Jake ‘The Rake’ top scores as Cats claim 60th minor crown
BY NIALL SHERRY, SPORTS EDITOR
SPORTSEDITOR@KILKENNYOBSERVER.IE
Electric Ireland Leinster MHC Final
Laois Hire O’ Moore Park, Portlaoise
Kilkenny 1-13
Dublin 1-9
A stunning goal from John Lockes player Ollie O’Donovan helped claim this year’s Electric Ireland Leinster Minor hurling title for Kilkenny. The tricky corner forward belied his stature to score a memorable major and along with a brilliant individual performance from Jake Mullen ensured the Hanrahan Cup returned to Noreside for a 60th time. Jake, the latest in a long line of Mullen’s from the Shamrocks Ballyhale club finished the provincial decider with a personal tally of 0-7 and was impressive all over the O’Moore Park pitch.
Niall Bergin’s side got off to a quick start and registered the game’s opening score, and it was all down to a surging run forward by Dicksboro’s Oisin Henderson. The Cats corner back showed great skill and balance as he powered up the pitch, and will his initial effort was blocked, he showed great reactions to slot over at the 2nd time of asking. Our minor’s notched the second point of the day also, good work from Glenmore’s Jack Dollard gave David Barcoe the opportunity to shoot from distance and the Clara man duly obliged.
The dubs got off the mark when Ballinteer’s Tommy Cullen picked up a lose pass out of the Kilkenny defence and punished the error by splitting the posts with a fine point. Jason Cody was then halted illegally, and this gave Jake Mullen his first score of the game from the resulting free. The Shamrocks Ballyhale player doubled his tally a minute later, again from the placed ball, but the boys in blue hit the next scores courtesy of Killian Costello and a ‘65 from Kilmacud’s Rory Flannery to reduce the Cats lead to just the one point.
Martin Barry’s side then hit the front for the first time in the decider after 12 minutes of action. Tommy Cullen burst out of the Dubs defence and gave a pass to the supporting Rory Flannery. The latter took aim from distance and as the sliotar dropped toward the crossbar, Kilkenny netminder Jake O’Doherty had his hurl up to possibly ensure to protect the net, but unfortunately for the Mooncoin player, the sliotar came off the bar and fell invitingly to the alert Eoghan Brennan who swept the ball to the net.
Manager Niall Bergin would have hoped for a response and his charges didn’t let him down. Another Mooncoin player, Robbie Doherty struck over a lovely score and Jake Mullen hit three on the trot, including two fine efforts from play to edge the Noresiders into a 2-point lead. Clontarf’s Tom Higgins pointed for the boys from the Capital, but the lively Mullan nailed another free and brought the first half’s scoring to finish with Kilkenny heading to the changing rooms leading 0-9 to 1-4.
Dublin made one change at the interval, with Lucan Sarsfields Senan Bolger replacing Tom Higgins and Martin Barry’s side opened the scoring in the second period, thanks to a free from the talented Rory Flannery. With six minutes gone after the short whistle, O’Loughlin Gaels Conor Holohan got the scoreboard moving for Kilkenny and they built on this with further scores from Jake Mullen (f), a second of the day from Robbie Doherty and a tidy point from Erin’s Own’s Eoin Brennan to give the black and amber a five-point cushion as they headed towards the final quarter of the final.
The Metropolitans made further changes, Cathal Barrett, Oscar Brennan and Ciaran Fitzgerald entering the fray in place of Killian Costello, Eoghan Brennan and Rory Duffy as they sought to add fresh legs to the quest for minor glory. Round Tower’s Darragh Kilduff rifled over a fine effort from close to the left sideline to reduce the deficit to four points, but any thoughts of a comeback were to be short lived. Another fine run out of defence by Oisin Henderson saw the Cats break through a couple of Dublin lines. The ball was sent down the right side towards Ollie O’Donovan. The diminutive John Lockes player showed tenacity and skill to evade three Dublin defenders before shortening his grip to bat the sliotar beyond opposition netminder Padraig Ryan to push the Cats lead to 7 points.
The boys in blue needed a big push in the final stages and to their credit, they dug in hit the remaining three points of the final via their captain Cathal O’Flynn, Ballinteer’s Tommy Cullen and a placed ball from Rory Flannery, but Niall Bergin’s side were not too be denied and gained revenge for their defeat to the same opponent earlier in the competition, but more importantly, were crowned Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Champions for 2024, their first title at this grade since 2021. Final score in Laois Hire O’ Moore Park,
Kilkenny 1-13 Dublin 1-9.
Scorers for Kilkenny; Jake Mullen 0-7 (5fs), Ollie O’Donovan 1-0, Robbie Doherty 0-2, Oisin Henderson, David Barcoe, Conor Holohan, and Eoin Brennan 0-1 each.
Scorers for Dublin: Eoghan Brennan 1-0, Rory Flannery 0-3 (2fs, ‘65), Tommy Cullen 0-2, Cathal O’Flynn, Darragh Kilduff, Tom Higgins, and Killian Costello 0-1 each.
Kilkenny: Jake O’Doherty; Oisin Henderson, Larry Phelan, Bobby Brennan; David Barcoe, Jack Dollard, Mikey Rohan; Robbie Doherty, Kevin Buggy; Eoin Brennan, Bill McDermott, Conor Holohan; Ollie O’Donovan, Jason Cody, Jake Mullen.
Subs: Eoghan Cahill for McDermott 50 mins, Cian Byrne for Cody 50 mins.
Dublin; Padraig Ryan; Mark Byrne, Shane Dunphy, Rory Duffy; Conor Quinn, Cathal O’Flynn, Tommy Cullen; James Norris, Fiachra Codd; Eoghan Brennan, Rory Flannery, Fionn Daly; Darragh Kilduff, Tom Higgins, Killian Costello.
Subs: Senan Bolger for Higgins HT, Cathal Barrett for Costello 41 mins, Ciaran Fitzgerald for Duffy 46 mins, Oscar Brennan for E.Brennan 46 mins, Adam Ryan for Codd 61 mins.
Referee: Matty Redmond (Kildare)
