St Thomas’ fail to deliver in heavy final defeat to Ballyhale

St Thomas’ 2-11

Patrick Earley at Croke Park

THERE was to be no fairytale end to a phenomenal season for St Thomas’ in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day as they succumbed to an outstanding Ballyhale Shamrock’s side who collected their seventh Tommy Moore Cup after a quite superb display.

The Kilkenny side showed exactly why they are the most successful club in the history of the game, for although lining out with five U-21s in their starting 15, they looked at home right from the off, revelling on the big stage and like all good Kilkenny sides too, ruthlessly exploiting any mistake St Thomas’ made.

Not a lot went right for the Galway champions on a day everything needed to. Already shorn of the services of Kenneth Burke through injury, news of younger brother Eanna’s enforced withdrawal prior to throw-in was another major blow.

Add to that the injuries sustained by influential duo Fintan Burke and James Regan and the south Galway side just didn’t have the resources to paper over the cracks left behind – and they were made pay for it as Colin Fennelly, Adrian Mullen and TJ Reid ran amok.

It was a cruel way for St Thomas’ to go out. They’re far better than what they showed on Sunday and with a full compliment, they might have posed a serious challenge to Ballyhale but that’s the nature of hurling and the nature of sport, there are days like these.

The injury to Fintan Burke, sustained in the 40th minute looked hugely worrying, knee ligament damage most likely, which could see one of the brightest young prospects in Galway hurling sidelined for some time.

Colin Fennelly on the edge of the square had one of those days that only he can produce. A true enigma who can destroy teams on his day and be the first man called ashore the next, he tallied 2-4 from play in a Man-of-the-Match performance.

And as things went wrong for St Thomas’, almost everything Ballyhale hit sailed between the posts. The Leinster champions tallied a mere five wides over the course of the contest compared to St Thomas’ ten.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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