Title number five for sensational Tooreen

Tooreen captain Shane Boland accepts the AIB Connacht IHC cup from John Murphy, Connacht GAA chairperson.
Tooreen’s dominance of the Connacht intermediate hurling championship shows no signs of abating after they secured the title for a fourth time in succession, and a fifth time since 2017, with a thrilling 0-21 to 0-19 victory over Ballinderreen, in Athleague, on Sunday afternoon.
It was at Ballindereen’s expense that Tooreen had landed their first provincial title six years ago, and the Galway side had every look of a team intent on revenge when storming into a 0-4 to no score lead inside eight minutes. But despite taking thirteen minutes to raise their first flag, Tooreen roared back into contention to lead by two points at half-time.
In fact, the Mayo champions outscored their opponents by 0-15 to 0-6 during the middle third of this match, constructed by a dominance of midfield where the ferocious hunger of Sean Kenny, Daniel Huane, Fergal Boland, and others, was simply too much for Ballinderreen to handle.
It was the free-taking of Sean Kenny that had settled Tooreen after their shaky start and from once Oisin Greally landed their opening point from play in the seventeenth minute, the Blues hardly looked back, with man-of-the-match Eoin Delaney hitting back to back points in the 23rd minute to send them in front for the first time, 0-7 to 0-6. It was a lead they were never to surrender.
Delaney saw a goal chance deflected past the post in first-half stoppage time but Sean Kenny struck his fourth point from the ’65 to give Tooreen a 0-10 to 0-8 half-time advantage – and within ten minutes of the restart they would move five points clear, as captain Shane Boland increased his personal tally to four points.
Ballinderreen, however, were to strike a purple patch, with full-forward Niall Coen scoring three points from play in four minutes, and Roy Land remaining deadly accurate from placed balls.
It was then, however, that the experience and calmness of Tooreen kicked in, with Fergal Boland choosing a crucial time to open his account and substitute Brian Morley scoring inside seconds of his introduction.
A goal is all that remained between the teams in the fourth and final minute of stoppage time when Roy Lane aimed for the net from a 20-metre free, but Tooreen goalkeeper Bobby Douglas saved and Kieran Gill’s shot from the rebound was deflected over, to ensure another provincial title for Ray Larkin’s men.
They await the winners of the Munster final in December’s All-Ireland semi-final, the clash of Corofin (Clare) and Castlelyons (Cork) taking place at the Gaelic Grounds next Saturday.