McGrath despair as Toomevara bridge gap

Munster Club HC Final: In the Munster battle of major aspirations, it was Tipperary champions Toomevara who displayed the white-knuckle edge to drag back a match that looked gone and grab a second AIB provincial hurling title, all of 11 years since the first.

Their desperation for the match saw them come from six points down with just 11 minutes on the clock to hit an unanswered 1-4. Mount Sion's nightmare - they didn't score for the last 21 minutes and gave away a crucial goal - ended in vivid despair with man of the match Ken McGrath missing a straightforward free that would have pushed the final to a replay in Walsh Park.

"I stepped up to hit it," he said afterwards, "and I was confident I'd put it over. I thought it had crept over but it drifted just wide."

It was a cruel end to the day for McGrath, who had been the Waterford champions' driving force as they assembled what looked like an unassailable lead. The only niggling doubt over him as he addressed the ball was that his 1-5 from dead-ball opportunities could have been more but for two fluffed frees, easier than some of those he had scored.

So the status of match winner went to John O'Brien, the Toomevara replacement, who is still nudging his way back onto the team after a serious injury.

The romance of his decisive injury-time hit wasn't lost on winning manager Seán Hehir, who has had to walk a bit of a tightrope in judging the player's rehabilitation.

"John is just back from a dreadful injury," said Hehir. "He broke his hand in about five places and had to have a plate inserted. John O'Brien is a hero in Toomevara and I was about the only one who said that he wasn't ready yet. I was delighted with him today but I'd still call it as I did."

The extent of Mount Sion's collapse stands out in the underlying statistics that show the winners missing four good scoring chances before O'Brien clicked the scoreboard for the last time.

This frantic conclusion would have been unthinkable at the end of the third quarter. The Waterford champions had done everything right; absorbed a good deal of first-half pressure, kept nicely afloat, nicked a goal before the break and tightened their grip early in the second half.

Ken McGrath was the focal point at centrefield but he was getting good support from his brother Eoin whose pace was causing problems for Toomevara. Eoin Kelly also fired three fine points to help keep the team in touch. And at centre back Tony Browne came into proceedings more strongly in the middle of the match to underwrite Mount Sion's authority.

Hehir pinpointed this period as Mount Sion's most dangerous: "I reckoned they had their best period when Tony Browne was playing well but I knew we could still come back into it and get scores."

The Tipperary club at this stage was struggling to make anything work up front. After an encouraging start to the match, during which five of the forwards scored in the opening quarter, it began to get difficult for them.

Gradually they went through all of their familiar routines: Ken Dunne switched into full forward, then Eoin Brislane did the same. Yet there was no sign that Mount Sion were feeling any pressure.

The match had lurched away from Toomevara when, with the scores even at 0-8 each, they conceded 1-1 just before half-time. Danny Kelly's well-hit point was followed by a penalty award that didn't look that convincing on replay. Terry Dunne was judged to have brought down Seán Ryan and Ken McGrath cracked the penalty to the net to give his side a 1-9 to 0-8 lead.

This had expanded to 1-13 to 0-10 after 10 minutes of the second half. Probably the first indication that the match was shifting came after what was their last point. Danny Kelly gave Mount Sion a seven-point lead, 1-13 to 0-9, in the 39th minute and although Paddy O'Brien answered quickly with a lovely sideline cut, the scoring stopped for another nine minutes.

"We rested on a six-point win," said Ken McGrath ruefully afterwards, "but they kept pressing."

There could have been goals at either end. Ian O'Reagan saved well from Willie Ryan after Paddy O'Brien's dangerous long ball into the full forwards. Brislane pulled the rebound wide. At the other end John Boland blocked Seán Ryan after Ken McGrath had hit the post.

This scoring inertia was rocked by a staccato burst of points from Toomevara: Paddy O'Brien - who probably would have got the man of the match award had it gone to a Tipp player - Francis Devenney and Tommy Dunne landing a free from 70 metres.

With the match back in the dealing room there was a sense that Mount Sion were rattled.

O'Reagan fielded a lineball from Paddy O'Brien and catastrophically turned back towards his goal before attempting to clear. Willie Ryan's block was sufficient to deflect the ball into the net.

In the minutes that followed O'Reagan must have suffered horribly, watching the Toomevara wides weave the lifeline of a replay and he probably agonised even more than McGrath when the free in the dying seconds wafted to the right.

TOOMEVARA: J Cottrell; J Boland, T Delaney, P Shanahan; Terry Dunne, B Dunne, D Young; E Brislane (0-1), P Hackett; K Dunne (0-4, three frees), F Devanney (0-2), Tommy Dunne (0-2, one free); M Bevans, P O'Brien (0-3, one sideline, one free), W Ryan (1-1). Subs: B Duff for Young (half-time), J O'Brien (0-1) for Bevans (52 mins), D Kelly for Ryan (64 mins).

MOUNT SION: I O'Reagan; J O'Meara, A Kirwan, K Flynn; B Flannery, T Browne, K Stafford; K McGrath (1-5, penalty goal and five frees), F O'Shea; E Kelly (0-3), E McGrath (0-1), D Kelly (0-2); B Greene (0-1), R McGrath, S Ryan (0-1). Subs: J Cleere for Stafford (14 mins), B Browne for R McGrath (41 mins), M Frisby for Greene (55 mins).

Referee: D Kirwan (Cork).