Naas <\/a>in a fortnight\u2019s time in a bid to become the first side from the Model County to make the Leinster final since Oulart-The Ballagh\u2019s historic breakthrough title in 2015.<\/p>\nDespite wides hurting their early efforts, St Martin\u2019s moved purposefully through the opening quarter to forge a 0-04 to 0-1 advantage after 14 minutes.<\/p>\n
Darren Codd, Barry O\u2019Connor, Jake Firman and Rory O\u2019Connor (free) obliged for the maroon and whites, before Se\u00e1n Currie got Na Fianna off the mark after eight minutes.<\/p>\n
A quick-fire brace from Colin Currie (one free) narrowed the gap to 0-04 to 0-03 after 16 minutes after he he had been denied a possible goal by Philip Dempsey and Eoin O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n
But the challengers appeared to be reasserting when easing out to a 0-10 to 0-05 lead on 25 minutes, a four-point surge from Rory O\u2019Connor (two frees) fuelling the charge as Darren Codd and Mikey Coleman also registered.<\/p>\n
Na Fianna were set to finish the half strongly though, jolted by Se\u00e1n Currie finding the net after gathering Peter Feeney\u2019s delivery from the left and holding off a couple of challenges.<\/p>\n
Spurred on by that breakthrough, the Dublin champions hit the front for the first-time shortly before half-time through captain Donal Burke another couple of additions by Colin Currie.<\/p>\n
However, St Martin\u2019s fought back to bridge the gap at the interval (0-11 to 1-08) after the O\u2019Connor brothers combined, with Rory feeding Jack.<\/p>\n
The latter grew prominent as the home-side resumed to lead 0-14 to 1-09 after 41 minutes, the number 14 striking twice while earning a free from which sibling Rory made it a two point gap.<\/p>\n
However, Na Fianna turned the tables as a pair of points from midfielder Brian Ryan sandwiched a 42nd-minute goal through full-forward AJ Murphy, who took a couple of challenges before flicking home off his knees (2-11 to 0-15).<\/p>\n
The response screamed defiance, St Martin\u2019s grabbing two of the next three points, before Rory O\u2019Connor fed his cousin Barry to snatch the lead back with a 50th minute goal (1-17 to 2-12).<\/p>\n
The sides were level twice more before St Martin\u2019s were left breathing a huge sigh of relief when Na Fianna messed up a goal chance amid a now feverish atmosphere as Jack Meagher let the chance slip.<\/p>\n
Regardless, the holders went 2-17 to 1-18 clear in the 60th minute as AJ Murphy and Se\u00e1n Currie struck only to be reeled-in by St Martin\u2019s substitute Ben Stafford and Rory O\u2019Connor (free), before the latter\u2019s ninth score \u2013 sixth free \u2013 sparked celebrations more akin to wining a final, speaking volumes for the determination Daith\u00ed Hayes\u2019 charges were brimming with to settle a score from 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
St Martin\u2019s: Callum Quirke; Eoin O\u2019Leary, Conor Firman, Philip Dempsey; Daith\u00ed Waters, Diarmuid O\u2019Leary, Joe Barrett; David Codd, Aaron Maddock; Jake Firman (0-02), Darren Codd (0-02), Jack O\u2019Connor (0-04, 1 free); Mikey Coleman (0-1), Barry O\u2019Connor (1-02), Rory O\u2019Connor (0-09, 6 frees).<\/p>\n
Subs: Ben Maddock for A. Maddock (46), Ben Stafford (0-1) for Coleman (48), Sam Audsley for O\u2019Leary, inj. (58).<\/p>\n
Na Fianna: Jonathan Tracey; Miche\u00e1l Murphy (0-1), Conor McHugh, Se\u00e1n Burke; Liam Rushe, Paul O\u2019Dea, Peter Feeney; Brian Ryan (0-02), Jack Meagher (0-01); Se\u00e1n Currie (1-03), Donal Burke (0-02), Joe Kavanagh; Tom Brennan, A.J. Murphy (1-02), Colin Currie (0-06, 3 frees).<\/p>\n
Subs: Charlie McCarthy for Brennan (HT), Liam Stacey for Kavanagh (52), Diarmuid Clerkin for M. Murphy, temp (55-56).<\/p>\n
Referee: James McGrath (Westmeath)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Martin’s (Wexford) 1-21 Na Fianna (Dublin) 2-17 Dublin champions Na Fianna surrendered their provincial and All-Ireland Club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-130774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}