Limerick champions Monaleen into a Munster hurling final with victory over Doora-Barefield

MONALEEN booked their place in the Munster intermediate club hurling championship final this Saturday afternoon.

The Limerick Premier IHC winners recorded a 2-13 to 0-16 semi final win over St Josephs Doora-Barefield in Kilmallock.

Monaleen had an early goal from Donnacha O'Dalaigh and a late goal from Mark O'Dwyer to help them into the Munster club IHC final on December 4 against Tipperary's Roscrea.

Monaleen were backed by the tricky cross-field breeze in the opening half and brought a 1-6 to 0-5 lead into half time.

While the Clare champions opened the scoring, Monaleen had a tonic start when O'Dalaigh goaled in the fifth minute after Ed Doyle had collected possession from a puckout and off-loaded to O'Dywer and when he found the corner forward, the 2022 Munster U20 championship winner made no mistake.

Alan O'Neill and Davy Conroy points bought Doora-Barefield into the tie but when Ed Doyle had a Monaleen point it was 1-2 to 0-4 at the midpoint of the half.

Then came a strong finish to the half for the Limerick side with four of the final five points before the interval. Lorcan Lyons and Luke Murphy with scores from play as well as O'Dwyer frees.

So a four point lead at the break for the Castletroy based side with the teams evenly sharing 12 wides.

Doora-Barefield rattled off three quick-fire points on the change of ends as it took Monaleen 10-minutes to reopen their account.

Nonetheless when O'Dwyer landed two frees it was 1-8 to 0-8 and 12-minutes lapsed in the new half.

The Clare champions were now on top though and points from Cathal Ruane and Tom Hannon had the game level for the first time in the 51st minute.

The former All-Ireland club SHC winners then hit the front for the first time since the opening minutes and there were eight minutes to play.

Ed Doyle hit back but it was end-to-end and Cian Barron edged Doora-Barefield 0-14 to 1-10 ahead approaching the 55th minute mark.

Then came the O'Dwyer goal and it was certainly a score worthy of winning any tie as he broke through the centre before crashing to the net for a two point lead once more.

O'Dalaigh and Senan Crosbie exchanged points and there were still two points between the teams as the stopwatch reached 60-minutes.

There was to be a further eight minutes played due to stoppages but Monaleen held on with a late O'Dwyer free leaving three points between the teams as the Limerick champions repeated their win of 2016 over Doora-Barefield.

SCORERS: Monaleen: Mark O'Dwyer 1-6 (0-6frees), Donnacha O'Dalaigh 1-2, Luke Murphy and Ed Doyle 0-2 each, Lorcan Lyons 0-1. Doora-Barefield: Davy Conroy 0-6 (3frees), Tom Hannon 0-4, Alan O'Neill and Cathal Ruane 0-2 each, Cian Barron and Senan Crosbie 0-1 each.

MONALEEN: Jamie Power; Jamie Porter, Bryan Canny, Leo Morrison; Darren Golden O’Mahony, Lorcan Lyons, Ronan Lyons; Joseph Fitzgerald, Lochlann McHale; Daniel Power, Mark O’Dwyer, Luke Murphy; Donnacha O’Dalaigh, Ed Doyle, John Nicholas. Subs: Andrew La Touche Cosgrave for Darren Golden O'Mahony (23mins), David Moloney for John Nicholas, inj (37mins), Simon Griffin for Leo Morrisson (49mins), Ben Hayes for Jamie Porter, inj (67mins).

DOORA-BAREFIELD: Paul Madden; Fionnn Kelleher, Jarlath Colleran, Brian Clancy; Jack Hannan, Darragh McMahon, Adam Mungovan; Darragh Nagle, Darragh O’Shea; Alan O'Neill, Davy Conroy, Tom Hannon; Cathal Ruane, Eoin Hanrahan, Cian Barron. Subs: Brian Guilfoyle for Brian Clancy (42mins), Senan Crosbie for Eoin Hanrahan (51mins), Donal O'Halloran for Darragh McMahon (56 mins), Matthew Power for Cathal Ruane (59mins).

REFEREE: Ciaran O'Regan (Cork).