2008: A Real Year of 2 Halves

16 years ago this month, Carrick Swan claimed the inaugural Seamus O’Riain Cup, beating 4 North Tipp teams along the way.

Below, you can see how the year panned out.

2008 was a real rollercoaster.

A memorable year that still gets mentioned in conversation from time-to-time today. To paraphrase the old GAA term Hats, Scarves and Headbands, for the Carrick Swan hurlers, 2008 could be described as Planks, Power-Runs, and batin’ North Tipp teams.

The First Half of The Year

In the South Senior Hurling Championship, we lost our first game to newly promoted Ballybacon-Grange by 3 points. A game we led until Ballybacon’s goaled in the 58th minute.

Round 2 saw us lose to Killenaule in a midweek game, on Wednesday May 28th. Swan 1-14 Killenaule 2-15.
No match report available.

Swan entered Round 3, against Ballingarry, knowing that they needed a win to keep their chances of reaching a South Semi-Final alive.

The game took place on June 21st in miserable conditions that wouldn’t have been out of place in December. Goals from Paul Diffily and Alan ‘P’ Ryan helped Swan to victory on a scoreline of 2-07 to 0-09.

Our first victory in the South Senior Hurling Championship since we lifted the cup in 2000.

In our final group game, Swan lost out to Mullinahone by 3 points, in Monroe.

The loss, and other results going against us, meant we found ourselves in last place, and dumped out of the South Senior Hurling Championship.

Killenaule beat Ballingarry in the South Final

A disaster of a year to date for Swan.

The Second Half of The Year

But Swan regrouped ahead of the inaugural Seamus O’Riain Cup.

The 2008 Seamus O’Riain Cup was all knockout hurling.

In the preliminary round (13 teams qualified for the SO’R in 2008), we played Lorrha-Dorrha of North Tipperary. The game took place on August 1st in Boherlahan. Swan came out on top, after an impressive showing. Swan 3-17 Lorrha-Dorrha 3-8. Goals from Danny O’ Hanlon, Dwaine Fogarty and Paul Diffily set us on our way to victory.

That qualified us for the quarter final where we took on another North team. Borris-Ileigh were the opposition in a game played in New Inn on August 28th. Another superb Swan performance saw us run out 2-20 to 0-15 winners. Two Alan P green flags setting us on our way.

In the Semi-Final, we faced our 3rd North team in a row. This time, it took extra time to put away Moneygall, a game played at Littleton on September 20. AET, Swan secured a 2-point victory. 2-15 to 1-16. Dwaine and Tiger with the goals.

Next up was a trip to Semple Stadium on County Final day to take on our 4th North team in a row. Kilruane MacDonaghs were the opposition and a gallant 2nd half effort saw Swan win on a scoreline of 1-14 to 1-11.