Heroic Tooreen are left down on their Uppers

AIB All-Ireland Club IHC Final 

Upperchurch-Drombane 4-20 

Tooreen 2-24 

(AET, 1-17 to 0-20 at full-time) 

Anthony Hennigan in Croke Park 

If any county knows the fallacy about having to lose one to win one, it’s Mayo. If any club deserved to win one, it’s Tooreen.

Croke Park, so often Mayo Football’s House of Pain, for the second time in three years bore witness to the cruellest of defeats against the greatest hurling team the county has produced. The historic prospect of Tooreen becoming intermediate champions of Ireland – and only the second club from Connacht to do so – was snatched from their grasp by the very last puck of normal time. Incredibly, not even scoring 2-2 without reply at the end of extra-time could save them from defeat.

Luck certainly wasn’t on the side of the Blue Devils; losing the experience of Michael Morley from their full-back line in the first-half of normal time because of injury, they would have to soldier on from the 59th minute and all of extra-time without their other corner-back too. Upperchurch-Drombane had scored just the one goal at the time of Conal Hession’s departure but three goals after it. The biggest contributory factor to Tooreen’s defeat, however, undoubtedly was the sluggishness of their start.

Up until the 27th minute they had managed to score a paltry two points and had conceded nine. After that they were simply sensational, even outscoring their Tipperary opponents 0-12 to 0-2 in a fourteen minute period either side of half-time.

Upperchurch-Drombane, therefore, deserve enormous credit for somehow managing to stem that Mayo momentum, with Conor Fahey’s 40th minute goal absolutely seismic in the overall scheme of things. It regained the Munster champions a one point lead and while that lead lasted about 90 seconds and was swiftly turned back into a three points deficit, the dead-ball accuracy of Luke Shanahan and Gavin Ryan thereafter would see the Tipp side force their way to extra-time.

Ice ran through the veins of Ryan who nailed the 75-metre free, 55 seconds over the allotted three minutes of stoppage time, which levelled the contest for a fifth time and denied Tooreen their victory. It was the centre-back’s fifth point from a placed ball, his nearest coming from the 65-metre line, and guaranteed the 5,916 in attendance another 20 minutes of exhilarating hurling.

Shane Boland, Tooreen’s leading scorer of the championship and a Champion 15 pick in 2024, would end the game with just one point, and that came from a free, while 2025 Champion 15 pick Liam Lavin, a scorer of 2-9 from play in the lead-up, had to wait until two minutes before the end of extra-time to raise his one and only flag. On an evening of such high-scoring that was all scarcely believable and a major factor in this game of such minute margins. And yet from play Tooreen had still pummelled Upperchurch-Drombane by 27 points (2-21) to 21 (4-9), or 23 flags to 13, with hefty contributions by Fergal Boland (six points), Brian Morley (four), Eoin Delaney, Kenny Feeney and Joe Boyle (three apiece).

No man had done more than the roving Boyle to keep Tooreen in the game in the first-half and then, in the 53rd minute, he looked all set to bury a goal that would have pushed the East Mayo men four points ahead, except substitute Paddy Phelan arrived from nowhere with a wonderful block to deny the Donegal native. In hindsight, that was almost as significant as Gavin Ryan’s last-gasp leveller.

Sean Kenny and Joe Boyle had scored Tooreen’s only two points by the time Luke Shanahan, three, Gavin Ryan, two, Paul Shanahan, Colm Ryan, Mikey Griffin and Pat Ryan had each split the posts to leave Upperchurch-Drombane 0-9 to 0-2 ahead after 24 minutes.

Bobby Douglas arrested the slide with a free from inside his own half before Eoin Delaney opened his account after fine work by Brian Morley and before him, the Kenny brothers, David and Sean. Pat Ryan stylishly whipped over a sideline cut into the Davin End but that was the Tipp men’s final score of the half whereas in a whirlwind finish, Delaney, Sean Kenny, Boyle, twice, and Fergal Boland each split the posts, giving Upperchurch-Drombane something bitter to chew over at half-time, their lead now reduced to a single point, 0-10 to 0-9.

With Kenny Feeney opening his account only 15 seconds after the restart and Fergal Boland and Eoin Delaney adding to theirs, Tooreen had now scored eight points in-a-row and were in front for the first time, 0-12 to 0-10. Diarmuid Grant pulled one back but Shane Boland converted a self-won free and brother Fergal struck his third from play, pushing Tooreen into a three points lead by the 38th minute.

