Kiladangan lift Dan Breen for just the second time in cracking county final replay victory

FBD Insurance Senior Hurling Championship Final Replay

Kiladangan 1-21

Thurles Sarsfields 1-20

Kiladangan are Tipperary senior hurling champions for 2023 after they edged a second thriller in as many weeks against Thurles Sarsfields to claim their second-ever Dan Breen title after a colossal senior hurling final replay in FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Despite the closeness of the score-line and the never-say-die attitude of Thurles Sarsfields, there can be no disputing the better team won here as the Kiladangan men hurled the better stuff throughout.

Their poor shooting in different stages of the game very nearly came back to haunt them as they finished the game with a massive total of 17 wides - ten of those coming in the first period - but they came up with the big moments when needed.

The biggest moment of all was Sean Hayes’s goal in the 57th minute when Conor Byrne and Declan McGrath linked up with crisp stick passes to send the Kiladangan flyer through on goal and, with plenty still to do at the angle he was at, he came up with a superb finish given the pressure to send the north outfit into a three-point lead which would give them just enough breathing room to see out the remainder and claim the Dan Breen Cup for the second time.

The exciting finale of the drawn game seemed to spill over into the opening of this much-anticipated replay and Thurles were the team that got out of the blocks in the opening minutes despite Billy Seymour getting the scoring underway with a free after two minutes.

Paddy Creedon started once again inside and had made a bigger impact in the opening ten minutes than he had in 50 plus minutes of the drawn game; Eoin Purcell winning his first possession before dropping the shoulder and slipping a hand pass to Creedon around the back of the 14-yard line and the big Sars forward produced a delicious finish the top right corner. No chance for Barry Hogan.

That told the story of the opening quarter as it was Sarsfields who had more purpose and accuracy in their play with three Aidan McCormack points in a row following that major from Creedon along with Creedon’s first point of the day in the ninth minute giving Sarsfields a superb start to the game.

Kiladangan were so slow to get their gander up in this game, and such slow starts can prove costly in these games. But this team have far too much experience of the big day to wilt and with Willie Connors starting to influence the game going into the second quarter, they settled down well hitting five points in succession between the 10th and 17th minute; Joe Gallagher, Decky McGrath, Billy Seymour, Tadhg Gallagher and Dan O’Meara all finding the target to put them just one point behind.

The game swung completely in the direction of Kiladangan in this period and Willie Connors was playing the spare man role to perfection now as Sars were holding no possession in their forward line which in turn, put huge pressure on the Thurles defence.

However, Kiladangan’s shooting was far from clinical in the half as they hit some very poor wides including a brilliant goal chance from Sean Hayes in the 14th minute who was put through on goal by Dan O’Meara, but skewed his effort past the far post with his shot.

Hayes was causing big problems with his pace too, wandering between the half and full forward lines, and after Aidan McCormack pointed a free to end a nine-minute scoring drought for Sars in the 18th minute, Hayes nearly struck for goal again but this time, he was denied by a smart Paddy McCormack save from point blank range. Sarsfields looking in trouble now despite the lead.

Tadhg Gallagher was very quiet in the drawn game but his play here suggested he wanted to make up for that no-show two weeks ago and he hit his second and third point up to the 26th minute on either side of Paddy Creedon’s second point of the day, as it was all still being played on Kiladangan’s terms.

Again, poor shooting was the one drawback from Kiladangan’s performance in the first half (1o wides in total) and it was keeping Sarsfields in front at the break, as frees from Ronan Maher, Aidan McCormack and a long-range placed ball from Billy Seymour ended the half’s scoring as Sars’ took an undeserved and slender lead in at half-time at 1-8 to 0-10.

Paddy Creedon was on fire on the day and had hit his third point straight from the throw-in but Kiladangan were the team hurling to their ability, even at this early stage with four points in the next eight minutes with Willie Connors completely dominating the half-back line and re-enacting his late equaliser in the 34th minute; this time with two majors from distance along with Sean Hayes and Billy Seymour.

