Heffernan the star as Nenagh march on

GAA: FBD Insurance Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship Group 2 Round 3

Nenagh Éire Óg 2-23

CJK Mullinahone 2-11

Report: Noel Dundon in Templetuohy

Nenagh Éire Óg secured their passage to the concluding stages of the County Senior Hurling Championship courtesy of a twelve-point victory over CJ Kickhams Mullinahone on Saturday afternoon.

This was a potential banana skin for Nenagh who had often found Mullinahone difficult opposition to defeat. But, on this occasion, with Mikey Heffernan in sparkling form in the attack alongside Jake Morris, they did not allow the South men any opportunity hurt them.

Mullinahone had the very strong breeze at their backs for the first half, but they trailed by five points at the break and the writing was on the wall. Nenagh had used the ball really well against the breeze and with Jake Morris pilfering three excellent scores from play, as well as rocking the upright with a goal effort in the 25th minute, Mullinahone were simply unable to contain their pacey and energetic opposition.

Mikey Heffernan contributed seven points in that first half tally of 0-12 with three coming from play while Sam O’Farrell had two to complete the total and give real notice of the intent of the Nenagh outfit.

Mullinahone by contrast struggled to find scores from play and the dominance of the Nenagh defence meant that there was plenty of ball lorried up field for the attack to battle it out, thereby putting enormous pressure on the Mullinahone defence. Graham Horan had the lion’s share of the Mullinahone loot of 0-7 – he bagged five including one from play, while Enda Keane cut over a wonderful sideline ball, and Sean Curran had one from midfield.

Unless things changed drastically though, Mullinahone were a beaten docket by half time. They were not getting to the pace of the game and Éire Óg were simply hurling too well to let the match slip from their grasp – especially with the breeze behind them in the second half.

Josh Keller gave an indication as to the Nenagh thinking when he pointed within a minute of the restart and they would go on to claim seven of the next nine scores to rack up a ten-point advantage by the end of the third quarter – Mullinahone’s points again coming from Horan frees, while Mikey Heffernan (3), Jake Morris, Keller (2) and Sam O’Farrell were all on target also.

Nenagh were able to afford to run the bench and give valuable game-time to James Mackey, Ben West, Tommy Heffernan, and Sean Phelan – all bar Phelan got on the scoresheet with Heffernan grabbing his sides’ second goal in the 55th minute.

By that stage Mullinahone had claimed a goal through sub-Danny Dunne who weaved his way through and fired brilliantly to the net.

It was no more than a consolation goal, but incredibly they were to get another moments after Heffernan had Nenagh’s second – the Mullinahone goal coming from Sean Curran who fired a rocket of a ground stroke past a packed defence and into the rigging past keeper Dermot McTiernan.

Nenagh Eire Og’s twelve-point victory was as deserved as it was comprehensive. They were by far the better side and showed a consistency of performance which will be needed in the concluding stages of the championship if they are to stake a claim on the silverware.

They put the defeat to Cashel King Cormacs in the previous round firmly behind them and they now march on with confidence to the next round in the knowledge that they are there on their own merit and did not have to reply on other results to get there.

While they regularly used the short ball in the first half against the breeze and it worked to a degree, they did appear to get greater traction in the second half when they played more direct and allowed their attackers to use the space of the Templetuohy pitch to maximum benefit. They will be well pleased with their victory because this was a game which worried many of their supporters.

Mullinahone find themselves in relegation now and it would appear that they will have a big battle on their hands to stay in the Dan Breen shake-up in 2026.

Player of the Match: Michael Heffernan (Nenagh Éire Óg)

Nenagh Éire Óg: Dermot McTiernan (7); Conor Hennessy (7), Mark Carey (7), Conor Ryan (8); Paddy Murphy (6), Barry Heffernan (7), Jake Donelan-Houlihan (6); Adam Healy (7), Mason Cawley (6); Sam O’Farrell (0-4, 8), Jake Morris (0-4, 8), Josh Keller (0-3, 7); Adam Carey (6), Philip Hickey (6), Mikey Heffernan (1-10, 0-6f, 9).

Subs: James Mackey (0-1, 6) for Cawley (35); Ben West (0-1, 6) for A Carey (43); Tommy Heffernan (1-0, 7) for Morris (46); Sean Phelan (6) for Healy (53).

CJ Kickhams Mullinahone: Brendan Kearney (6); Daire O’Brien (6), Paul Curran (7), Colin Shelly (7), Darragh Linnane (6), Conor Whelan (8), Martin Keogh (7), Sean Curran (1-2, 0-1f, 6), Conor O’Brien (6), Sam Rowan (0-1, 6), Eoin O’Dwyer (6), Enda Keane (0-1, 6), Mikey O’Shea (5), Alan Curran (5), Graham Horan (0-7, 6f, 7).

Subs: Danny Dunne (1-0, 7) for Keane (38); Jack Shelly (6) for O’Shea (48); Matthew Direen (NR) for O’Dwyer (56); Cillian White (NR) for Linnane (60).

Referee: Joe Leahy (Moyne-Templetuohy).