Kilkenny SFC Final- ‘Vat fight off Thomastown to secure back-to-back titles

Mullinavat maintained their recent dominance of Kilkenny club football when running out four point winners over Thomastown in last Friday’s senior county final.

The result crowned back to back titles for the South Kilkenny side and even more impressively is the fact it was a sixth championship victory in seven years.

The one year in the last seven that Mullinavat failed to capture senior football glory was when losing out to Thomastown in the 2021 final so the ’Vat were well warned going into the game.

An opening half Zach Bay Hammond goal had given Thomastown early hope of trumping the holders and while they led by a point at the half-time break, they largely relied on the free taking accuracy of Rory Monks.

Mullinavat on the other hand saw all their scores come from play bar one and their forward unit created many goal opportunities with efforts from Michael Malone, Oisin Knox and Liam Fennelly netting game defining efforts.

Mullinavat are a side that has gained a lot of football experience in the past few seasons and their multiple trips into provincial competition is certainly serving them well as they overpowered Thomastown in the end.

Thomastown made a bright beginning to a final that was played in front of a small enough crowd when Rory Monks converted a third minute free.

The ‘Vat responded in fine style when a quickfire 1-2 gave them a four point lead by the seventh minute.

Points from Tom Aylward and Ian Duggan got the scoring momentum going for the champions before Ger Malone batted off a couple of challenges on the way to finding Liam Fennelly who combined with Michael Malone as the centre forward blasted a shot past Luke McNena in the Thomastown goal.

Adam Power replied with a point from distance for the challengers and the sides then went tit for tat over the following minutes.

Jonjo Farrell and Rory Connellan continued the scoring for Thomastown while Michael Malone and Ian Duggan kept the winners ticking over.

Mullinavat then saw a number of goal opportunities go abegging where Adam Mansfield had a close in effort blocked as well as a disallowed goal when a fisted attempt went all the way to the net past Luke McNena.

Those squandered chances looked like they’d come back to bite when a second Rory Monks free reduced the deficit to two points before the aforementioned corner forward set up Zach Bay Hammond for a cracking goal in first half stoppage time.

That proved to be the final score of the half as Thomastown led 1-5 to 1-4.

The second half turned into a real tactical affair where there was only two points in the opening 10 minutes and they both came for Mullinavat.

Those efforts from Ian Duggan and impact sub Oisin Knox edged Mullinavat in front but Thomastown were refusing to go away quietly.

A 40th minute Monks free levelledup matters for the third time and when the Thomastown top scorer then extended his tally the other side of an Adam Power point from play, there looked to be an upset on the cards.

Mullinavat were having none of it though and they dominated the final quarter as they pounced for a 2-1 tally that stalled the Thomastown momentum.

When a combination of Michael Malone and Liam Fennelly forced in Mullinavat’s second goal, the overall tone of proceedings changed.

Things then got very scrappy and a mini scuffle broke out behind the O’Loughlin end goals that resulted in Mullinavat’s Shane Kelly getting a straight red card.

Monks followed up with his fifth free to leave just the minimum between the teams but just when extra-time seemed a possibility, Mullinavat went down the other end and struck the game winning goal when a flowing team move ended with Oisin Knox finding the net.

Teams and Scorers

Mullinavat- Michael Malone, Oisin Knox (1-1 each), Ian Duggan (0-4, one free), Liam Fennelly (1-0), Tom Aylward (0-1)

Thomastown- Rory Monks (0-5, five frees), Zach Bay Hammond (1-0), Adam Power (0-2), Jonjo Farrell, Rory Connellan (0-1 each)

Mullinavat- Mark McNamara; Mikey Jones, Joe Fennelly, Ian Mansfield; Shane Kelly, Ger Malone, Simon Aylward; James Culleton, Tom Aylward; Conor Duggan, Michael Malone, Ian Duggan; Adam Mansfield, Liam Fennelly, Padraic Gahan.

Subs- Oisin Knox for C.Duggan h-t.

Thomastown- Luke McNena; Ned Kirwan, Richard O’Hara, Oisin O’Reilly; Brian Staunton, Peter Connellan, Alex Cass; Jonjo Farrell, Zach Bay Hammond; Rory Connellan, Luke Connellan, Brian O’Hanrahan; Adam Power, Davy Prendergast, Rory Monks.

Subs- Jack Cullen for O’Hara 37 mins, Naoise Dempsey for Power 54 mins, Pauric Kirwan for O’Hanrahan 54 mins, Liam Treacy for L.Connellan 57 mins.

Referee- Peter Burke (Emeralds)