Thurles double up

Thurles Sarsfields 1-16 Clonoulty-Rossmore 1-7:HURLER OF the Year Lar Corbett blasted home a 45th minute goal to seal back-to-back Tipperary senior titles for Thurles Sarsfields in a disappointing final at Semple Stadium, Thurles yesterday.

Sarsfields seldom looked like surrendering their crown although Clonoulty-Rossmore recovered from a poor start to be only two points adrift at the break.

Corbett’s goal opened a nine -point gap between the sides and ended Clonoulty’s hopes as two late quality saves by Thurles goalkeeper Patrick McCormack denied Clonoulty’s Thomas Butler and John O’Neill a rallying goal.

With Pádraic Maher turning in a man-of-the-match performance for Sarsfields at centre half back, Thurles hit six points without reply against the breeze in 12 minutes. Clonoulty-Rossmore were still five points adrift approaching half-time when John O’Neill lashed a 20-metre free to the net to cut the interval deficit to 1-4 to 0-9.

Sarsfields stamped their authority on proceedings on the resumption. Under-21 star Denis Maher flashed over three points, and sub Aidan McCormack added two more to Timmy Hammersley’s sole response for Clonoulty, to put six points between them. Then came the final nail in the Clonoulty coffin as Ritchie Ruth and Michael Gleeson combined to set up Corbett whose finish was clinical.

SARSFIELDS: P McCormack; M Cahill, K O’Gorman, David Maher; B O’Dwyer, P Maher, D Kennedy; M Gleeson, A Kennedy; L Corbett(1-0), D Maher (0-4), S Lillis (0-2); R Ruth (0-2), P Bourke(0-4), J Enright (0-2). Subs: A McCormack (0-2) for Enright; J Corbett for A Kennedy; JJ Bourke for Ruth; P Leahy for B Dwyer, M O’Brien for Denis Maher.

CLONOULTY-ROSSMORE: D O’Dwyer; L Devane, J Heffernan, K Horan; Joey O’Keeffe, J Devane, P Heffernan; John O’Keeffe, S O’Connor; Tom Butler (0-3), M Heffernan, T Hammersley (0-3); F O’Keeffe, T Butler, J O’Neill (1-1). Subs: A Kearney for L Devane; P White for O’Connor; C Ryan for M Heffernan; S O’Connor for F O’Keeffe.

Referee: K Delahunty (Moyle Rovers).