A harshly awarded overcarry against Oisin Greally made for a handy Luke Shanahan point from a free but worse was to follow for Tooreen a minute later as an unfortunate slip by David Kenny gave Conor Fahey a clear run at goal from 40-metres out and he advanced to bury the sliotar low past Douglas for a 1-12 to 0-14 advantage to Upperchurch-Drombane.

The response by Tooreen restored belief that this could still be their day, as Feeney and Morley picked off a pair of points each, and while that three points lead was wiped out by a free apiece from Luke Shanahan and Gavin Ryan and a point by Pat Ryan, Fergal Boland won the next puckout and belted the Blue and White back into a 0-19 to 1-15 lead with 52 minutes on the clock.

Then came Joe Boyle’s thwarted goal chance, after he ran onto Shane Boland’s layoff, but Upperchurch-Drombane had one of their own, with Paul Shanahan’s poor connection making the save easier than it might otherwise have been for Douglas.

Gavin Ryan had equalised from a ’65 and Liam Lavin struck a post at the other end when Sean Kenny and Fionn Delaney, with a stylish sidestep, set-up Brian Morley whose fourth point from play in the third added minute edged Tooreen ahead. It felt like a match-winner – but the thought was premature.

Upperchurch-Drombane earned themselves one more chance when drawing a free, central but well inside their own half, and Gavin Ryan single-handedly kept his side’s All-Ireland dream alive, with referee Caymon Flynn blowing for full-time on the puckout.

The introduction of powerful Jack Butler into the Upperchurch-Drombane full-forward line shone a spotlight on just what Tooreen had lost with the injuries to Michael Morley and Conal Hession. Butler had already drawn a save from Douglas in the first-half of extra-time when he provided the assist for one of the two goals that the Black and Amber did score before the turnaround, the first by Paddy Phelan, when Conor Fahey flicked on a breaking ball, the other by Fahey himself, his second of the game, with Butler laying on the pass.

Tooreen, in contrast, scored just two points in that half, through Brian Morley and Fergal Boland, to trail 3-17 to 0-22 at the turnaround, and when Upperchurch-Drombane hit them for 1-3 on the spin upon the resumption, the goal hooked to the net by Paul Shanahan from Gavin Ryan’s free, that left the Connacht champions 10 points adrift with under four minutes left to play.

Goals, however, in the 78th minute by Liam Lavin and David Harrison, as Tooreen went route one, ignited the dream once more, with a converted free by Fionn Delaney leaving a major between the sides with two minutes of stoppage time left to play.

Lavin bore down on goal and perhaps even had faint claims for a penalty but play continued and Fergal Boland drilled a shot inches over the crossbar. That was the last act however. Of an epic final. Of another epic Tooreen season. Of another Mayo heartache.

Will the House of Pain ever stop accepting Mayo guests?

Scorers – Upperchurch-Drombane: Luke Shanahan 0-7 (5f), Conor Fahey 2-0, Gavin Ryan 0-5 (4f, 1 ’65), Paul Shanahan 1-1, Paddy Phelan 1-0, Pat Ryan 0-3 (1 s/l), Mikey Griffin, Colm Ryan, Diarmuid Grant and Jack Butler 0-1 each.

Tooreen: Fergal Boland 0-6, Brian Morley 0-4, Liam Lavin and David Harrison 1-0 each, Joe Boyle, Eoin Delaney and Kenny Feeney 0-3 each, Sean Kenny 0-2, Bobby Douglas, Shane Boland and Fionn Delaney 0-1f each.

Tooreen: Bobby Douglas; Michael Morley, Stephen Coyne, Conal Hession; Joe Boyle, Oisin Greally, David Kenny; John Cassidy, Sean Kenny; Eoin Delaney, Brian Morley, Fergal Boland; Liam Lavin, Shane Boland, Kenny Feeney. Subs: Fionn Delaney (for Feeney 3-8, blood), Daniel Huane (for M Morley 22, inj), Sean Regan (for Cassidy 43), Fionn Delaney (for Feeney 56), Padraig Mooney (for Hession 59, inj), Cathal Freeman (for S Kenny ht, et), David Delaney and David Harrison (for B Morley and S Boland 73).

Upperchurch-Drombane: Ciaran Shortt; Mikey Lavery, Keith Ryan, Dean Carew; Niall Grant, Gavin Ryan, Toby Corbett; Diarmuid Grant, Aaron Ryan; Conor Fahey, Colm Ryan, Paul Shanahan; Pat Ryan, Mikey Clifford, Luke Shanahan. Subs: Paddy Phelan (for C Ryan 43), Jack Butler (for A Ryan 49), A Ryan (for Grant 63), Ger Grant (for Corbett 69).

REF: Caymon Flynn (Westmeath)