Doon edge past Ahane to book Limerick senior hurling championship semi-final place

“HAPPY with our first half, but we lost our focus after the break. Still, we got the win in the end,” was manager Derek McGrath's reaction to Doon ending their group phase of the Whitebox Limerick senior hurling championship with a narrow 0-23 to 1-18 win over East Limerick rivals Ahane in Cappamore on Saturday.

The victory gives county champions Doon a direct pass into the semi-finals and two weeks longer to prepare for the next step in their defence of their title.

Yet despite controlling the game from the throw-in to the final whitle, it took a penalty stop with the last action of the hour to save the champions from defeat.

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Up to that dramatic climax, they never really looked in any danger as, no matter how much possession was wasted on nine wides in the first half or how they stepped off the gas after building up a match-winning lead going into the final quarter, they always managed to regain enough control to keep opponents Ahane at arm's length.

Having achieved their main goal of surviving in the top group with their win over Patrickswell in the previous round, Ahane were already in bonus territory for the season and maybe that contributed to a flat first half where they depended almost entirely on Tom Morrissey's frees to keep in touch despite playing with the benefit of the conditions.

Ambition ramped up when the reappeared after the interval as the possibility of a place in the play-offs opened up and, even though their first effort at clawing their way back into contention was beaten off, Ahane kept plugging away long enough to get a last bite of the cherry.

Doon had already shot three wides before the scoring started with Morrissey's pointed free and, after Darragh O'Donovan's score finally found the target at the other end, the Ahane sharpshooter added two more from placed balls before getting his only score from play.

However, despite their lead of three points, Ahane were being outplayed in the middle third and, when their opponents finally found some rhythm to their shooting, scores from Jack Ryan and Dean Coleman had the gap back at minimum by the quarter mark.

Getting what they could out of the strong diagonal wind at their backs to compensate for their lack of possession, Ahane drew another pair of fouls for Morrissey to punish, but they were met in turn by Doon points from Coleman and Adam English's free before a long period of Doon possession saw Kevin Maher equalise and then put them ahead. His score was followed by another point each from Coleman and English.

To their credit, Ahane responded by getting their other forwards to share the burden as Jack Cosgrave and Ronan Fox split the posts and the scores were followd by O'Donovan's reply being cancelled out by a Morrissey free.

However, Doon had the last say before the break as English's free and Coleman's point sent them into the dressing-room leading 0-12 to 0-9.

Whatever was said over the interval had its effect on Ahane as the entire side stepped up to the plate and Morrissey pointed twice from frees, but they just stopped short of bridging the gap before Aidan O'Connell replied and, twice again as a huge Morrissey free was cancelled by an even bigger one from O'Donovan.

Fox's point was answered by a second monster O'Donovan free. Then, using the wind to take their chances from distance, Barry Murphy, Cian O'Donovan, Eddie Stokes and English's free had Doon's lead stretched out to six by the three-quarter mark.

But at that point, the intensity fizzled out and, seeing their opponents settling back for containment, Ahane inched themselves back into contact through scores from Conor Ryan and Morrissey's free.

Briding the gap suddenly became a live possibility for Ahane when Morrissey was pulled down in the square after pulling a long delivery from the sky and then making no mistake with the penalty.

A few missed chances looked like derailing the opportunity, but hope picked up again when Fox sent over the levelling point and Morrissey bounced them into the lead with another free from inside his own half.

Doon picked up their performance, however, with English's pointed free and Cormac Ryan's long strike from play.

However, Morrissey's pointed free on the stroke of regulation time had matters all square again before advantage swung in the other direction with another Ryan point followed by English's converted free.

It looked to have been just enough but the drama still wasn't over as Morrissey dropped a free into the square. Green jersys and red jersey battled for possession, before referee Kieran Guina signalled an Ahane penalty.

However, with the raucous attendance craning their necks to observe the final act of the contest, Darragh Stapleton and his outstretched hurley guessed right to deny Morrissey a second goal of the contest.

SCORERS: DOON: Adam English 0-6 (4 frees), Darragh O'Donovan (2 frees), Dean Coleman 0-4 each, Kevin Maher 0-2 each, Cormac Ryan, Jack Ryan, Aidan O'Connell, Barry Murphy, Eddie Stokes 0-1; AHANE: Tom Morrissey 1-13 (0-12 frees, 1-0 penalty), Ronan Fox 0-3, Jack Cosgrave, Conor Ryan 0-1 each.

DOON: Darragh Stapleton; Mikey O'Brien, Tommy Hayes, Cian O'Donovan; Chris Thomas, Barry Murphy, Aidan O'Connell; Darragh O'Donovan, Jack Ryan; Gareth Thomas, Adam English, Eddie Stokes; Donal Coughlan, Kevin Maher, Dean Coleman. SUBS: Pat Ryan for Kevin Maher (42 mins), Conor Ryan for Dean Coleman (50 mins), Eoin Fitzgibbon for Mikey O'Brien (55 mins).

AHANE: Cathal Ryan; Andy Rowsome, Pádraig Harnett, Gavin Rowsome; Dan Minihan, Dan Morrissey, Ciarán Barry; Conor Ryan, Conor Heffernan; Ronan Fox, Tom Morrissey, John O'Connor; Mark Donnellan, Will McCormack, Jack Cosgrave. SUBS: Kevin Morrissey for John O'Connor (44 minutes), Shane O'Grady for Pádraig Harnett (48 minutes), David Carr for Kevin Morrissey (injured, 59 minutes).

REFEREE: Kieran Guina (Feohanagh).