Murroe-Boher keep up perfect record in Premier IHC with fifth win

WITH five wins out of five, Murroe-Boher have every reason to be satisfied with his side's performance in their 0-25 to 1-16 victory over Croagh-Kilfinny in the Lyons of Limerick Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship on Saturday in Mungret.

The win guaranteed them a place in the semi-finals and kept open the prospect of the reigning county intermediate champions making it back-to-back promotions.

“It took us a while to get going; our delivery, our shooting were a bit off but the effort was still there and, once we started to get things right coming up to half-time, we did enough to close off the result,” said Murroe-Boher manager Pat Tobin.

Five wides had them trailing by four at the quarter mark despite a noticeable breeze at their backs, they were reeling under their opponents' intensity and conceding frees to the metronomic finishing of Cian O'Carroll but the course of the game changed once they moved from relying on the long shot and concentrated on creating the opportunities closer to the posts.

Croagh-Kilfinny continued to make a game of it despite being hit by a 13-point barrage without reply either side of the break but they just didn't have the spread of scorers back up their free-taker O'Carroll.

The west Limerick struck first with O'Carroll's free straight from the throw-in but that was immediately met by Séamus Hickey collecting the puckout to split the posts. Aaron Kennedy followed up with a monster point before O'Carroll and Seanie Tobin swapped frees.

Murroe-Boher's accuracy deserted them when they made a start on their first half tally of eight wides.

However, rediscovering their range had allowed the east Limerick side to find some fluency in the game and, once Tobin had replied from play and from a free, the passes started to sitck, the movement ahead of the ball started to find the space and, with the options opening up every time they gained possession. They drew level through Darren Collopy before Ryan, with one strike and Collopy with two shot, them into a lead of 0-12 to 0-9 at the break.

Pumped up on the restart, Murroe-Boher continued to dominate the one-on-ones as Croagh-Kilfinny floundered to find any assistance from the strengthening breeze. Striking twice from long deliveries, Collopy again led the charge, was followed by Tobin's free and Brian Hannon finishing off a lay-off and, when Dylan Sheehan, Tobin and Jack Nicholas all found the target, whet had been a tight affair into the prospect of a ruanaway victory.

Trailing by 10 coming up to the three-quarter mark, the men from the west finally found some stability as their opponents intensity dialed down a lot and gave O'Carroll the chance to send over a pair of free but the finish line faded further back into the distance when they were matched by strikes from Collopy and Tobin.

A faint spark of hope glowed when sub Darragh O'Carroll whipped the rebound off Cian O'Carroll's 20 metre free to the net but attempts to follow up were repelled by the Murroe-Boher defence. Then, whatever prospects were left died off completely when Ryan and Nichols brought the gap back out to nine with eight regulation minutes to go.

From there, the end game played out. Murroe-Boher packed back to close off any chance of another goal while their opponents worked on making sure there wouldn't be any further damage to their score difference in a tight table where teams can go into the final round with the prospects of semi-final qualification and the relegation play-off still live.

SCORERS, MURROE-BOHER: Seanie Tobin 0-8 (3f, 1 '65'), Darren Collopy 0-7, Micheál Ryan and Jack Nicholas 0-3 each, Aaron Kennedy, John O'Keeffe, Dylan Sheehan and Jack Casey 0-1 each; CROAGH-KILFINNY: Cian O'Carroll 0-12 (11 frees), Darragh O'Carroll 1-0, Bryan Flynn, Gearóid Lenihan, Conor Lenihan and Séamus Madigan 0-1 each.

MURROE-BOHER: Killian Quaid; Euan Sheridan, Aaron Kennedy, Brian O'Keeffe; Seán Fitzgerald, Darragh Kennedy, Oisín Holmes; Jack Nicholas, Dylan Sheehan; Mark Nicholas, Darren Collopy, Micheál Ryan N; Conor Foley, Seanie Tobin, John O'Keeffe. Subs: Finn Hourigan for A Kennedy (54 mins), Cathal Sheridan for Foley (54 mins), Jack Casey for O'Keeffe (57 mins).

CROAGH-KILFINNY: Dave Lynch; Denis Lenihan, Aidan O'Shea, Owen Dee; Bryan Flynn, Tom McMahon, Séamus Lenihan; Brian Hannon, Conor Lenihan; Séamus Hickey, Cian O'Carroll, Cian Costello; Séamus O'Carroll, Jack Lenihan, John Wall. Subs: Darragh O'Carroll for S O'Carroll (37 mins), Josh O'Connor for Hannon (43 minutes, Gearóid Lenihan for Costello (43 mins), Sonny Madigan for Wall (47 mins).

Referee: Paddy Lyons (Staker Wallace).