Limerick star Sean Finn bags hat-trick as Bruff secure survival with Premier IHC win over Croagh-Kilfinny

“WE NEEDED a performance to make sure we stayed up and I'm really proud of the way the entire team responded.”

Faced with the lottery of the last round of the Lyons of Limerick premier intermediate hurling permutations, manager Paddy O'Leary's relief was clearly on show after two late goals ensured Bruff's survival with a 3-16 to 0-12 victory over semi-final bound Croagh-Kilfinny at Clarina on Saturday afternoon.

Bruff's premier intermediate championship status was in doubt after a heavy defeat to Effin in their previous outing. But put to the test, Bruff found their best form of the season up to now by racking up an impressive final round victory.

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While results elsewhere closed off their faint hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals, escape from the relegation dog-fight was Bruff's immediate concern and their survival resulted in no small measure from the uunexpeted scoring exploits of Seán Finn.

Hampered all season by a nagging hamstring injury, the five-time All-Ireland medallist corner-back returned to the lineup at full-foward where his first-goal opened up a lead Bruff never lost and then his next two goals in the space of a minute finished off the game as a contest.

However, this was more than a one-man performance as Seán Casey anchored a rock solid defence and the constant trickle of points from Paul Browne, Owen Meaney and Josh Keating ensured that Croagh-Kilfinny were always under pressure once they fell behind.

Croagh-Kilfinny did their best to keep themselves in contention but, having already qualified for the play-offs in their first season ever in Limerick hurling's second grade, their need wasn't quite as pressing as that of their opponents and their best chance of victory ended when their third-quarter recovery stalled after their main marksman Cian O'Carroll departed through injury.

Croagh-Kilfinny got the start they wanted as Cian O'Carroll's pointed free straight from the throw-in was followed by James Lanigan's point on the run.

Bruff struck back through points from Josh Keating and Paul Browne's equaliser followed Danny O'Leary streaking in from the right corner to fire over and put them ahed.

After O'Carroll's pointed free in response was cancelled out by Browne, the Stars' greater focus continued to pay off as Kevin Bonner, Bobby O'Brien and Meanery's pointed free added substance to their lead while the West Limerick club's attempts to reply stuttered on a rash of wides.

Their task became even greater when Finn pounced on the break from a long delivery to lift, turn and drill to the net and, although Conor Lenihan immediately broke the sequence as he collected and pointed off the puckout, the gap stretched to eight points when Meaney, from a free, and Keating, from play, found the target.

However, in the run-in to the break, they conceded a pair of frees for O'Carroll to punish and ease his side back into contact before Seán Finn and Brian Hannon's swapped point to leave Bruff leading 1-10 to 0-7 as the teams headed into the dressing-room.

Meaney opened the second half scoring with a '65' but, as the intensity ratcheted up a notch, Bruff's composure started to wobble up front, the wides started to mount.

Croagh-Kilfinny made the most of the scrappy exchanges as O'Carroll's pointed free, followed by scores from Hannon, a monster free from goalie Dave Lynch and Lanigan reduced the gap between the sides to just a single goal by the three-quarter mark. 

However, just as they looked on the verge of closing in, Croagh-Kilfinny's accuracy, compounded by O'Carroll's departure through injury, began to desert them as Keating picked off the Stars' first score in 15 minutes.

And that was the sgnal for the damburst. Meaney's pointed free was followed immediately by Browne first-time pull on a hand-pass and, then, two monster clearances dropped from the sky for Finn to catch on at the edge of the square.

The first delivery Finn clutched at full stretch before blasting first time to the net, the second he doubled on to drop over the line.

Suddenly, Bruff were leading by 12 points with seven regulation minutes to go.

Even though there was some nine minutes of added time due to stoppages, Croagh-Kilfinny weren't given the opportunity to rediscover their composure and, despite Barry Lenihan replying with a pointed free, the Stars had the final say as Keating and Browne closed the scoring.

SCORERS: BRUFF: Seán Finn 3-1, Josh Keating, Owen Meaney (3 frees, 1 '65'), Paul Browne 0-4 each, Danny O'Leary, Kevin Bonner, Bobby O'Brien 0-1 each; CROAGH-KILFINNY: Cian O'Carroll 0-5 (5 frees), James Lanigan, Brian Hannon 0-2 each, Conor Lenihan, Dave Lynch (free), Barry Lenihan (free) 0-1 each.

BRUFF: Eric Finn; Patrick Finn, Seán Casey, Colm O'Loughlin; Gavin Bracken, Paul O Riordan, Kevin Bonner; Owen Meaney, Barry Callinan; Bobby O'Brien, Paul Browne, Darragh Butler; Josh Keating, Seán Finn,, Danny O'Leary. SUBS: Charlie Cronin for Darragh Butler (45 mins), Mikey O'Riordan for Bobby O'Brien (55 mins), Jack Fitzgerald for Danny O'Leary (58 mins).

CROAGH-KILFINNY: Dave Lynch; Owen Dee, Aidan O'Shea, Colm O'Loughlin; Tom McMahon, Barry Lenihan, Denis Lenihan; Conor Lenihan, Séamie Lenihan; Séamus Hickey, James Lanigan, Cian O'Carroll; Andrew Meade, Séamus O'Carroll, Brian Hannon. SUBS: Nessan Leahy for Cian O'Carroll (injured, 43 mins, John Wall for Andrew Meade (44 mins), Andrew Meade for Eoin Barry (injured, 67 mins).

REFEREE: Tom McGlinchey (Newport).