All Ireland Colleges ‘B’ Final

On Saturday the 25th of March John the Baptist community school contested for the Paddy Buggy cup. The game took place in Semple Stadium Thurles and was the curtain raiser to the Croke Cup final. This year had marked a huge year of success for the school with 5 All Irelands won in the school.

They were playing St. Mary’s of Belfast who were playing ‘A’ hurling in the north. The game began at a frantic speed and hospital went up by 3 points. They then began to pull away from the northern side with points from Dylan O’Shea and a well taken goal from Eoin Sheehan. They were leading by 5 6 points and were beginning to show their dominance. Sean Teefy at half forward was dominating and supplying great ball into the inside forwards. Just before the half time break hospital got a crucial goal through Ryan Tobin which sent them in at the break leading by 10 points. In the second half the game became more even and the northern team got it back to 5 points at one stage. In the end hospitals class and superior hurling skills shone through with Mikey O Grady and Paul O Heney giving tantalising displays. Hospital were crowned All Ireland Champions on a score of 2-14 to 1-8.

East Hurling Final Replay

Two weeks later the replay of the east final was played on a hot balmy evening in Cappamore. It was sure to be another cracker and Dylan Conway had got his red card rescinded. The first half passed in a flash and Caherline were leading by a point at half time. There was tubs of ice cream being sold at half time like they were going out of fashion. The second half started at a frantic speed and there was ash plant flying. Ballybricken started the better and Dickie Power tapped over 3 points from frees with Paul Hedderman getting off the mark from play with a point from the sideline underneath the stand. Going into the last 10 minutes it was 17 points to 15 to Ballybricken. The monk hit the puck out and it was snapped by Davey Wixted who cut through the Ballybricken defence like a hot knife through butter, he hit the 21 and riffled the ball passed Shane O Neill into the top corner before giving the obligitory fist pump. The chips were down and the came was in the melting pot, with a point in the game Ballybricken won a free which was tapped over by Dickie Power. The puck out landed and Jimmy Lonergan bust out with the ball and dropped it over the lat. The roar went up and BallyBricken were crowned east champions.

East Hurling Final 2016

It was in the summer of 2016 and Balyybricken were playing their local rivals Caherline in the east Junior A hurling final. There was a massive build up to this game and it didnt disappoint. During the game both teams traded scores and with about 20 minutes left in the game it was 1-15 to 2-12. The game then took a bad turn for Ballybricken when star man Dylan Conway received a straight red card for a wild stroke on David Wixted. Wixted hit the floor like he was shot and Conway made the long walk. Caherline then started to to tack on a few scores and with 5 minutes to go they led by 3 points. In the dieing minutes Ballybricken goalie , Shane O Neill lofted a hail mary ball into the edge of the square, John Lyons rose the highest to double on it and it ended up in the back of the net. The roar went up and the game finished a draw and Ballybricken lived to fight another day. There was a huge sigh of relief and there would have to be a replay.