That had Kiladangan in the lead for the first time by two points but Aidan McCormack - who was by far Sarsfields’ best performer on the day - hit a pair of lovely scores to draw the game again but that was largely against the run of play as it was all flowing for Kiladangan at this stage in terms of the passages of play.

It was as far from a tit-for-tat battle as you could get as the teams were going through heavy scoring bursts at different points of the half even though Billy Seymour put the north men back in front in the 41st minute.

Sarsfields managed to settle back into contention with five points with three from Aidan McCormack along with a fantastic first of the day for Darragh Stakelum who was starting to become prominent and it pushed the Thurles team out to a four-point advantage as it looked like they weathered the worst of the storm. 

However, the swings and roundabouts of this game had supporters head’s spinning as Kiladangan once again got on top and hit five in succession in the next five minutes with two Billy Seymour points from play and a first of the day from a quiet Paul Flynn coming at the perfect time with a superb point from the new stand sideline to put them ahead once again with five minutes to go (0-20 to 1-16).

Once again, the Thurles man who stood up to the challenge was Aidan McCormack who hit his fourth from play to level the game yet again, but the decisive moment came in the 57th minute when Conor Byrne looked to be shepherded backward safely from goal and played the ball back to Declan McGrath and, rather than have a pot at goal, he found Sean Hayes with a serious stick pass through the lines and Hayes showed searing pace and a colossal finish on top of it, firing low to the bottom corner.

Sarsfields were now under severe pressure to pull this one back but they ploughed on and managed to pull the game back to a single point with a fantastic Darragh Stakelum score before David Corbett manufactured a close-range free with the three minutes of added time almost up.

The tension inside the stadium was incredible as Barry Hogan pucked out the ball and with John McCormack waving play on, there was one more chance for Sarsfields and it couldn’t have fallen to a better figure as a short shot from Kiladangan ended up with Paddy McCormack and he picked out Ronan Maher all on his own at the far side of his own 45 and despite connecting very well, the shot drifted to the left of the post as Kiladangan were crowned county champions for just the second time.

Kiladangan were full value for the win and the big difference on the day was the performance of Willie Connors who bossed the game in the half-back line, and they now go on to represent Tipperary in the Munster championship for the very first time against Clare champions Clonlara on the weekend of November 18th.

Scorers: Kiladangan: Billy Seymour (0-9, 0-6f); Sean Hayes 1-1; Willie Connors 0-3; Tadhg Gallagher 0-3; Declan McGrath 0-2; Joe Gallagher 0-1; Paul Flynn 0-1; Dan O’Meara 0-1.

Thurles Sarsfields: Aidan McCormack (0-13, 0-9f); Paddy Creedon 1-3; Darragh Stakelum 0-2; Ronan Maher 0-2f.

Kiladangan: Barry Hogan; David Sweeney, James Quigley, Willie Connors; Fergal Hayes, Alan Flynn, Joe Gallagher; Decky McGrath, Tadhg Gallagher; Paul Flynn, Andy Loughnane, Billy Seymour; Sean Hayes, Dan O’Meara, Bryan McLougney.

Subs used: Eoghan Sharkey for McLoughney (44); Conor Byrne for D O’Meara (50); Darren Moran for Loughnane (62).

Thurles Sarsfields: Paddy McCormack; Paul Maher, Denis Maher, Stephen Maher; James Armstrong, Ronan Maher, Michael Purcell; Stephen Cahill, Cathal Moloney; Billy McCarthy, Conor Stakelum, Paddy Creedon; Darragh Stakelum, Aidan McCormack, Eoin Purcell.

Subs used: Seanie Butler for McCarthy (38); David Corbett for Cahill (38); Cian Stakelum for E Purcell (58); Conor Lanigan for C Moloney (58).

Referee: John McCormack (Knockavilla Donaskeigh Kickhams)