Monaleen celebrate Limerick County Cup hurling final victory over Ahane

MONALEEN edged past neighbours Ahane 1-19 to 1-16 in a lively floodlit contest to claim the County Cup senior hurling title in front of a large attendance at ULs North Campus on Tuesday night

The Castletroy side overcame a first quarter deficit to lead by three points at the break in the final of the competition for teams who don't qualify for the knockout stages of the senior hurling championship.

The winners showed that extra rub of polish in their team play to move themselves out of danger any time their opponents from across the Mulcair threatened to overtake them.

Although scoring was dominated by the free-taking of Andrew La Touche Cosgrave and Ciarán Barry, Monaleen carried an extra threat up front as Ahane's finishing unit struggled to compensate for the absence of the injured Tom Morrissey.

When they needed to exploit their moments of dominance, their shooting let them down and allowed Monaleen to catch their breath before launching another burst of attack.

Barry and Dan Morrissey behind him dominated the area around them up the middle, but Monaleen held the upper hand in the middle third for most of the hour with Lorcan Lyons's distribution from the centre of their defence and La Touche Cosgave's use of width and space further up giving them more options to pick off the scores.

Positional and personnel switches allowed Ahane to claw back the deficit during the third quarter, but the effort it took left them exposed when Monaleen responded with four unanswered scores that turned out to be the winning of the game.

Ahane saw more of the early ball but sent their first two efforts wide and were then rocked by Monaleen's first serious attack which ended with La Touche Cosgrave sending a screamer to the corner of the net off a 30-metre solo.

Ciarán Barry and La Touch Cosgrave then swapped frees before Ahane  found an edge in the middle third to draw level through points from Gavin Rowsome, Mark Donnellan and Stephen Power and then shot ahead when the rebound off Barry's shot was finished to the net by David Carr.

However, a run of wides prevented them from building on their lead, giving Monaleen a moment to reform their shape and pull back points from La Touche Cosgrave and Dan Power. Then, following an exchange of frees between Barry and La Touche Power, Monaleen moved up a gear to draw level with Ronan Lyons' point, go in front with Ben Crowe's score and, after Barry's free was cancelled out by Eoghan O'Driscoll, tacked on Lorcan Lyons's free.

Further points followed from Ronan Lyons and O'Driscoll before Barry sent over a free at the other end to leave Ahane trailing by three points, 1-7 to 1-10, at the break.

Although another Lorcan Lyons free opened the second half, Ahane wound themselves up for Barry to point from a free and from play and, after La Touche Cosgrave and he exchanged further frees, he and Donnellan brought the gap back to a single point.

Despite La Touche Cosgrave punishing a foul at the other end, the sides were level when Willie Brennan's point was followed by Barry's free but, at that point, the revival stalled and Joe Fitzgearald, with an excellent score, La Touche Cosgrave's free, Luke Murphy and another La Touche Cosgrave free had Monaleen leading by four.

There, after frees swapped by Barry and La Touche Cosgrave, the gap remained with five minutes to go before Ahane cranked themselves up for one last effort. Dan Minehan and another Barry frees halved the task in front of them but, lacking a cutting edge to strike from play, they were unable to complete the comeback.

SCORERS: MONALEEN: Andrew La Touche Cosgrave 1-8 (0-7 frees), Ronan Lyons, Eoghan O'Driscoll, Lorcan Lyons (2 frees) 0-2 each, Dan Power, Ben Crowe, Joe Fitzgerald, Luke Murphy 0-1 each; AHANE: Ciarán Barry 0-10 (9 frees), David Carr 1-0, Mark Donnellan 0-2, Gavin Rowsome, Stephen Power, Willie Brennan, Dan Minehan 0-1 each.

MONALEEN: Jamie Power; Simon Griffin, Bryan Canny, Leo Morrison; Darren Golden O'Mahony, Lorcan Lyons, Darragh Langan; Joe Fitzgerald, Lochlann McHale; Dan Power, Eoghan O'Driscoll, Andrew La Touche Cosgrave; Ben Crowe, Ronan Lyons, Luke Murphy. SUBS: Donnacha Ó Dálaigh for Dan Power (half-time), Mark O'Dwyer for Joe Fitzgerald (54 minutes), Ed Doyle for Eoghan O'Driscoll (58 minutes), David Moloney for Ben Crowe (61 minutes).

AHANE: Cathal Ryan; Evan Enright, Evan O'Leary, Shane O'Grady; Paddy Morrissey, Dan Morrissey, Pádraig Harnett; Ciarán Barry, Stephen Power; Mark Donnellan, Ronan Fox, Gavin Rowsome; David Carr, Dan Minehan, Jack Butler. SUBS: Willie Brennan for Stephen Power (half-time), Niall Moran for David Carr (35 minutes), Craig O'Connell for Gavin Rowsome (57 minutes), Stephen Hassett for Shane O'Grady (60 minutes).

REFEREE: Éamonn Stapleton (Doon).