What a cracking contest this was.
2024 Carlow Senior Hurling Championship Final
Mount Leinster Rangers 2-19, St Mullins 3-16
By Leo McGough
Let’s hit you with an amazing stat first. For their third County final meeting in succession Mount Leinster Rangers and St Mullins shared 40 flags! 2024 {5-35} {2-19 – 3-16}; 2023: {4-36} {3-19 – 1-17} 2021: {0-40} {0-24 – 0-16}. What were the odds on that?
And did you know that the combined 5-35 last Sunday which came to a points tally, goals and points combined of 50, was just the third time in the history of the Championship that the combined county final broke the 50-barrier but the first to do so when the game was close rather than a one-sided goal fest. 1963: 13-19 (58) {St Mullins 9-9, Carlow Town 4-10}; 1962 11-22 (55) {St Mullins 7-13, Erin’s Own 4-9}
We’ll move away from the stats and ask a question that the answer to is more a matter of personal opinion than written in stone fact. Was this the greatest county final of all-time?
For this scribe nostalgia would point to some magnificent Naomh Eoin v St Mullins final of the 1970s, ’80’s and ‘90s, particularly the 1978 Marathon which took four and a half hours to decide, the sequence of draws, one after extra-time adding to the drama with the ever increasing crowd adding to the atmosphere. Paddy Quirke was at his majestic dominating best in those games, his brother Eamonn’s field craft yielded magnificent points, Red’ Liamy Walsh, though in his 40s, turned back the clock with magical skills and glorious scores. Ah, it was mighty, mighty stuff.
But one wonders if video existed if those games would the fare stand the test of time? Inter-county hurling games of that era that I thought were epics at the time when re-shown on TG4 many years later certainly didn’t live up to memory’s billing.
When I was young I heard and read old-timers extolling the virtues of the game in their time, overhead hurling where the ball didn’t touch the ground for long periods of time and if it did first time pulling was the order of the day. Again one suspects it was a case of looking back on the past with rose-tinted glasses.
Now that I have aged and am an old-timer myself I am not one to look back on the ‘good old days’ and declare the hurling back then as far better than the modern day. In fact I am in the opposite camp and beige the skill levels of the modern players, the fitness levels and their tactical awareness is far superior. Hit and hope hurling has been replaced by intelligent use of the ball.
Yes, the ball is lighter, the hurls shorter (not built for ground hurling) and yes the short-passing game threatened for a while to turn hurling into football-with-sticks but when hurling is played like last Sunday in Netwatch Cullen Park then it is a joy to behold.
I watched the final from the Tommy Lennon Stand, taking notes and completely absorbed by the action unfolding in front of me, not just when the game started raining goals and the excitement mounted but early on to when the Rangers swashbuckling hurling had me thinking “do you know what it is these boys could give Leinster a rattle again”. Yes, their hurling was that good in my opinion. And this was against the wind, a significant wind. Mind you it appeared as if the Rangers – who twice led by seven points, 1-7 to 0-3 after on 20 minutes, 1-9 to 0-5 on 27 – were being gifted a platform by St Mullins setting up so defensively that the influential Kevin McDonald was left loose on the champions half-back line.
Jack Kavanagh’s goal looked to have provided St Mullins with a lifeline only for Eddie Byrne to net down the other end but when Jack scored a second goal and the brother Mouse piloted over a point suddenly the county final took on a whole new complexion. Never mind Leinster the Rangers will be doing well to win Carlow.
The second half was equally absorbing, St Mullins twice levelling – at 2-13 apiece in the 47th minute, 2-14 apiece two minutes later – but the 59th minute the Rangers had inched four points clear again and surely the Willie O’Connor Cup was destined for a return trip to the Ballymurphy, Borris and Rathanna region of South Carlow.
Not so, the Willie O’Connor Cup was staying in the County Grounds thanks to St Mullins pilfering 1-1 in injury-time, both scores procured by the Mouse who a little earlier had had two bad wides from play. And it was the high number of wides in general that this observer would suggest prevented the final from undisputed claims as ‘the greatest’.
There were, by my count, 24 wides in all, 13 by Mount Leinster Rangers, St Mullins 11 apiece, well spread among the players. Elsewhere you will read of the scorers and how they scored, here we will tally the wides. Mount Leinster Rangers Bakers Dozen: Dean Tobin (2), Ted Joyce (2), Chris Nolan (2), Richie Coady, Evan Kealy, Jon Nolan, Conaill Fitzpatrick, Kevin McDonald, Donagh Murphy (1 each) and one from a line-ball while I was taking note and didn’t see the culprit.
St Mullins Eleven Marty Kavanagh (3), Jason O’Neill (3), Michael Walsh, Paudie Kehoe, John Doyle, Conor Kehoe and Jack Kavanagh (1 each).
We name not the recorders of wides by way of a name and shame game, rather is it to show that both teams were packed with players willing to have a go, there will be days – maybe next Sunday – when they will go over. And preferable it is that players are taking the responsibility of shooting for scores rather than indulge in the abdication of that skill in modern football which has become a passing snoozefest.
Still those wides seeped some of the energy out of the game at times but on the overall it was archly entertaining contest. I watched it back on the laptop on Monday morning, stopped and started to check how accurate the previous days scribbled notes were, saw things I did’t see the previous day. It took two hours instead of one. But again I was absorbed by the skills levels on show, the passion, the intensity, the brilliance of the scores.
So, on mature reflection, yes, yes this was the greatest Carlow final I have seen. Roll on the Replay.
– MOUNT LEINSTER RANGERS –
1. Dean Grennan
2. Michael Doyle
3. Michael Joyce
4. Sean Joyce
5. Evan Kealy
6. Kevin McDonald (Capt)
7. Tony Lawlor 0-1
8. Jon Nolan 0-3
9. Richie Coady
10. Chris Nolan 0-2
11. Teddy Joyce 0-7 5f
12. Dean Tobin
13. Ciaran Kavanagh 1-0
14. Eddie Byrne 1-2
15. Donagh Murphy 0-4
Subs: Conaill Fitzpatrick for C Kavanagh (h-t)
Diarmuid Byrne for Tobin (48)
– ST MULLINS –
1. Kevin Kehoe
2. Paudi O’Shea
3. Paul Doyle
4. John Doran
5. Paudie Kehoe
6. Michael Walsh
7. Ger Coady (Capt)
8. Conor Kehoe 0-1
9. Ciaran Harris
10. James Doyle 0-6
11. Jack Kavanagh (2-0)
12. Eamon O’Shea
13. Marty Kavanagh 1-8 0-6f
14. John Doyle
15. Paddy Boland
Subs: Oisin Ryan for J Doran (21)
Jason O’Neill 0-1 for C Harris (h-t)
Seamus Murphy for O Ryan (58)
Referee: Paud O’Dwyer
