Sweet Harty Victory.
By Noel Dundon (Tipperary Media)
Just last week, Thurles CBS boys were singing Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad as part of their annual school musical featuring the top tunes of Meatloaf. Well, last weekend it proved to be two out of three as well for Tipperary schools in action at the business end of second level activities.
High School Clonmel won a first Munster Senior B Colleges Final against Scarriff by 2-19 to 2-7, while Thurles CBS won a ninth Dr Harty Cup with their first final victory over St Flannan’s of Ennis at the third attempt. The third game saw Presentation Thurles fall in the All-Ireland camogie semi-final against Loretto.
Those wins for Thurles and Clonmel are very significant, not just for the school and the players themselves, but for Tipperary hurling in general. Consider this – the four major towns in Tipperary have now won Munster senior hurling colleges titles in the last three years – Thurles, Nenagh and Cashel in the Harty, and Clonmel in the senior B. That’s a huge spread of success across Tipp.
Three in a row Tipperary Harty Cup winners is nothing to be sniffed at and it gives a clear indication of the kind of quality work being undertaken by schools, development squads and most importantly of all, by clubs around the county.
It used to be that you would look at the Harty campaign to try and assess what sort of minor team Tipperary might have in a given season. But, with the widening of the Harty age and the move of minor back to U17, you now look at the Harty to see what sort of U20 team we might have. And, the signs are good.
On the strength of the last few seasons, Brendan Cummins and co will have plenty to pick from when it comes to naming their panel – their training continues at pace and even featured a stint on Saturday morning, just a short while before the Harty Final commenced. The minors travelled to Dublin on Sunday morning and had a number of tired looking Harty panelists on the bus for the game – no rest for the wicked, you could say.
The Harty Cup final itself was not a game that will be remembered greatly for the quality of hurling – the Mallow pitch contributed to this and it is quite obvious that it is a facility which is getting a lot of action with little enough grass on the surface. Still, it was solid and firm but the many rucks and mauls didn’t help from a spectators viewpoint.
It didn’t curb the excitement though and when the final whistle sounded on an epic battle, the better team had won – well, as a proud past pupil, I would say that, wouldn’t I!! That was the general consensus though and once Thurles managed to cope with the greater physical presence of the Clare boys, they began to see the finish line and their name on the famed silverware which Robbie Ryan hoisted high when it was handed over.
There were a few heart in the mouth moments in the concluding stages but with Evan Morris an absolute rock in the Thurles defence, St Flannan’s could not find a way through.
The magnificent victory was enhanced from a Tipp viewpoint when word came through to Mallow that High School had also gotten the better of their Clare opponents. A double for Tipp to go alongside the Nenagh CBS and Cashel Community School victories of recent times. It’s quite obvious that things are very right in underage hurling in Tipperary – one wonders why there have been efforts to tinker with the systems. Those efforts are ongoing with proposals to scrap quarter finals at U17 county championship level afoot. This proposal is being strongly opposed, so watch this space.
In a league of their own.
Seven points from a possible eight leaves the hurlers and footballers unbeaten in the Allianz leagues.
The point earned in Carlow by the footballers was topped by a Clonmel victory over Longford to give Tipp three points from their opening two games – a return which will really please Philly and co. More of the same please lads.
And, the hurlers win over Wexford saw two wins from two as some of the newcomers again impressed. This was Tipperary’s first game in FBD Semple Stadium in seven months and the view was decidedly one-sided, in the sense that Ardán Uí Riain was closed as a result of storm damage. Bigger fish to come – it’s Limerick next in the Gaelic Grounds.