Ardfinnan footballers are through to the final of the Tom Cusack Cup in Tipperary

Ardfinnan 0-16 Cahir 2-7

Ardfinnan reached the Tom Cusack Cup senior football final courtesy of this three-point win over Cahir in Monroe on Saturday.

Ardfinnan got off to a good start and put Cahir under a lot of pressure early in the game.

After 16 minutes they were ahead by five points to no score, thanks to two frees scored by Billy Hewitt and points from Oisin Ryan, Michael Barlow and Gerry Cronin.

It took 17 minutes for Conor O’Brien to score the first point for Cahir.

Ardfinnan’s Billy Hewitt converted another free on 22 minutes.

Cahir were determined to stay in this game and replied with two good points from play in the 24th and 27th minutes from Ger Quinn and Ciaran Condon respectively.

Ardfinnan pushed on their advantage again and scored the last two points of the first half with points from Billy Hewitt from play and Michael Barlow from a free. The score at the end of the first half was Ardfinnan 0–8 Cahir 0–3.

Ardfinnan got off to a great start in the second half with points from Andrew Browne, Michael Barlow and Aaron Lonergan.

Things got worse for the men in green when Sean O’Connor received a second yellow card and was sent to the line.

However, this seemed to motivate the Cahir team, which kept pushing forward, and in the next fifteen minutes Jack Buckley scored two goals from the penalty spot and a point from a free, while Eddie Kendrick kicked a point, adding 2-2 to their tally.

Meanwhile, Michael Barlow and James O’Mahoney scored two points each for Ardfinnan, bringing the score to 0-15 to Ardfinnan and 2-6 to Cahir after 29 minutes in the second half.

However, Ardfinnan settled down again and played most of the rest of the game in Cahir’s half of the pitch. Michael Barlow and Eddie Kendrick scored the last two points.

Ardfinnan deserved to win, and they will be disappointed that they conceded two penalties that gave Cahir a boost and forced them to fight to the end.

Michael Barlow, Aaron Lonergan, Jack O’Neill, Jonathan Ryan, Billy Hewitt and Colm O’Shaughnessy were some of the key performers on the Ardfinnan team.

Stephen Grogan, Ger Quinn, Jesse Kiely, Michael O’Connor, and Jack Buckley were influential for Cahir.

Ardfinnan: Cian O’Mahoney, Sean Cunninghan, Darragh O’Leary, Jack O’Neill, Aaron Lonergan (0-1), Colm O’Shaughnessy, Billy Hewitt (0-4, 3 frees), Sean Nagle, Gerry Cronin (0-1), Gavin Whelan, Oisin Ryan (0-1), Evan Barrett, Jonathan Ryan, Michael Barlow (0-6, 4 frees), Darragh O’Brien.

Subs: Darragh Boyle for Sean Cunningham, Andrew Browne (0-1) for Darragh O’Brien, James O’ Mahoney (0-2) for Gavin Whelan, Michael Goonan for Cian O’ Mahoney.

Cahir: Aaron Wall, Nicholas Reidy, Ger Hally, Sean Leahy, Jesse Kiely, Michael O’Connor, Ciaran Condon (0-1), Ian Flannery, Stephen Grogan, Oisin Maher, Ger Quinn (0-1), Jake Kiely, Conor O’Brien (0-2), Sean O’ Connor, Jack Buckley (2-1, 2 penalties, 1 free).

Subs: Eddie Kendrick (0-2) for Jake Kiely, James Walsh for Nicholas Reidy, Mark Casey for Ian Flannery, Darragh Howard for Conor O’Brien.

Referee: Brian Tyrrell (Clonmel Commercials).