Super Shamrocks fly past Fenor to land county crown
Shamrocks captain Stephen Lucey lifts the cup after the presentation from Co. chairman Neil Moore after their win over Fenor.
Shamrocks sauntered past a fancied Fenor side at Azzurri Walsh Park to claim county intermediate football honours, making it back-to-back titles for the men from Knockanore.
Having won the junior title last year, Sean Murphy’s men led from pillar to post to claim a maiden intermediate crown, and were not one bit flattered by the margin of their 14-point victory.
Man of the Match Kieran Crawford kicked 1-3, while Billy Hynes chipped in with 0-6 and Tom Dalton also hit the net to book their place in a Munster clash with Kerry side Keel next weekend.
Shamrocks stated their intentions from the off, Adam Crawford opened the scoring after two and half minutes before captain Stephen Lucey weaved through to double their tally moments later. John Paul Lucey quickly got in on the act as Fenor were pinned into their own half, before Billy Hynes cut in and fired a beauty of his left foot to make it 0-4 to nil on 8 minutes. It could’ve been game over by that point, but Hynes flashed a golden opportunity for the opening goal narrowly right and wide having benefited from an advantage.
Sean Mackey floated over Fenor’s first on nine minutes as they needed a settler, but Shamrocks refused to let them through clinical finishing and tenacious tackling. Kieran Crawford opened his tally on 12 minutes before the opening goal arrived on 15 minutes, as Lucey burst through and with the goal at his mercy - he squared to Tom Dalton and he picked out the top right corner, and the scoreboard read 1-5 to 0-1.
An Eoin Nolan free kept Fenor ticking but a close range free from Hynes kept the gap at seven. Scores were then at a premium for the remainder of the half as Mackey single-handedly kept Fenor’s hopes alive with another fine strike, but Shamrock’s should’ve been a lot further ahead than 1-6 to 0-3 at half time, having kicked eight wides in the opening period.
Any hopes of the contest bursting into life were immediately extinguished upon the resumption of play, as Shamrocks pounced from the restart to plunder a decisive second goal. The superb Shane Roche and Lucey combined to tee up Edward Hynes and he squared to Kieran Crawford, and with only 17 seconds played - he crashed home from close range to firmly place one hand on the cup.
That was the start of an unanswered burst of 1-6 within eleven minutes as Shamrocks left Fenor in their wake. Ciaran Lenehan impressively found the target, before a Hynes free was quickly followed by a two-point dead ball from the same man, and the score of the match arrived on 40 minutes as full-back Eoghan Lenehan marauded upfield and pointed from a difficult angle to emphasise his side’s superior class on the afternoon.
Dalton brought his tally to 1-1, before a well-struck two-point free from Mackey at the opposite end was merely consolatory by this point. Hynes (2) and Crawford again capitalised on Fenor mistakes to work the scoreboard, either side of two more scores from Mackey - the second of which was another two-pointer, this time from play Fittingly it was Crawford who rounded out the scoring as he was afforded far too much room, and there was still time for Hynes to crash a thunderous strike off the crossbar but it mattered little in the end - the final whistle was greeted by jubilant scenes from the village of Knockanore.
Their club will play premier intermediate hurling and football in 2027, a seismic achievement for a small parish on the Waterford-Cork border.
Kieran Crawford (1-3); Billy Hynes (0-7; 0-5f; 1tpf); Tom Dalton (1-1); Adam Crawford, Stephen Lucey, John Paul Lucey, Ciaran Lenehan and Eoghan Lenehan (0-1 each)
Sean Mackey (0-7; 0-5f; 2 tpf); Eoin Nolan (0-1; 0-1f)
Bernie Kelleher; Stephen Roche, Eoghan Leneghan, Gearoid Hynes; Adam Crawford, Shane Roche, David Barrett; Stephen Lucey, Padraig Hynes; Ciaran Lenehan, Kieran Crawford, John Paul Lucey; Billy Hynes, Tom Dalton, Edward Hynes.
Liam Motherway for David Barrett (42); Adam McSweeney for Edward Hynes (54); Kelvyn O’Farrell for Stephen Roche (57); Michael O’Neill for Ciaran Lenehan (57)
Padraic O’Leary; Jim Halley, John Heffernan, Richie Cullinane; Fintan Walsh, Ollie Buck, Cian Rellis; Mikey Nicholls, Paul Condon; Sean Mackey, James Hayden, Darragh Murphy; Iarla Hennessy, John Flynn, Eoin Nolan.
Mick Kelleher for Iarla Hennessy (HT); Dylan Farrell for Eoin Nolan (37)
Martin Curran (An Sean Phobal)
