Plenty of Tipperary hurlers contribute as Tipp New York book place in this year's final

New York Senior Championship Semi-Final

Tipperary 1-18   

Westmeath 0-16

This New York hurling semi-final was another keenly contested and exciting affair and there was plenty of Premier interest as usual, as Tipperary booked their place in this year's final where they will meet Waterford in the final.

Several familiar faces from the club scene in Tipperary lined out for the ex-pats club in New York, with Portroe heavily represented with young duo AJ Willis and Ruadhan Mulrooney starring, while the older head of the long-serving Mikey Sheedy also coming off the bench.

Kilruane MacDonaghs Darragh Peters also started the game, along with Tommy Kavanagh from Borris-Ileigh and Conor Hammersley of Clonoulty Rossmore as they all contributed to a good Tipperary win.

Westmeath opened the scoring with a pointed free from David Mangan, but Conor Hammersley responded with a fine long-range effort from the wing. The first quarter was fairly tentative as Westmeath had three points and Tipperary just two at the first hydration break. On resumption, proceedings became more offensive-oriented. 

Conor Hammersley leveled up, and the “forty man” on the other side spurned a good goal chance. Tipperary jumped ahead on the back of three-pointed frees from Conor Hammersley (aka Hammer), and he certainly did hammer the scores home. Then the action swung to the other side where Mark Caulfield pointed from play and Ruadman Mulrooney pointed free after Henry Keyes was fouled. 

Tipperary were having the better of the exchanges as sterling defensive work left it very difficult for Westmeath to score. Tipp’s corner men Caulfield and Ryan added two points. Still Westmeath looked dangerous on counterattacks as keeper Robinson denied Adam Loughlin-Stones a goal at the expense of a “65”, which David Mangan pointed out. Tipp went in leading by 0-9 to 0-6 at the break. 

Westmeath started the second half strongly and in the first five minutes they had put four points on the board and grabbed the lead. David Mangan had three of these and Liam O’Shea had the other.

The lead didn’t last for long as Mangan leveled up after a great pass from Luke Prendergast. Now it was tit for tat with both sides landing some fine long range points.

One was particularly a great individual effort from Westmeath’s Conor Caulfield. Tipp’s Pat Ryan, the former Limerick player, was beginning to show his power and prowess up front but keeper Dan Mottram brilliantly saved one of his goal-bound efforts. With ten minutes left, it was all square at 0-14 each.

Then Tipp tapped on two points courtesy of AJ Willis and James Keyes. However it was the next score that sealed the issue, and that was the goal from Pat Ryan. It was without a doubt the best score in the match.

Now Westmeath needed a goal to get back in the hunt, but had to settle with late points from Ger McPartland and Mangan. Tipp closed out their account with points from Conor Hammersly and Ruadhan Mulrooney.

Tipperary: Keith Robinson; Darragh Hynes, Bryan Power, James Keyes (0-1); Darragh Peters, Colin O’Brien, Tom O’Meara (0-1); Johnny Burns, Henry Keyes;  AJ Willis (0-1), Conor Hammersley (0-7), Tommy Kavanagh; Mark Caulfield (0-1), Ruadhan Mulrooney (0-4), Pat Ryan (1-2). 

Subs: Frankie Kennedy, Mikey Sheedy (0-1), Kevin Bulfin, Bill Maher, Joey Grace, Liam Donovan, Ross Butler.

Westmeath: Dan Mottram; Alan Sherlock, Sean O’Leary, Brian McPartland; Conor Caulfield (0-1), Tommy O’Connell, Gary Corless; Dean Poyton, Ultan O’Connor; Steve Colgan, Adam Loughlin-Stones, Ger McPartland (0-1); Luke Prendergast (0-1), David Mangan (0-13), Liam O’Shea (0-1). 

Subs: Evan Curly, Pearse Donnelly, Neil Franco, Aidan McKiernan, Brendan O’Leary, Sean Stones, Dan Sammon, John Comerford, Liam Butler. 

Referee: Simon Murphy