Setanta Hurling Club banished the hurt of last year’s defeat to Burt with what was in the end a fairly comfortable win over a St Eunan’s side that battled hard but were undone by goals on the stroke of half time and early in the second half that derailed their brave challenge. The first half had been nip and tuck throughout with the sides level six times but a Mark Devine goal in added time at the end of the first half saw Setanta take a 1-10 to 0-9 lead into the dressing room at the break.
Eunan’s, with the benefit of the stiffened breeze, had the better of the opening exchanges in the second half but were again undone by a Setanta goal, minutes after the break. St Eunan’s goalkeeper Cian Hennessy appeared to deflect a rasper from Declan Coulter, a late addition to the team, for a 65 but the umpire signalled a goal, correctly noticing the ball had skimmed the inside of the post and exited through the gap where the net joined the post. Eunan’s responded admirably hitting the next three points to reduce the gap back to a single score at 2-10 to 0-13 before Mark Devine struck his second goal early in the second quarter and Eunans would not raise a white flag for the rest of the game.
It was the 24th minute before Setanta hit their first point of the second half but they took command from there to the finish, raising two more white flags to run out 3-13 to 0-13 winners. Man of the match was Setanta’s Danny Cullen with Danny Coulter running a close second while Kevin Campbell was unerringly accurate from frees. For Eunan’s Conor O’Donnell, who started very brightly, shone for Eunans as did Cormac Finn and Conor O’Grady but Setanta’s greater experience showed as they closed out the game in the final quarter. The main picture shows captain Martin Bonner with both the Munster Cup and the Senior Hurling League trophy, Setanta having completed the double on Saturday afternoon.
Setanta: Ciaran Bellew, Mark Callaghan, Simon McMenamin, Denim Rowan, Steven McBride, Martin Bonner, Niall Clery, Richard Kee, Michael Donoghue, Bernard Lafferty (0-1), Danny Cullen (0-1), Gerard Gilmore (0-1), Mark Devine (2-1), Declan Coulter (1-2), Kevin Campbell (0-5, 5f). Subs used: Devin Flynn (0-2), Justin McBride, Shaun Anderson, Gary McGettigan
Naomh Ádhamhnáin: Cian Hennessy, Brian McIntyre, Jack Matthews, Conor Parke, Ryan Hilferty (0-1), Steven Doherty, Conor O’Grady (0-3, 3f), Colm Flood, Cormac Finn, Sean Halvey, Sean McVeigh (0-1), Conor O’Donnell (0-3), James Hartnett (0-2), Eugene Organ (0-1), Kevin Kealy (0-2). Subs used: Conor Kelly, Thomas Hartnett, PJ McBrearty, Niall O’Donnell and Cian Randles.
By Sinéad Breen Donegal PRO Sun 1st Sep
