The match was held in the neutral venue of Oola, county Limerick. Thankfully, the weather held out for us and we saw little to no rain, although the pitch was fairly wet from the rain the night before. The hurlers of Dungarvan came flying out of the blocks scoring four points in the first five minutes. Ennistymon had no answer in the first few minutes and did not look settled. Marc O’Loughlin, playing full back, got into trouble early with three fouls earning himself a yellow card. The decision was made to switch Marc and Cillian McGroary, starting midfield, onto the strong full forward of Dungarvan. Cillian won the next few balls that came into the full back line, an obvious boost in confidence for Ennistymon, which saw Joshua Guyler put three unanswered points over the bar. The first ten minutes went clearly to the Waterford men, but after that they seemed to fade away, tapping over the occasional score. The CBS began to dominate in the back line with Conor Leen picking up ball after ball in centre back and scoring a handsome two points in the first half. Guyler continued to tap over the frees, but the obvious game changer was the first half goal from Darren McNamara, a ball fizzed across goal from Brendan Rouine which Darren connected well with. Dungarvan responded with a strong run from their centre forward, ending in a super save from goalkeeper, Dylan McCoy. The first half ended 1-07 – 0-08 in favour of Ennistymon. The Ennistymon lads went into their dressing room with their tails up, leaving their opposition dumbfounded. However, Dungarvan again started well putting an early goal past McCoy. Ennistymon responded the only way they know, by scoring unanswered point after another. Niall Mullins won ball after ball in wing back, off his considerably larger attacker, feeding excellent ball into his Inagh partner, Sean Rynne. Guyler kept the scores coming from centre forward with placed balls and from play. He ended the match with twelve important points. Diarmuid Fahy worked like a dog in the middle of the field, leaving the Dungarvan men giving out to each other. Marc O’Loughlin played as a sweeper in the second half which worked perfectly as he collected five or six consecutive balls in the air. Liam Callinan, Shane Woods and Thomas O’Dwyer won numerous balls all day long. Keith Barry and Liam Cotter work tirelessly all day winning dirty balls and numerous frees. The dagger came late on when Brendan Rouine capped off a good performance in full forward with a goal. The Ennistymon lads ran away with the game for a finish scoring 2-21 to Dungarvan’s 1-10. A performance to be very happy with for coach Jason Daffy.

Starting 15

1. Dylan McCoy (0-00) Inagh/Kilnamona
2. Liam Callinan (0-00) Inagh Kilnamona
3. Marc O’Loughlin (0-00) Corofin
4. Thomas O’Dwyer (0-00) Ennistymon
5. Niall Mullins (0-00) Inagh/Kilnamona
6. Conor Leen (0-03) Corofin
7. Shane Woods (0-00) Inagh/Kilnamona
8. Cillian McGroary (Captain) (0-02) Corofin
9. Diarmuid Fahy (0-00) Ennistymon
10. Keith Barry (0-00) Inagh/Kilnamona
11. Joshua Guyler (0-12) Inagh/Kilnamona
12. Liam Cotter (0-02) Ennistymon
13. Darren McNamara (1-00) Ennistymon
14. Brendan Rouine (1-00) Ennistymon
15. Sean Rynne (0-02) Inagh/Kilnamona