Sheehan says title win can spur Shamrocks on

Down Intermediate Hurling Championship Final

Newry Sham-rocks to lift hurling title

Clonduff 1-12 Newry Shamrocks 2-14

Shamrocks’ manager Ronan Sheehan, who manages alongside Martin Lennon and Paul Woods, said that

Saturday’s Championship win should ensure a bright future for the city hurlers.

Newry Shamrocks were back on the podium in Pairc Esler on Saturday after winning the Intermediate

Hurling Championship for the first time since 2021 with a five-point victory over Clonduff, who were in

the hunt for their first ever Intermediate title.

It may have been a great week for the Yellas, with the senior camogs winning their final earlier in the day

adding silverware to the footballer’s championship the Sunday before, but this final belonged to

Shamrocks.

“I am delighted, we had a tough year in some ways for the club, trying to field, I even had to play a couple

of games myself,” said Sheehan.

“It is not easy when you have lads away in England and Australia and stuff but look there is a great spirit

in that group, the club has only ever won five Intermediate titles and that group has won two of them. I

am very proud of everyone and each one of them, we probably deserved the win if we are being honest,

we were the better team on the day and probably could have won by a wee bit more. If we had of had

Ryan Courtney and Aodhan Furlong [both carrying shoulder injuries] from the start, then it probably

would have made a difference as well. The object of the season every year is to win a championship and

that is exactly what we did. You can see the number of young kids that our in our academy and this will

give us a massive boost and we will just drive on from here.

“It is massive, probably massive more so for what it can do for us going forward. You will see in the

Academy, we have 70 to 80 kids now from U10 down, like Aodhan the captain, he takes our U10.5,

Jordan Murphy takes our U6 and myself and Gary Courtney are taking underage teams, so we are a very

tightknit group and it gives us a massive opportunity. I will be doing more schools coaching and we will

want to build on that as well. I am a big believer that sport in general is good for kids and good for people

and good for society and a town like ours we need as much sport as possible, it doesn’t matter what they

are playing as long as they are doing something.”

Newry had the edge from early in the first half with a goal putting them in front, and while Clonduff

battled back in the second period to draw level before Newry side pulled away again winning by five

points in the end.

Christopher Hynes opened the scoring for Clonduff with a point, but it wasn't long before Man-of-the-

Match James Duggan equalised and the sides were level again moments later with traded scores between

John Murphy and Duggan from a free.

In the fourth minute Shamrocks put daylight between the teams when Stephen McKey hit the net.

Hynes replied with the first of his seven-point tally for Clonduff but it remained tit-for-tat with the superb

Down Minor football captain Danny Doyle sending his first over the bar while a brace of frees from

Hynes and a score at the other end by Dugan made it 1-4 to 0-5 midway through the half.

On 24 minutes after two more points for Shamrocks, they stretched their lead further when a long delivery

dropped into the Clonduff square was finished to the net by Duggan as Cathal Magee tried unsuccessfully

to clear the sliothar off the line.

Hynes came close to setting up a maximum for his side in reply when he sent a long shot in that dropped

directly in front of the Hilltown goal, but Newry keeper Damien Kearns was on hand to pick the sliothar

up.

Jarlath Flynn and Aaron Graffin narrowed the margin to five points but a Duggan free was the last action

of the half that put Shamrocks 2-7 to 0-7 in front at the break.

The Yellas got off to a flying start in the second half when a short poc out saw Magee pass the sliothar

across the face of goal to Shane Cummins and he netted. And it wasn't long before the sides were level

and the excitement grew in Pairc Esler as points from John Murphy, Sean Downey and a Hynes free

squared proceedings at 2-7 to 1-10 with 39 minutes on the clock. Traded scores kept the teams’ level but

Shamrocks pulled away in the fourth quarter led by a terrific turn and point from Duggan and three on the

trot from Doyle to give them a 2-12 to 1-11 lead on 53 minutes.

They could have sealed the deal after that, but a goal chance was well blocked. But two of the next three

scores from Duggan and Eoin McGuinness either side of a Hynes free gave Shamrocks a five-point

advantage as stoppage time approached. McGuinness’ sole point was something special as he volleyed the

cross-field ball over the bar with his hurl.

“I saw the ball coming over and I said to myself I can try to jump to catch it, but it arrived lovely for me,

and I just thought why not?

“The older you get the more you use your head and it felt good,” McGuinness said.

The Yellas desperately needed a goal at the very least, and they tried their hardest when a '65 and then a

free were lumped forward.

Shamrocks had done more than enough, however, and kept their opponents at bay, winning when the final

whistle blew.

“When we won that Intermediate in 2021, we were Senior for a couple of years and that was in the back

of a couple of really good Minor teams and unfortunately they get to that age from 24 to 28, where they

start to find life, my own two nephews Conall and Daragh are abroad at the minute and obviously Paul

transferred as well,” Sheehan said.

“Things move on and we had a very good U14 team this year and a very good U15 team this as well, the

U14 were in a final today but lost narrowly but we hope those teams come through in the next three or

four years and bolster the lads. We don’t have massive numbers, but we still got a very good core of ten or

12 lads between 22 and 30 that will hopefully keep us going yet.”

Young Minor Danny Doyle was exceptional on Saturday night and the Down football Minor title winning

captain has it all in front of him according to the manager and team-mates.

“I have had Danny since he was U8, believe it or not Danny never played in Development squads for

Down footballers until U16, he was a hurler all the way along and this year we didn’t play Danny because

he was in the Minor team and we are trying to give him time and space and that is the right thing because

he is at school as well [St Colman’s College],” boss Sheehan said.

“He is a super kid, super attitude, super hurler and I was absolutely delighted for him.”

While team-mate McGuinness said: “He is big, strong, athletic and he is very humble and he is a worker,

when he takes his scores there are no celebrations he just gets back into his position and does his job and

wins the next ball, he is a fantastic player for this club and a brilliant ambassador for this dual club.”

Clonduff scorers: Christopher Hynes 0-7, 5f), Shane Cummins (1-0), John Murphy (0-2), Arron Graffin

(0-1), Sean Downey (0-1), Jarlath Flynn (0-1)

Newry Shamrocks scorers: James Duggan (1-7), Danny Doyle (0-4), Stephen McKey (1-0), Sean

Campbell (0-1), Eoin McGuinness (0-1), David Bridges (0-1,1f)