much more competitive in the second-half – the sides broke even in scoring terms in the second period, 1-04 to 0-07 – they never looked like fighting back to rescue a result.
St Catherine’s badly needed a goal but didn’t get a sniff of one until it was much too late with Galvin punishing a rare mistake in the Tullogher Rosbercon full-back line by smashing to the net in stoppage time.
Scorers for Tullogher Rosbercon: Cian O’Donoghue 0-10 (0-5f, 0-1 65, 0-1 s/l), Walter Walsh 1-3, Marty Murphy 1-1, Conor Hennessy 0-4, Jason Shiely 0-1, Colman O’Sullivan 0-1, Danny Glennon 0-1.
Scorers for St Catherine’s: Rory Galvin 1-1, Eoin Davis 0-4 (0-4f), Sean O’Donoghue 0-3 (0-3f), Brian Mulcahy 0-1, Kyle Wallace 0-1, Kian O’Donoghue 0-1, Oisin Fitzgerald 0-1, Conor Hegarty 0-1.
TULLOGHER ROSBERCON: Davy Walsh; Richard Gill, Donncha O’Connor, Sean Murray; Lar Murphy, Pat Hartley, Cathal Mooney; Jamie Lyng, Colman O’Sullivan; Marty Murphy, Walter Walsh, Jason Shiely; Danny Glennon, Conor Hennessy, Cian O’Donoghue.
Subs: Michael Handrick for Shiely 42, Stephen Lawlor for Mooney 57, Niall O’Shea for Gill 59, Tony Conway for Murray 60, Brian Walsh for Murphy 62.
ST CATHERINE’S: Eoin Davis; Liam O’Connor, Eoghan O’Riordan, Fionn O’Connell; Kieran Neville, Oisin Fitzgerald, Kian O’Donoghue; Kyle Wallace, Shane Cotter; Sean O’Donoghue, Rory Galvin, William Leamy; Brian Mulcahy, Eoin Condon, Matthew Mulcahy.
Subs: Conor Hegarty for Neville h/t, Eoin Wallace for O’Connor h/t, Gearoid O’Brien for Leamy h/t, Kevin Barry for Matthew Mulcahy 46, Nathan Sheehan for Brian Mulcahy 52.
Referee: Colm McDonald (Antrim).
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