Did the teams line out as per the programme? Looked quite an inexperienced Doon side.
DOON ARE Bon Secours Hospital County Senior Hurling League champions following a dramatic 3-19 to 2-19 win over Kilmallock in Bruff this Tuesday evening.
The east Limerick side only took the lead for the first time in the game when Kevin Maher bundled in the rebound after Barry Hennessy made a brilliant save from a Sean Moloney shot.
Points from Eddie Stokes and Dean Coleman then secured the three-point win. The sides will meet again in the first round in the Limerick SHC in early August.
Kilmallock made a fast start to the game with the first six scores of the game. Conor Hanley-Clarke sent over three points, while Sean Carroll and Kevin O’Donnell also hit the target.
Pierce Connery then fired in a goal for Fintan O’Connor’s side to put them into a 1-5 to 0-0 lead with 10 minutes of the game played.
Doon were soon back into the game, however, when Cormac Ryan placed a penalty into the bottom corner of the net after Paudie O’Brien had fouled Coleman.
The high quality nature of the game continued throughout the first half with both sides landing scores at will. Both centre forwards, Cormac Ryan and Hanley-Clarke were particularly impressive.
Kilmallock were keeping Doon at arms length for most of the half but a well-taken goal by Coleman brought his side back into the game just before half time. That saw the score at 1-14 to 2-8 at the break.
Hanley-Clarke and Tommy Savage sent Kilmallock into a five-point advantage with the first two scores of the second half but Doon hit the next four to get back into the contest once again.
However, Kilmallock soon took control once more after a superb run from Robbie Hanley opened up the Doon defence and Robbie Egan delivered the finish after taking the pass from his centre back.
Doon were not to be derailed though and had Kilmallock’s lead back to two-points heading into the final few minutes, before Maher’s goal turned the game in their favour and sealed victory.
Scorers - Doon: Cormac Ryan 1-10 (1-0 pen, 0-7 frees), Dean Coleman 1-2, Kevin Maher 1-1, Jack Ryan 0-2, Diarmuid Crowe, Sean Moloney, Gareth Thomas and Eddie Stokes 0-1 each.
Scorers - Kilmallock: Conor Hanley-Clarke 0-8 (0-5 frees, 0-1 '65), Pierce Connery 1-2, Robbie Egan 1-0, Phelim O’Reilly 0-3, Kevin O’Donnell and Tommy Savage 0-2 each, Sean Carroll and Killian Hayes 0-1 each.
DOON: Tomas Lynch; Padraig Ryan, Tommy Hayes, Eoin Fitzgibbon; Diarmuid Crowe, Mikey O’Brien, Sean og Blackmore; Jack Ryan, John Hayes; Kevin Maher, Cormac Ryan, Gareth Thomas; Donal Coughlan, Dean Coleman, Shane O’Connell.
Subs: Sean Moloney for J Hayes (37 mins), Eddie Stokes for O’Connell (37 mins), Tadgh Whelan for Fitzgibbon (60 mins, inj), Darragh Stapleton for Maher (62 mins).
KILMALLOCK: Barry Hennessy; Dan Joy, Paudie O’Brien, Dylan O’Brien; Sean Carroll, Robbie Hanley, Paddy O’Loughlin; Killian Hayes, Phelim O’Reilly; Kevin O’Donnell, Conor Hanley-Clarke, Gavin O’Mahony; Tommy Savage, Robbie Egan, Pierce Connery.
Subs: Oisin Enright for Savage (45 mins), Conor Staunton for Connery (47 mins).
REFEREE: Donnacha O’Callaghan (Feohanagh-Castlemahon).
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Both were pretty much as they lined out in the programme IIRC.
Is Donal Coughlan only a young fella?
How was Pierce Connery?
1-2 is good scoring, I think he’s a serious talent, will really bolster their attack this year.
Galbally with a blistering first half to beat St Senans 4-12 to 1-15 (4-6 to 0-4 at HT)
Barry Hennessy is busy!
Is eoin Mc playing this year?
Fascinating chat tonight with a first cousin of my mother’s. Sean Casey, a member of Patrickswell’s first county title winning team of 1965. A native of Faha townland, midway between Patrickswell & Clarina, Sean moved to Croagh parish with his parents in the mid 60s, so I’ve often talked hurling with him, but not on the scale of tonight. We spent a good two hours talking nothing but the ‘Well. I should have jotted it down or recorded what he said, I’m forgetting half of it now I know.
The Well was only formed in 1943. Before that, anyone in the parish would have played with either Ballybrown or Breska Rovers (not to be confused with soccer team of same name). Tom Ryan’s father Willie (a native of Clonoulty, Co Tipperary) was one of three men credited with forming the club in 1943. It folded in ‘45, before being reformed in 1947. You had lads from Ballybrown, Croom, Fedamore, Manister and Crecora all lining out for the Well in the first two decades of its existence.
