John The Baptist, Hospital come up short against Thurles CBS in Dr Harty Cup opener

JOHN the Baptist Community School, Hospital suffered a 0-24 to 0-15 defeat in round one of the Dr Harty Cup in Dundrum on Wednesday afternoon. 

A tight first half kept the Limerick school well in the hunt until three late points doubled the winners' lead. The Limeirck side could have all but bridged the gap after the break had they converted a goal chance before their opponents moved into a match-winning lead going into the final quarter.

Although the game was lit up by outstanding individual performances from Cillian Minogue and Darragh Hickey for the winners and Riain McNamara and Shane O'Dea for John the Baptist, the greater depth of talent in the Thurles lineup proved to be the difference in the end.

When it came down to converting pressure into scores, the Tipperary side had more scoring options both up front and from distance to hold off a Hospital challenge that at times came close, but never quite managed to grab the lead.

Thurles took the lead with Minogue's early pointed free and James Butler regained it for them after Riain McNamara's reply.

After Ciarán Hyland advanced from his line to smother Jack Cahill shot on goal, the gap remained as it was after Tiernan Ryan and Minogue swapped frees. However, they began to exert their dominace once they use their superiority up the middle third to run at the Hospital defence, drawing a foul for Jack Cahill to punish before Minogue and Euan Murray split a the posts.

Then after O'Dea's reply, a pair of Tiarnán Ryan points had them leading by three by the quarter mark.

The scoring rate dipped when both sides began to rack up the wides after Tiernan Ryan's pointed free was met by Minogue and his free answered O'Dwyer's shot after collecting off the puckout.

However, in the run-up to the break, the All-Ireland champions found some fluency up front for a pair of Minogue pointed frees and Darragh Doyle to shoot them into a lead of 0-12 to 0-6.

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Although Minogue picked off another point straight from the restart, John the Baptist replied with a burst of intensive pressure that led to McNamara splitting the posts twice on the run.

Then after Minogue replied once more, the Hospital-Herbertstown corner-forward struck again from out on the right before O'Dea's drive from distance brought the gap back to four points.

It could have been even closer had Rory Crosse not spread himself low to his left to block McNamara's daisy-cutter into the corner and, to add insult to injury, the Thurles clearance found its way to Minogue to point at the other end.

And with that, the tension collapsed. Tiarnán Ryan, Tony Ryan, Butler and Tiarnán Ryan again hammered over another four scores in quick successession to leave Hospital trailing by nine by going into the final quarter.

Even though the Thurles thunderclap eased off after that, the clock was ticking towards a close before the Limerick school found a response through Tiernan Ryan's free and O'Dea's point.

After Tony Ryan replied, two further frees from Tiernan Ryan followed. However, once the momentum tailed off, Minogue's free and scores from Darragh Hickey and Danny Barry copperfastened the Thurles win before a Ryan free was met by Barry in added time.

“A great effort by everyone against the All-Ireland champions. We put it up to them until well into the second half and it could have been closer had we converted our goal chances,” was the reaction of John The Baptist Community School manager Michael Martin at full-time.

SCORERS: THURLES CBS: Cillian Minogue 0-10 (7 frees), Tiarnán Ryan 0-4, Tony Ryan 0-3, James Butler, Danny Barry 0-2 each, Darragh Doyle, Jack Cahill, Darragh Hickey 0-1 each; JOHN THE BAPTIST CS, HOSPITAL: Tiernan Ryan 0-6 (6 frees), Riain McNamara 0-4, Shane O'Dea 0-3, Michael Hanly and Conor O'Dwyer 0-1 each

THURLES CBS: Rory Crosse (Boherlahan-Dualla); Evan Nolan (Thurles Sarsfields), Darragh Hickey (Emeralds), Conor Kennedy (Boherlahan-Dualla); Danny Barry (Fethard), Ryne Barragry (Boherlahan-Dualla), Seán Griffin (Upperchurch-Drombane); Euan Murray (Durlas Óg), Tiarnán Ryan (Holycross-Ballycahill); Tony Ryan (Killenaule), James Butler (Seán Treacy's), Leelan Donoghue (Thurles Sarsfields); Darragh Dotle (Killenaule), Cillian Minogue (Thurles Sarsfields), Jack Cahill (Ballingarry). SUBS: Larry Collins (Seán Treacys) for Darragh Doyle (47 minutes), Tomás Ryan (Upperchurch-Drombane) for Ldeelan Donoghue (50 minutes), Alex Coppinger (Thurles Sarsfields) for Seán Griffin (55 minutes), Eoin Webb (Durlas Óg) for Cillian Minogue (55 minutes),Ben Moore Moyne-Templetouhy) for Tiarnán Ryan (59 minutes).

JOHN THE BAPTIST COMMUNITY SCHOOL, HOSPITAL: Ciarán Hyland (Garryspillane); Eoin Clifford (Ballybricken-Bohermore), Adam Gleeson (Hospital-Herbertstown), Kevin Hennessy (Hospital-Herbertstown); Seán Tiernan (Caherline), Michael Hanly (Ballybricken-Bohermore), John O'Riordan (Bruff); Shane O'Dea (Hospital-Herbertstown), Conor Shanahan (Bruff); Evan Martin (Caherline), Rory Hanly (Ballybricken-Bohermore), William Ryan (Hospital-Herbertstown); Riain McNamara (Hospital-Herbertstown), Conor O'Dwyer (Pallasgreen), Tiernan Ryan (Garryspillane). SUBS: Christian Higgins for (Hospital-Herbertstown) for Evan Martin (44 minutes), Seán O'Dwyer (Caherline) for William Ryan (48 minutes),Pádraig McCarthy (Caherline) for Conor O'Dwyer (55 minutes), Garret Murnane (Bruff) for Conor Shanahan (59 minutes).

REFEREE: John McCormack (Tipperary).