Colman’s bridge 12 year gap to claim O’Callaghan Cup in style
What turned out to be a facile victory for the St Colman’s hurlers, saw them defeat city side Gaelcholáiste Mhuire an Mhainistir Thuaidh by a 14 point margin, when the sides met in the O’Callaghan Cup final on Tuesday last week.
Played at MTU, the Fermoy side started brightly and had registered 1-1 in the opening minutes, the goal coming from the stick of Watergrasshill’s Brendan Lehane. With the sides exchanging points - the margin was already at 5 points in favour of Colman’s after 15 minutes play - the city side registering a brace of frees and a point from Ciarán Mac Uidhir.
St Colman’s kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely however and although Gaelcholáiste Mhuire an Mhainistir Thuaidh recorded a number of scores from play, the margin remained at 5 points at the interval, 1-11 to 0-8, this with the Fermoy side having played into a difficult cross wind.
Killavullen’s Jamie Magner, who top-scored for Fermoy on 0-11 at the end of the hour, kept the scoreboard moving in the right direction, with 7 of his scores coming from placed balls. With the margin now out to 8 points, St Colman’s could afford to concede a green flag following a fine stop by keeper Coughlan, and still be comfortably in control.
However, that would be the final score for the city side as St Colman’s showed their supremacy and recorded the remaining points, 9 in total, to claim the Cork PPS SA Hurling Championship title and bring the O’Callaghan Cup back to Fermoy, after a 12-year wait since they last took the title. Well done to everyone concerned.
St Colman’s College: S Coughlan (Fermoy), G O’Brien (St Catherines), D Cashman (Bride Rovers), D Barry (Bride Rovers), O Fitzgerald (St Catherines – 0-1), F O’Connell (St Catherines), C Hazelwood (Bride Rovers), R Murray (Watergrasshill), R O’Connell (Bride Rovers – 0-1), L Foley (Watergrasshill – 0-2), B Lehane (Watergrasshill – 1-2), M O’Driscoll (capt – Watergrasshill, 0-3), S O’Donoghue (St Catherines – 0-1), J Magner (Killavullen – 0-11, 0-7f), L Óg Hegarty (Kilworth – 0-2). Subs: C O’Leary (Watergrasshill) for R Murray, R O’Riordan (Kilworth – 0-1) for S O’Donoghue, E Flynn (Ballygiblin) for R O’Riordan, J Ahern (Bride Rovers) for L Foley, R O’Callaghan (Bride Rovers) for L Óg Hegarty.