\n Dr. Croke Cup semi-final: Presentation College Athenry 1-18 St. Flannan\u2019s College 1-14\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Presentation College Athenry\u2019s determined redemption mission took another major leap when maintaining their hold over St. Flannan\u2019s College to return to the All-Ireland Senior A PPS Hurling Final.<\/p>\n
Having been pipped at the post in the last year\u2019s decider in Croke Park, the back-to-back Connaught champions have the chance to make amends and garner a first ever Croke Cup if they can overcome roll of honour leaders St. Kieran\u2019s College (Kilkenny) on St. Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
Leading for all but two minutes of the tie, the Galway side merited victory as inevitably led by talisman Ciaran Leen, they proved the far more consistent side over the hour in front of a sizeable attendance in Kilbeacanty.<\/p>\n
County senior Leen was a guiding force throughout with his expert freetaking, posting ten points in all before Cian Hannon\u2019s opportunist strike entering the final ten minutes put six points between the sides at 1-15 to 1-09.<\/p>\n
To their credit, St. Flannan\u2019s did grab the next three points through joint-captains Harry Doherty and James Cullinan along with a John Barry free. However, that was as close as the Ennis school would get as Brendan Bugler\u2019s side would be largely frustrated by their mounting wide count which ended up at 17 misses.<\/p>\n
Only managing to score 15 times, it was a damning statistic and meant that their remarkable powers of recovery that had become almost a trademark throughout the Harty Cup and even last time out against CBC Kilkenny were exhausted.<\/p>\n
With a strong wind at their backs, Pres. Athenry picked off four of the first five points including a sumptuous lineball through Leen before the drama was ratcheted up with a flurry of goal sightings. Thomas O\u2019Connor was twice denied by some stern Athenry defending at one end while Ciaran Leen was also prevented from shooting by a brilliant Sean McNamara interception.<\/p>\n
However, an emphatic breakthrough would arrive in the 15th minute when James Cullinan\u2019s long delivery broke over the top for Harry Doherty to fire to the net and inch St. Flannan\u2019s 1-2 to 0-4 clear.<\/p>\n
Presentation Athenry\u2019s response was impressive though as while St. Flannan\u2019s radar faltered, Ciaran Leen arrowed over four frees to aid his side to seven of the last nine points and ensure an 0-11 to 1-04 interval cushion.<\/p>\n
St. Flannan\u2019s almost got an immediate reprieve on the resumption when Graham Ball\u2019s delivery broke inside for Thomas O\u2019Connor to pull first time, only for goalkeeper Cathal Mannion to expertly smother the shot.<\/p>\n
The Clare college again cursed their luck when substitute Ben Talty crashed a shot off the crossbar but they did manage to fire four unanswered points through Barry (2), Doherty and Patrick Finneran to lessen the damage to just two at 0-13 to 1-08 by the turn of the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Cian Hannon tested the reflexes of St. Flannan\u2019s goalkeeper Leon Talty to earn a \u201965 that Ciaran Leen gladly punished but it was Hannon\u2019s 50th minute strike after making space to find the left corner of the net that really soared Pres. Athenry to new heights.<\/p>\n
St. Flannan\u2019s did inevitably rally but if anything it was the Galway side that seemed the most likely to grab the next goal as Leon Talty had to be alert to stop a Ronan Cahalan shot from point blank range in the 56th minute.<\/p>\n
Ciaran Leen simply kept the scoreboard ticking over the keep their Clare opponents at arm\u2019s length and cement a long-awaited return to Croker on Tuesday week.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Presentation College Athenry: C Leen 0-10 (7f, 1\u201965, 1sl); C Hannon 1-1; R Cahalan 0-3; N McCarthy 0-2; A McDonagh, S Brady 0-1 each\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for St. Flannan\u2019s College: J Barry 0-7 (5f); H Doherty (1-3); G Ball, P Finneran, T O\u2019Connor, J Cullinan 0-1 each\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n PRESENTATION COLLEGE ATHENRY: C Mannion (Athenry); S Brady (Athenry), M Lewis (Killimordaly), E McDonagh (Athenry); C Donoghue (Clarinbridge), R Burke (Kilconieron), R McGlynn (Athenry); A McDonagh (Athenry), I Leen (Craughwell); R Cahalan (Killimordaly), C Hannon (Athenry), N McCarthy (Athenry); N Kelly (Athenry), C Leen (Craughwell), A Poniard (Athenry)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Subs: M Cloonan (Craughwell) for Kelly (53), J Dunleavy (Turloughmore) for Poniard (63)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n ST FLANNAN’S COLLEGE: L Talty (St. Joseph\u2019s Doora\/Barefield); D Murrihy (Inagh-Kilnamona), S McNamara (Clooney-Quin), C Hill (Ballyea); D Ball (St. Joseph\u2019s Doora\/Barefield), J Cullinan (Ruan), C Daly (St. Joseph\u2019s Doora\/Barefield); G Ball (St. Joseph\u2019s Doora\/Barefield), J Barry (Inagh-Kilnamona); D McNamara (Clooney-Quin), P Finneran (Clooney-Quin), R Ralph (Clarecastle); E O\u2019Connor (Ballyea), T O\u2019Connor (St. Joseph\u2019s Doora\/Barefield), H Doherty (Clarecastle)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Subs: B Talty (St. Joseph\u2019s Doora\/Barefield) for Hill (37), D Loftus (\u00c9ire \u00d3g) for E. O\u2019Connor (50), J Ryan (Ruan) for D. Ball (57, inj), J Keane Hayes (Kilmaley) for D. McNamara (60, inj)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Referee: C Ryan (Tipperary)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Croke Cup semi-final: Presentation College Athenry 1-18 St. Flannan\u2019s College 1-14\u00a0 Presentation College Athenry\u2019s determined redemption mission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30041,30883,1965,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-334043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-clare-gaa","tag-galway-gaa","tag-hurling","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334043","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=334043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}