‘We’re building a great bond’ | Monaleen’s Andrew La Touche Cosgrave hails his team-mates after Munster semi-final victory

Saturday’s fixture was Monaleen’s first appearance in the Munster Hurling Championship since their 2016 campaign.

Limerick PIHC winners Monaleen will be competing for the Munster Intermediate Hurling Championship in a fortnight’s time following their 2-13 to 0-16 victory over St Joseph’s Doora Barefield on Saturday.

The City side thundered into the contest as they hit the back of the net within the first ten minutes to give them a three-point cushion.

But, both teams fought tooth and nail throughout the game and there seemed to be nothing to separate the two heading into the final minutes, until a moment of magic from Mark O’Dwyer sealed their second goal as they saw out the rest of the game.

And the quality of the second goal was no surprise to Monaleen’s Andrew La Touche Cosgrave, as he said it’s a regular occurrence for O’Dwyer who was instrumental in their semi-final victory with 1-6 to his name.

“It’s Mark like, he does it the whole time! For him to pull it out of the bag like that, and I’d no doubt like when I see him running, it’s very hard to stop him so I knew it was either a goal, or a free and it was either a draw game or three points up so it was great, it was brilliant.”

A Munster final awaits for Cosgrave and co. as they prepare to face Tipperary side Roscrea in two weeks time for Munster Intermediate honours.

Despite an opportunity for more silverware, Cosgrave believes the most important factor in the next two weeks is to strengthen the bond between the players which has been key to their swift return to the SHC ranks.

“The Munster final is great but the most important thing is, we’ve another two weeks with the boys and that’s what we’re building, we’re building a great bond, great best friends we’re bringing it all into two weeks time.

We’ll go at it again now Tuesday, Wednesday, whenever it is and we’ll look forward to training, that’s what we want to do.”

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Monaleen face Roscrea on December 4th in the Munster Intermediate Hurling Championship Final.