Coolderry 2-15 St Rynagh's 1-16
Veteran star Joe Brady broke St Rynagh's hearts at O’Connor Park in Tullamore when he struck a late goal that gave Coolderry a 2-15 to 1-16 victory over St Rynaghs in the Offaly senior hurling decider.
The score than gave them their first county title since 2011 and condemned Rynagh's to a seventh county final defeat since their last victory in 1993.
Having trailed by seven points early in the second half, St Rynagh's looked to have pulled off an impossible comeback when they moved into a three-point lead with less than five minutes to play.
However, but there was to be a twist in the tail as frees from Brian Carroll and Damien Murray either side of Brady’s goal gave Coolderry a sensational victory.
The dramatic scenes in the closing stages of this contest looked to be extremely unlikely during a one-sided first half in which St Rynaghs struggled to recapture the form that easily accounted for three-in-a-row champions Kilcormac-Killoughey in the semi-final.
Barely 20 seconds had elapsed before man of the match Kevin Connolly sprinted past Pat Camon and found the net with a 20-metre shot, a strong omen for Coolderry since their previous two county final victories featured goals inside the opening 60 seconds.
That lead was soon doubled as Coolderry easily found their stride in the early stages, while St Rynaghs’ hurling was riddled with poor touches and below par decision making.
Stephen Wynne’s freetaking was their only source of scores in the opening half up until Stephen Quirke’s injury-time score from under the terrace, a point that sent them in at half time 1-09 to 0-07 adrift.
Two sensational scores from Kevin Connolly and Brian Carroll stretched Coolderry’s advantage out to seven points shortly after half time but Rynaghs were a changed force after the break and they began to dominate the battles for loose possession.
A magnificent lift, run and strike from Kevin Brady kept Coolderry’s supporters in full voice but defensively they were in trouble and time and again they resorted to pulling down the rampant St Rynaghs runners, with Stephen Wynne unerringly punishing every infringement.
With 12 minutes remaining, just two of Rynaghs 13 scores came from play – but their third was a spectacular strike, the highlight of the afternoon and a goal worthy of winning any county final.
Aidan Treacy played the role of supplier with a precise lateral ball from the left corner of the attack, but the real work was done by Ben Conneely, who took a wonderful catch on his knees and then blasted the ball low into the far corner of the net.
Kevin Connolly broke a ten-minute scoring drought with a fine point but there was a real spring in St Rynaghs’ step at this stage and they surged forward, picking off three more points to establish what appeared to be a match-winning lead.
Coolderry had one final card to play as they asked Joe Brady to move forward to the edge of the square and that turned out to be a decisive switch as he collected a mishit shot from Martin Corcoran and powered through Dermot Shortt to hit the net from close range at the start of injury time.
St Rynaghs had one last chance to salvage a draw but they were penalised for handling the ball on the ground under the subsequent puckout and it fell to captain Brian Carroll to point the resultant free from his own 45m line, minutes before he stepped up to collect the Seán Robbins cup for Coolderry, 35 years after his late father Pat was afforded the same honour in the 1980 senior final against Kinnitty.
Coolderry: S Corcoran; S Connolly, T Corcoran, S Burke; A Corcoran (0-01), J Brady (1-00), K Brady (0-02); C Molloy, D King (0-01); K Connolly (1-02), B Teehan, B Carroll (0-03, 0-01 free); E Ryan, M Corcoran, D Murray (0-06, 0-05 frees).
Subs: A Connolly for S Connolly (51), D Parlon for Ryan (60+1)
St Rynaghs: C Clancy; D Maloney, D Shortt, N Wynne; C Hernon (0-01), G Conneely, P Camon; S Dolan, N White; A Treacy, S Wynne (0-13, 0-12 frees), R Hughes (0-01); M Maloney, J O’Connor, S Quirke (0-01).
Subs: P Quirke for White (21), B Conneely (1-00) for M Maloney (HT), S Óg Lyons for Hernon (58)
Referee: Declan Cooke
