Kilkenny’s Shane Dunne was a happy man as he headed back down the road this evening after claiming his first All-Ireland Senior Hardball Singles title, writes Paul Fitzpatrick.
The Clogh clubman saw off fellow Cat Ciaran Neary in the final on a 21-8, 21-16 scoreline to get his hands on his first senior medal in any code.
Having lost the Senior Doubles final last week, Dunne felt he learned a lot from those extra games in the traditional code.
“From last week, after playing in the doubles, I think I kind of realised the importance of the serve and making sure that you’re getting the serve just over the line and capitalising then on mistakes,” Dunne told GAAHandball.ie.
“In training during the week, that was my main focus, concentrating on getting a good serve just over the line and trying to get a weak return and try to finish the rally.
“There is a lot more space in the singles as well so I knew I didn’t need to be going for the bottom brick, compared to the doubles again where there is someone else trying to pick it.
“Even two foot up on the wall would probably be enough.
“They were the things I was focusing on going in to play Ciaran. The ball was flying and I got a good lead of about 6-0 and then he got it back to 6-6 and I went on to 15-6 or 7.
“I had a nice lead and I knew then I could go for my shots. Everything worked for me in the first game, I got my good serve going and I was capitalising on Ciaran’s mistakes.”
The second game was a tighter affair.
“I felt he wasn’t at full throttle in the first game. The second game was 6-all, 9-all and then I started going for my kills.
“Ciaran started to improve, his shots were more accurate and his kills started coming off for him. He got a good at about 16-10 and I was making hand errors and being a small bit lazy and not committing to shots.
“I knew I needed to keep the ball on the wall, go for passing shots three or four feet up and be a bit safer. It’s easy to let your opponent get three or four aces in a row and finish out the game, especially in hardball.
“I was a bit more patient and waiting for shots. I got back level and I overhit a serve and it came straight off the back wall. Ciaran luckily just mishit it and I think that was a huge decisive factor in regards to the game. If he had killed that or put it back on the wall hard, he could have been back in serving at 16-all.
“At 17-16 I got lucky, Ciaran hit his hand out, I got two or three lucky aces at that stage. At 19-16, I knew I had to go for it if the ball was set up.”
Having won the USHA Collegiates earlier this year, Shane has now moved home following his studies at handball hotbed Mankato State in Minnesota and is hoping for more success in senior ranks.
“I’m delighted to get my first senior and hopefully we’ll have many more in the near future. I’ll be eyeing up the softball next year definitely. We’ll see how we go,” he said.
Meanwhile, there were also wins for Limerick and Roscommon.
The Treaty county’s Evan Murphy won the Junior Singles with a 21-2, 21-12 victory over promising young Kilkenny man John Hayes.
The Masters title went west as Roscommon’s Denis Creaton got the better of Limerick’s Michael O’Toole, 18-21, 21-9, 11-4.
Photos: Eilish Owens
