All-Ireland Under 16.5 A Hurling Final – St Kieran’s College (Kilkenny) 2-12 Coláiste Cholmáin (Fermoy) 1-12

Classy Eoin Cody steers St Kieran’s to title

By Conor Kane for the Irish Examiner newspaper

St Kieran’s College (Kilkenny) 2-12 Coláiste Cholmáin (Fermoy) 1-12

With 40 minutes played Coláiste Cholmáin had their noses in front in Clonmel as they aimed to claim All-Ireland hurling glory at U16 level but they could only manage a single point thereafter as rivals St Kieran’s grabbed control.

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Not for the first time in an All-Ireland decider, a Kilkenny man named Cody proved influential. This time it was young Eoin Cody from Ballyhale who had a decisive say on matters, banging over two excellent points from play along with three frees in the closing quarter.

That scoring burst ended up winning the honours for St Kieran’s, with the sole reply from St Colman’s coming in injury-time via a free.

A failure to score from play during the second half also proved telling for the Fermoy college, following an opening period in which they’d sparkled up front and managed to forge their way into a 1-9 to 1-7 interval lead.

Eoin Roche, Brian Roche, Conleith Ryan, James Kearney and Padraig O’Leary all contributed to that effort which seemed to have laid a solid foundation for a title charge. However, St Kieran’s second goal in the 37th minute, a fine strike by Ciarán Brennan after a darting run through the middle, levelled the scores and other than two successful frees by Conleith Ryan either side of that green flag, it was mostly one-way traffic on the scoreboard as the second half wore on, with the irrepressible Cody to the fore. Late on, James Molloy, Eoin Carey and James Kearney combined to set up a half-chance at goal for the latter but eventually the ball trickled wide and with it went Colman’s best hope.

Scorers for St Kieran’s: E Cody 1-8 (6F), C Brennan 1-2, C Kenny 0-1, G Murphy 0-1.

Scorers for Coláiste Cholmáin: C Ryan 0-6 (6F), P O’Leary 1-0, B Roche 0-2, J Kearney 0-1, P O’Flynn 0-1, E Roche 0-1, E Carey 0-1 (F).

ST KIERAN’S: D Mason, D Fogarty, C Murphy, P O’Neill, P Moylan, J Young, M Nolan, C Kelly, D Corcoran, A Brennan, D Fwamba, E Cody, C Kenny, C Brennan, G Murphy
Subs: H Walsh for A Brennan (HT), M O’Connell for D Corcoran (61m).

COLÁISTE CHOLMÁIN: B Hogan, L Aherne, J Scannell, J Mannix, J Kenny, E Roche, D O’Leary, E Carey, B Roche, P O’Flynn, C Ryan, J Kearney, D O’Connor, P O’Leary, D Morrison
Subs: E Buckley for D O’Leary (HT), J Molloy for P O’Flynn (46m), C Barry for D O’Connor (51m), D Collins for D Morrison (56m), M Quinn for J Kenny (61m).

Referee: P Murphy (Carlow)