Lord Harrington, Limerick’s only member of the British Royal Family, lived at Greenmount Stud (present day racecourse) in the late 40s, and offered to purchase and donate the site of Patrickswell’s first hurling pitch. Many of his employees were members of the club. This offer was rejected by the club’s committee, who stated “we’ll take no money from any English Lord”. Then again, Patrickswell has always been a Republican stronghold. As an aside, Lord Harrington died in 2009 in at his home in Ballingarry.
The construction of Marian Park, the village’s first housing estate in the 1950s, was basically the making of the club. The club won its first City title in ‘49, first Juvenile honour in ‘54 and its maiden Junior County title in ‘57. 9 of that side were on the 1965 senior county winning team. Families that moved into Patrickswell in the 50s included the Foleys from Ballybrown and the Careys from Mungret. The Bennis’s came from Dromcollogher - Sean Casey maintains the Bennis’s were tough because they came from a family of blacksmiths, and “blacksmiths are hardy”.
The fact that the village of Patrickswell by the end of the 50s had three pubs, while Clarina had none, also influenced people from the Ballybrown side of the parish to socialise in the Well, and soon enough you had families moving into the village too from the other end of the parish.
Sean mentioned that the original colours worn by the Well were green and gold. That changed to light blue and gold in the early 60s, before settling at royal blue and gold in the 70s. As was the same at the time for every club, they had only one set of heavy cotton jerseys, which Sean says were washed “maybe once a month”, so the smell of sweat off them was something desperate.
He mentioned a couple of the current Well side; Diarmuid Byrnes gets his hurling from his mother’s side - she is a sister of Seanie O’Gorman of Milford who won All Ireland with Cork in 1990. (Think he was full back?) Described Diarmuid as the cleanest striker of a ball Limerick has ever produced.
There’s good hurling pedigree on both sides of Aaron Gillane’s family, his paternal gran-aunt Carrie Gillane was one of Limerick’s greatest ever camogie players, she played for county in the 50s & 60s. On his mother’s sides, his grandparents are Hartes of Kildimo and Sean described them as very stylish hurlers in the 50s.
Sean Casey will be 82 this year, he is the last living member of Patrickswell’s first juvenile county title team of 1954. His generation is the last that can actually tell a proper story. He goes to every Patrickswell game still, and every Croagh/Kilfinny game too for good measure to support his adopted parish. There is nothing this man doesn’t know about Limerick hurling from the 40s to present day. He told me a good one about a junior match between the Well and Kildimo in the mid 50s, a massive brawl broke out. He was watching it from behind the fence as a 13 or 14 year old - the first and last time he feared for his safety and the safety of others at a match. Said there was lads getting split open with hurleys and there was blood everywhere. Game was abandoned and the Well won the replay.
Pictured below is the Well team that won its first senior title in ‘65. Sean is front row, third from the left. His brother Jerry (RIP), is front row, second from the right.
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One of the founding members of patrickswell was from Tipp, hence the blue and gold. Sean bennis played for ballybrown as I believe he married a girl from there. An avenue in Marian Park produced all the Careys, Foley’s and Kirby’s (Kirby’s are 50% bennis). Ballybrown and Patrickswell are the one parish.
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I asked Sean about this. He could neither confirm nor deny it.
Ryan, you mentioned him above.
I did. And I asked him was it because of him being a founder and a Tipp man that the Well wear blue/gold. He said he didn’t know, and that they wore green/gold first before then switching to same colours as Tipp.
It could well be because of Tom’s father. Maybe somebody from the Well or Ballybrown can shed some light on it….
It’s a fucking fact. No shame in it.
If it is, then I’ll bow to your superior knowledge on the topic 
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Tom still has family in Clonoulty. His 1st cousin played midfield for Clonoulty for years. Kevin. He won county titles in 89 and 97 with them. Think there’d be a link way back with my grandmother.
Foley and Cregan get a mention but no shout out for Gerry Molyneaux RIP who somehow won a championship with Lixnaw and parlayed that into the Kerry senior hurling job.
Where he picked teams for internal matches by throwing hurleys in a pile then firing them to each side randomly 
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Your man Liam Shinnors in backrow 3 in from the left has to be a relative of Blue Shinnors, absolute head off each other.
He didn’t play last year. Lynch is now the great white hope.
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Dave Punch the mascot. He must have about 12 county medals.
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I was thinking the same looking at it. Bennis, Carey, Punch, Leonard.
Can’t bate breeding
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