St Lachtain's Shane Donnelly celebrates at Croke Park. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
AIB All-Ireland Club JHC Final
St Lachtain's 1-18 Russell Rovers 0-16
By Paul Keane at Croke Park
At the tail end of 2023, St Lachtain's lost a Kilkenny junior hurling final to a Tullogher-Rosbercon side that went on to collect not just the Leinster title but the AIB All-Ireland silverware.
Whether they were enraged or inspired by that defeat in Freshford, St Lachtain's have now replicated the very same run of success themselves by following up on their own county title in late 2024 with provincial and All-Ireland honours.
Truth be told, they did it largely at their ease and when they return to the intermediate ranks in Kilkenny in 2025, four years after contesting an intermediate county final, they will be one of the teams to watch.
Shane Donnelly's 22nd minute goal gave the Steven Farrell managed side a vital platform in this national decider which they used to propel themselves to a landmark win, 15 years on from clinching the All-Ireland intermediate title.
Donnelly finished with 1-1 while three points apiece from Alex Rafter and Liam Hickey were significant too, as was the clean sheet kept by star goalkeeper Darren Brennan, who rounded out a strong performance with St Lachtain's final score.
That was an important point too because Russell Rovers, also beaten in this final in 2020, put on a late spurt and scored four points in a row between the 54th and 61st minutes to leave just a solitary goal between them.
Russell Rovers, coached by Cork great Donal Og Cusack, desperately needed a goal themselves, but it never arrived and two late Lachtain's scores from Darragh Maher and Brennan did the trick for the Noresiders.
They're the fifth club from Kilkenny in the last six instalments of this competition to walk away with the title.
Save for a tight Leinster final against the Wexford representatives, Lachtain's had been cruising through games since the Kilkenny final with 17 goals registered in their five matches on the road to Croker.
Goal number 18 arrived in the 22nd minute at GAA HQ and amounted to a significant turning point in the game as Lachtain's suddenly moved from two points ahead to 1-5 to 0-3 up.
Donnelly hit the net after reacting quickly when a long delivery broke kindly off Liam Hickey's hurl into his path on the left of goals.
A couple of minutes earlier, former Cork senior Brian Hartnett had burst through the centre for Russell Rovers with goal on his mind before having his jersey pulled by two-time All-Ireland medallist with Kilkenny Brian Kennedy.
Josh Beausang gambled by going for goal from the resulting free but Kennedy redeemed himself with a goal-line save and Rovers' agony was compounded three minutes later when Lachtain's poached their own goal.
Still, it wasn't a fatal concession from Rovers' perspective as they finished out the half strongly with three points in a row at one stage from former Cork football star Ciaran Sheehan, Beausang and James Kennefick.
James Maher, once a key figure in Brian Cody's Kilkenny attacks, closed out the Lachtain's first-half scoring to leave the men in black and white 1-7 to 0-7 clear at half-time.
A simmering game came to the boil in the third quarter with a sequence of terrific scores, each seemingly more eye-catching and impressive than the previous one.
Jack McGrath, just on at half-time, pinched a point for Russell Rovers in the 34th minute after a brilliant ball across from Hartnett which Sheehan expertly plucked from the air and laid off.
Goalscorer Donnelly then sniped a beauty from the left sideline, on the 20m line, before being upstaged by colleague Liam Hickey who chopped a line ball over the bar from beneath the Hogan Stand.
It all added up to St Lachtain's hitting the three-quarter stage of the game with a commanding 1-14 to 0-11 lead.
Russell Rovers got a run on them for a period late on, hitting those four points in a row, and Lachtain's did endure a speed wobble with a number of errant passes and wides, but they hung on to cap a memorable campaign.
Scorers for St Lachtain's: Shane Donnelly 1-1, Alex Rafter 0-3, Liam Hickey 0-3 (1f, 1 sideline), James Maher 0-2, Cathal Hickey 0-2, Brendan Quinn 0-1, Paddy Killeen 0-1, Cathal O'Leary 0-1, Mark Donnelly 0-1, Brian Kennedy 0-1, Darragh Maher 0-1, Darren Brennan 0-1 (f).
Scorers for Russell Rovers: Josh Beausang 0-8 (6fs, 1 65), Luke Duggan Murphy 0-2, Liam Hickey 0-1 (1f), Ciaran Sheehan 0-1, Fintan Murray 0-1, James Kennefick 0-1, Jack McGrath 0-1, Kevin Moynihan 0-1, Mark O'Dwyer 0-1.
St Lachtain's: Darren Brennan; Shane Dawson, Simon Rafter, Criomhthann Bergin; Padraig Donnelly, Brian Kennedy, Cathal Hickey; Brendan Quinn, Mark Donnelly; Alexander Rafter, Paddy Killeen, Cathal O'Leary; Shane Donnelly, James Maher, Liam Hickey.
Subs: Darragh Maher for O'Leary 51, John Fitzpatrick for James Maher 52, Cian Dawson for Shane Donnelly 57, Jerry Bergin for Rafter 62.
Russell Rovers: Ross Walsh; Kevin Tattan, Pierce Cummins, Eoghan O'Sullivan; Fintan Murray, James Kennefick, Paul Lane; Kieran Walsh, Ruairi Cummins; Luke Duggan Murphy, Kevin Moynihan, Dan Ruddy; Ciaran Sheehan, Josh Beausang, Brian Hartnett.
Subs: Mark O'Dwyer for Lane 28, Jack McGrath for Ruddy h/t, Kevin O'Brien for Moynihan 57.
Referee: Peter Owens (Down).
