Na Piarsaigh (Limerick) 2-25 Ruairí Óg Cushendall (Antrim) 2-14
In the end, this couldn’t have been more straightforward for Na Piarsaigh. After years of knocking on the door, they barely needed to give it the slightest shove here to take home Limerick’s first ever club All-Ireland against a Cushendall side that froze on their big day. If this was Everest for Na Piarsaigh, they found a ski-lift to take them the last couple of hundred yards.
For the past few years, these club finals have tended to get out of hand early with one side or another blinded by the lights - and so it proved again here. For Kilmallock in 2015 and Mount Leinster Rangers in 2014, read Cushendall in 2016. They got behind early, started snatching at their chances when the gap was still manageable and fell away fairly rapidly thereafter. It became clearer as the afternoon went on that in all likelihood the Limerick team were going to be too strong for them anyway but this way, they never stood a chance.
It got ugly early. Adrian Breen was a late addition to the Na Piarsaigh side and his first involvement fully justified his inclusion. Latching onto a searching ball from midfielder Alan Dempsey, Breen jinked inside the cover at the Canal End and stitched his finish past Eoin Gillan in the Cushendall goal. And though the Antrim side put in a small burst of defiance with the next two points in reply, Na Piarsaigh soon settled into an irresistible rhythm.
Everywhere you looked, they had much the stronger hand to play. Shane Dowling landed an early bomb from out around midfield and followed it up with a brace of frees. Corner-forward Peter Casey was another who got his eye in early, punishing a loose puck-out with a smart point. Dempsey swung over a couple of his own and soon the Limerick side was disappearing over the horizon.
If there was any doubt, Kevin Downes removed it with a goal five minutes before the break Cushendall had actually been in for a sight of goal at the other end but once Pádraic Kennedy made the save, he picked out wing-back Cathal King. The Na Piarsaigh captain sprinted up the right wing before feeding Downes who finished with aplomb. It was about as definitive as you could get, making the scoreline 2-10 to 0-3.
By half-time, it looked no better for the Antrim side, with Na Piarsaigh 2-12 to 0-6 ahead. The only crumbs left on the table for them in the second half were pride and respectability but they were always going to be hard to get their hands on. They kept at it and managed to steal a couple of goals from Neil McManus and Karl McKeegan but they never brought the lead below double figures.
And so Na Piarsaigh became the first Limerick team to win a senior All-Ireland final of any sort in Croke Park since 1973. Kilmallock, Patrickswell and Ballybrown all got to this point only to find one too good when they got here but Shane O’Neill’s side took their chance when they got it. They had star performers everywhere but Breen, Dempsey, Dowling and Casey all stood out in particular.
NA PIARSAIGH: Pádraic Kennedy; Mike Casey, Kieran Breen, Kieran Kennedy; Mike Foley, Ronan Lynch (0-1, free), Cathal King; Alan Dempsey (0-4), Will O'Donoghue (0-1); Shane Dowling (0-7, 0-5 free), David Breen (0-2), Adrian Breen (1-4); Kevin Downes (1-2), David Dempsey, Peter Casey (0-3).
Subs: Kevin Ryan for David Breen, 54 mins; Pat Gleeson (0-1, 65) for O'Donoghue, 57 mins.
RUAIRÍ ÓG CUSHENDALL: Eoin Gillan; Ryan McCambridge, Martin Burke, Aaron Graffin; David Kearney, Eoghan Campbell (0-1), Seán Delargy; Shane McNaughton (0-4), Alec Delargy (0-1); Conor Carson (0-1), Neil McManus (1-7, 0-7 frees), Seán McAfee; Paddy McGill, Donal McNaughton, Christy McNaughton.
Subs: Eoin Laverty for McManus (temp), 20-23 mins; Paddy Burke for Seán Delargy, 34 mins; Karl McKeegan (1-0) for Donal McNaughton, 38 mins; Aidan McNaughton for Christy McNaughton, 51 mins; Eunan McKillop for Graffin, 56 mins.
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork).
