Ruthless Charleville relegate Na Piarsaigh from top tier for first time in 65 years
Charleville's Andrew Cagney is tackled by Na Piarsaigh's Eddie Gunning during the Co-Op Superstores Premier SHC relegation playoff at Mourneabbey. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Charleville 2-27 Na Piarsaigh 0-13
CHARLEVILLE retained their Premier Senior Hurling status by blowing away Na Piarsaigh in the relegation playoff in Mourneabbey on Saturday afternoon.
In front of a large crowd, the Avondhu men raced into a seven-point led inside 10 minutes and never looked back, adding to the city side’s pain continuously during one of their most complete performances in years.
While there were magnificent displays all over the pitch the contributions from Cork star Darragh Fitzgibbon and his attacking teammate Jack Doyle were key to what was one a real demolition job.
Charleville also had Andrew Cagney, Tim Hawe and midfielder Jack O’Callaghan on fire with Cagney bagging a brace of goals to really put the knife into Na Piarsaigh’s chances of mounting a fightback.
At the back, Cian Collins in goal was superb, as was Jack Meade and Jack Buckley with every defender and attacker putting their bodies on the line to secure their status in the top flight of Cork hurling.
For Na Piarsaigh, corner-back Eoin Moynihan was on song with five long-range frees with Padraig Guest another that regularly hit the target – however, neither could do enough to stop what at times was a genuine men against boys contest.
The loss of Shane Forde to an injury after 19 minutes didn’t help, as was the case with two red cards, Kelvin Forde on 50 minutes and keeper Alan Keating on 60 minutes.
From the off, the men in black and amber were under the cosh as Charleville went at the City side from the first whistle. Points from Fitzgibbon, Doyle and O’Callaghan had Charleville well out in front before Cagney’s first major which came on the 15th minute.
Four more points followed over the next three minutes as Charleville looked to end this one early.
Frees from Moynihan and Guest steamed the bleeding some bit but as the sides headed to the dressing rooms at the interval this one really was all but done – Charleville in front by 13, 1-19 to 0-9.
The second half was a more competitive affair as the scoring rate dropped – that didn’t stop Cagney netting for the second time on 38 minutes – Na Piarsaigh found themselves down by 17 at the three-quarter mark.
Credit must go to Na Piarsaigh as they continued to battle to the finish but in truth, the writing was on the wall from well inside the first half – everything after that was only window dressing.
Charleville can now look forward to another year at the top grade – something that is sure to bring the men in red on to the next level.
For Na Piarsaigh, life will now begin outside of the top grade of Cork hurling for the first time in 65 years as the City men head to Senior A next season.
Obviously, it will be difficult for such a proud and successful club to take however after a 2021 campaign that saw them narrowly avoid the relegation playoff and the current campaign that saw them bottom of their round-robin group it will likely be no surprise to the faithful that the club have had to drop.
Plenty of iconic players of the past on the line and outside the wire on Saturday will now look to regroup and mount a challenge at Senior A that could see them return to the top flight at the first time of asking. A big winter ahead.
J Doyle 0-10 (0-4 f, 0-1 65); D Fitzgibbon 0-7 (0-3 f); A Cagney 2-3; T Hawe, J O’Callaghan 0-2 each; G Kelleher, D Casey, O O’Connell 0-1 each.
P Guest 0-7 (0-6 f); E Moynihan 0-5 f, K Moynihan 0-1.
C Collins; D Butler, J Meade, J Kilcommins; A Dennehy, J Buckley, F Cagney; D Fitzgibbon, J O’Callaghan; D Casey, C Buckley, J Doyle; A Cagney; G Kelleher, T Hawe.
S Gleeson for F Cagney (53), M Kavanagh for T Hawe (56), D Forde for A Cagney (57), J Barry for C Buckley (58), O O’Connell for G Kelleher (60).
A Keating; E Moynihan, E Gunning, Anthony Dennehy; Adam Dennehy, G Healy, J Scanlan; C Buckley, K Moynihan; C Joyce, S Forde, P Rourke; P Guest, K Buckley, D Gunning.
L Sheehan for Adam Dennehy (13), E Kidney for S Forde (19 inj), K Forde for D Gunning (h-t), C Bowen for J Scanlan (60), S Fitzgerald for E Kidney (62).
N O’Neill (Midleton).
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