Shamrocks 3-11, Tracton 2-13
Congratulations to the magnificent U15 hurlers who beat Tracton by a single point in the Shield Final on Monday evening in Shanbally, winning on a scoreline of 3-11 to 2-13.
Being honset, Shamrocks had to play second fiddle to a superb Tracton team who did most of the hurling in the first half and led 0-10 to 0-4 and it could have been more but Calum Fitzgerald in the Shamrocks goal pulled off at least 4 brilliant shot stopping saves.
A Shamrocks win looked unlikely at this point such was Tractons dominance but slowly but surely, Shamrocks started to work themselves into things and hit a purple patch with 5 points in a row. 0-10 to 0-9.
The final 13 minutes saw 5 goals, first a Tracton goal responded to at the other end by a Luke Jordan goal, then a second Shamrocks goal responed to at the other end by a Tracton goal.
2 points in it with time up. This Shamrocks team dont know when thye’re beaten – A Shamrocks goal bound shot was batted out by the Tracton keeper and there was Aaron Coleman on hand to smash home the rebound to put Shamrocks ahead for only the second time in the whole match.
Tracton had 2 more minutes to get up the field but Shamrocks threw their bodies on the line and prevented them form even getting an attack going.
Calum O’Neill from midfield did most of the scoring from frees with a superb solo goal towards the end. Others on the scoresheet were Seán Ó Ó Loinsigh from play, Luke Jordan with both frees and play and Donal Herlihy from play.
The final whistle was met with a pitch invasion from inside and outside the wire – its been a long time since that has happened in Shanbally!!!

Winning Panel
Back row, l to r: Calum O’Neill, Donal Herlihy, Aaron Coleman, Danny Field, Jack Kearney O’Sullivan, Ryan Doolan (inj), Seamus O’Mahony, Billy Hanna, Patrick Keane, Jason O’Driscoll, Liam Dorney, Calum Fitzgerald.
Front, l to r: Shane O’Flynn, Michael Dorney, Andrew Phillips, Ryan Barrett, Luke Jordan, James Dorney, Cian O’Sullivan, James Dorney, Seán Óg Ó Loinsigh, Maurice Bermingham, Ollie O’Brien