The age of Tipperary. Ceaseless collection of top-shelf underage titles. A production line the envy of everyone else.
There were two pictures captured for framing at full-time in Ennis. The first will be hung on the main corridor of Nenagh CBS. It will show a bunch of students celebrating the school’s second Harty crown in three years. The school’s second Harty crown full stop.
A bunch of students who followed through and delivered on their U17 Dean Ryan honours from the winter of 2023. Their credentials are without question. Proven champions.
The second picture is for Premier walls. A fourth successive year of a Tipp school taking home the main prize. Never before has this been achieved by Premier nurseries. Sustained dominance at schools and inter-county level.
Over the past four-and-a-half years, and along with the four Hartys shared by Nenagh, Thurles CBS, and Cashel Community School, there have been two Munster minor triumphs, two All-Ireland minor triumphs, two Munster U20 triumphs, and an All-Ireland U20 win.
This is Tipp’s time at underage.
This was a victory ground out in the final quarter.
Colm Daly’s 48th minute point for St Flannan’s was their third in succession. The home side ahead by 0-17 to 0-16. The home side would add to their tally only once more in the quarter of an hour still remaining.
Nenagh’s half-back wall swamped and overran their opponents. Attack after attack crashed here.
Joe O’Dwyer brought Nenagh level. He won the free that allowed Eoghan Doughan to nudge them in front on 53 minutes. Patrick Ryan to Tom Boland to Patrick Hackett was a sharp and swift exchange of passes for a 0-19 to 0-17 advantage.
Eoghan Doughan’s eighth free, following a foul on Emmett Jones, was their fourth white flag without reply. Four without reply in a game so close and at such a late juncture could never be anything but game defining.
Harry Doherty’s fifth free in the opening minute of injury-time was Flannans’ first score in 12 minutes. In the fourth minute of injury-time, James Cullinan launched a free into the Nenagh danger zone in search of a winning green flag.
Nenagh’s maiden Harty had come from an injury-time green flag at this very venue. They would not suffer the cruel faith they inflicted on Ardscoil Rís two years ago. They held out. Harty winners once more.
Harry Doherty’s free in the fourth minute of first-half stoppages was required to bring Flannan’s level at 0-11 apiece at the break. That they were the team coming from behind to deliver interval stalemate told the story of a seismic second quarter shift.
Flannan’s settled far more seamlessly into this final. Majority possession share was theirs. Their middle third asserted early dominance.
They were an effective dam in preventing Nenagh deliveries inside.
And while it was No.2 Conor Hill who was given the job of picking up Nenagh sharpshooter Doughan, the collective were responsible in limiting his influence across the first quarter.
A superb Darragh McNamara point on eight minutes, where he deftly controlled the breaking possession mid-air, was the first in a five-in-a-row Flannan’s sequence.
The long delivery which McNamara trapped onto his hurley was unsettling the Nenagh full-back line.
Thomas O’Connor and Eoin O’Connor were also sparking menace inside.
Issac Hassett, a pair of Harry Doherty frees, and Thomas O’Connor completed the sequence for an 0-8 to 0-3 Flannan’s lead.
A lead that might have even been healthier. They had two short in this period of supremacy. They had six first-half wides compared to their opponents’ three.
Patrick Ryan’s pass for an Austin Duff point was Nenagh’s first score in nine minutes. It interrupted Flannans’ flow. It belatedly ignited Nenagh’s challenge.
Eoghan Doughan converted a pair of frees. He followed with a pair from play. The individual around whom so much of the pre-match chatter centred was sprouting in influence.
He snapped up a pass inside and flashed over for his first from play on 22 minutes. He then pointed from the terrace sideline. He’d land a near identical score from the terrace sideline in first-half stoppages to send his team in front for the first time. He finished with 0-12. He finished as winning captain.
Back-to-back final defeats for St Flannan’s. The latest team to endure pain in this age of endlessly emerging Tipp talent.
E Doughan (0-12, 0-8 frees); A Duff, P Hackett, J O’Dwyer (0-2 each); D O’Dwyer, P Ryan (0-1 each).
H Doherty (0-8, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ‘65); D McNamara (0-3); T O’Connor (0-2); C Daly, G Ball, I Hassett, P Finneran, E O’Connor (0-1 each).
P McCormack (Moneygall); D Fogarty (Kiladangan), C Kennedy (Kilruane MacDonaghs), S Cleary (Kilruane MacDonaghs); E Jones (Nenagh Éire Óg), D O’Dwyer (Kiladangan), J Grace (Burgess); A Duff (Toomevara), H Healy (Kilruane MacDonaghs); P Ryan (Borrisoleigh), E Doughan (Moneygall), P Cahalan (Burgess); E Tucker (Nenagh Éire Óg), P Hackett (Toomevara), J O’Dwyer (Burgess).
T Boland (Kiladangan) for J O’Dwyer (26-HT, temporary); T Boland (Kiladangan) for Tucker (HT); R McGrath (Kiladangan) for Cahalan (44); KJ Dunne (Toomevara) for Healy (48); C Kennedy (Kilruane MacDonaghs) for J O’Dwyer (61); D McKelvey (Silvermines) for Hackett (64).
L Talty (St Joseph’s Doora Barefield); D Ball (St Joseph’s Doora Barefield), S MacNamara (Clooney Quin), D Murrihy (Inagh-Kilnamona); J Cullinan (Ruan), C Hill (Ballyea), C Daly (St Joseph’s Doora Barefield); G Ball (St Joseph’s Doora Barefield), I Hassett (Clooney Quin); R Ralph (Clarecastle), P Finneran (Clooney Quin), H Doherty (Clarecastle); E O’Connor (Ballyea), T O’Connor (St Joseph’s Doora Barefield), D McNamara (Clooney Quinn).
J Barry (Inagh-Kilnamona) for D Ball (27-28 temporary); J Barry (Inagh-Kilnamona) for Hassett (38); J Keane Hayes (Kilmaley) for Finneran (45); B Talty (St Joseph’s Doora Barefield) for Ralph (54, inj); D Loftus (Éire Óg Ennis) for E O’Connor (56);
T Walsh (Waterford).
