Sarsfields class wins out in dominating second half performance in semi-final win over Loughmore

FBD Insurance Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final

Thurles Sarsfields 1-22

Loughmore Castleiney 2-12

A clinical and surgical second-half performance from Thurles Sarsfields finished off a Loughmore Castleiney team that simply ran out of legs and ideas as the 36-time county champions ran out impressive seven-point winners in the first Senior Hurling Championship semi-final in FBD Semple Stadium on Saturday night under lights.

The game looked like it was going to go along similar lines to the epic 120 plus minutes it took to separate the teams in the 2021 county final after a replay, as Loughmore Castleiney dogged their way to a narrow one-point half time advantage despite Thurles playing the better hurling.

A Ciaran McCormack goal in the first half put Loughmore in a position to attack the second half but they couldn’t muster up the same challenge and were simply outlasted by a fit and clinical Thurles Sarsfields team who showed their champion qualities to finish them off with an Aidan McCormack three-pointer in the 58th minute.

Darragh Stakelum and the aforementioned McCormack were incredible for Sarsfields throughout the game and finished with a combined total of 1-12 as their influence and scoring prowess proved decisive, and Stakelum in particular was unplayable early on, essentially from the throw-in.

The game took a while to set into a rhythm with the sides trying to get to grips with the underfoot conditions as we got our first look at how Loughmore were going to set up to curb the Ronan Maher influence at centre back.

Ciaran McCormack was clearly being deployed to sit on top of Maher as much as possible during the restarts and it worked quite well in general as the game ticked into it’s infancy as Loughmore took an early 0-2 t0 0-1 lead after seven minutes with Aidan McCormack and John McGrath trading frees while Noel McGrath put himself on the board early with a trademark score off his right.

However, Starfields were making hay at the other end of the field as Loughmore needed time to get used to their match-ups as Brian McGrath had early struggles on Darragh Stakelum in the full forward position with the Tipperary U20 captain hitting three savage points from play in the next five minutes, as the space in front of the Loughmore full back line was proving very plentiful for Sarsfields.

Tommy Maher was operating as the spare man in defence and he was deployed a bit deeper thereafter that flurry of Stakelum scores, but Sarsfields were hurling the better stuff in the first half and only for some poor wides (five in the opening quarter) they could have built a significant early lead. Stephen Cahill though did add to their tally in the 13th minute to extend their lead to three points.

Loughmore’s forwards were getting very little in the way of clean possession but they did drag themselves into the game with two hard-won frees in the 15th and 16th minute which were converted by John McGrath, and on the balance of play they would have been happy to be just a point adrift at that stage.

The teams were settling into their patterns now and the physicality of the game turn up slightly in the final quarter, with both sets of backs dominating the next ten minutes, although there were a raft of poor wides on both sides in that time.

Thurles managed to open a two-point lead after 25 minutes though with Eoin Purcell and Aidan McCormack (free) putting them back in front, but Loughmore struck an adrenaline-inducing goal from a restart a minute later, when Philip O’Connell dug up the ball in a ruck on the 45 and displayed brilliant vision to release Ciaran McCormack in behind the cover and with acres of space to run into, the corner forward struck a low rasper past Paddy McCormack.

That goal put Loughmore one to the good with five minutes of the half to go and it spurred them on for those remaining minutes as Liam McGrath hit his first point of the day in the 28th minute before John McGrath used his bread basket to good effect to field a long ball and draw a free which he duly converted to put them ahead by two points.

Sarsfields squandered a huge goal chance a few minutes later though, with Billy McCarthy being fed a lovely hand pass by Eoin Purcell and despite having a spare man completely alone in front of the goal to his left, McCarthy went for goal and his tame shot was well saved by Micheal McGrath.

However, Darragh Stakelum continued to lead the Sarsfields charge up front and he hit his fourth of the first half, ghosting onto a lovely delivery before heading towards the end line and floating over a beauty under pressure from Lorcan Egan. Loughmore ahead by the minimum at 1-6 to 0-8 at half-time.

Whatever Padraic Maher said to his players at the interval definitely had the desired effect for Sars’ as they came out of the blocks at pace from the restart, hitting two points inside the first 60 seconds from Conor Stakelum and Stephen Cahill, and when Aidan McCormack pointed a free in the 34th minute, Sarsfields were back in front by 0-11 to 1-6.

Liam McGrath finally quelled the Sarsfields scoring spree with a lovely score along the New Stand sideline from the resulting puck-out but Sars were starting strongly and Cathal Moloney’s smart score had the Thurles men ahead 0-13 to 1-7 with 40 minutes played.

Indeed, Sarsfields were really putting their stamp on the game and continued to beef out their lead in the next few minutes with a well-finished point from Conor Stakelum and a class score from James Armstrong; the half-back powering upfield and scoring from distance.

Loughmore were really struggling to keep up the intensity of their first-half efforts and when John McGrath missed a scoreable free in the 44th minute, you felt that the life was being drained from their game.

Ciaran McCormack kept them in touch though, pointing a lovely strike from the Old Stand side after a lovely setup from Noel McGrath but the game continued to be played at Sarsfield's pace as Loughmore had to work hard for their scores; the sides trading the next four points through Aidan McCormack and John McGrath as the score read 0-17 to 1-10 in favour of the Blues.

But Loughmore have never been a team to wilt too easily under the cosh and they managed to keep hold of Sarsfield coattails going into the final five minutes, with Lorcan Egan allowed to jog forward unhindered to midfield and launch over a savage effort to make it a three-point game.

Ciaran Connolly and Aidan McCormack traded quickfire points but from here Sarsfields showed their killer instinct to blitz Loughmore two minutes from time with Paddy Creedon’s introduction proving key, as he was fed a hand pass and showed wheels to stick pass to Aidan McCormack all on his own and the sharpshooter made no mistake to fire low to the net and confirm their place in the county final.

Further scores from Darragh Stakelum (2) and a major from a long-range free by Ronan Maher copperfastened their victory in injury time, but there was still time for consolation scores as referee Alan Tierney gave ample injury time, with John McGrath scoring from a penalty in the 63rd minute after Ciaran McCormack was pole-axed when through on goal, but it was the last throes for Loughmore as a late Stephen Cahill point capped off a very impressive second half performance for his team.

Thurles Sarsfields will now go forward to the Senior Hurling Championship Final in two weeks’ time where they will face the winner of Sunday’s semi-final between Toomevara and Kiladangan.

Thurles Sarsfields: Paddy McCormack; Paul Maher, Denis Maher, Stephen Maher; James Armstrong (0-1), Ronan Maher (0-2f), Michael Purcell; Stephen Cahill (0-3), Cathal Moloney (0-1); Billy McCarthy, Conor Stakelum (0-2), Eoin Purcell (0-1); Darragh Stakelum (0-6), Seanie Butler, Aidan McCormack (1-6, 0-4f).

Subs used: Paddy Creedon for D Stakelum (40, blood sub); David Corbett for Moloney (49); Paddy Creedon for E Purcell (54); Tommy Doyle for Butler (57); Cian Stakelum for A McCormack (59); Jack Darby for M Purcell (63).

Loughmore Castleiney: Micheal McGrath; Ed Meagher, Brian McGrath, Lorcan Egan (0-1); Tommy Maher, Willie Eviston, John Ryan; Ciaran Connolly (0-1), Tomas McGrath; Ed Connolly, Liam McGrath (0-2), Noel McGrath (0-1); Philip O’Connell, John McGrath (1-6, 1-0 pen, 0-6f), Ciaran McCormack (1-1).

Subs used: Ciaran McGrath for O’Connell (43).

Referee: Alan Tierney (Shannon Rovers)