Despite being reduced to 14 men after just four minutes in this overdue group one round three game in the Premier Intermediate Championship, St Marys had very little hassle in dispatching a very poor Moyne Templetuohy team under lights in Clonoulty on this Wednesday night.

Tadhg Sheahan received a straight red card for an off-the-ball strike on a Moyne player with the players hardly having time to get up a sweat and the hope for Moyne Templetuohy supporters was this might aid the mid side in their quest for a win to bring them into contention to save themselves from a relegation scrap and maybe give them a shot of qualifying.

However, for the second time in this group campaign, they couldn’t take advantage of the extra body as it looked like St Marys had the spare player for the whole of the first half, with Peter McGarry and Ruairi Leahy, in particular, running amok.

St Marys will be delighted to get the job done with such little fuss despite the red card, as the players will have a packed schedule between both codes over the next few weeks as they will now look to a tough preliminary quarter-final against a fancied Gortnahoe Glengoole side on Sunday.

Marys started the game in frighteningly quick fashion with four points in less than three minutes with Enda Dunphy starting that run with an early long-range free - the first of four he would score on the night - with Tom Meade getting Moyne off the mark with a nicely finished score after four minutes.

That fast start out of the blocks looked like getting checked early though, with Tadhg Sheahan receiving the red hot at the recommendation of the linesman who spotted a strike from the All-Ireland minor winner for 2022, and it now required a shake-up for Marys to fill the gap at the back.

Funnily enough though, it didn’t affect the way the game was shaping up as Marys continued to do all the hurling and looked hungry for work, swallowing up Moyne players in the tackle regularly, and they managed to build a 0-8 to 0-2 lead by the end of the first quarter with points from Sean Kennedy (three placed balls) and a first of the night for the prolific Ruairi Leahy.

Moyne were offering nothing in attack with Tossy Hamill’s move into full forward proving fruitless as Marys were in the groove themselves with a brace of Seamus Kennedy, a second for Leahy, and a beauty of a sideline from Peter McGarry giving the Clonmel team a massive 0-12 to 0-3 lead after 24 minutes.

Not only was that lead deserved but it could have been a lot more as Marys hit some poor wides, but the Moyne effort was so poor that they allowed the Clonmel men to essentially bag the result before halftime, with Leahy and McGarry hitting further scores with the former scoring the only goal of the game 28th minute, pouncing on a Sean Kennedy 65 which dropped short to flick the looping ball to the net with St Marys leading 1-15 to 0-6.

Moyne took their time coming back out for the second half and it seemed to light a fire under them early in the second half as they hit the first two scores of the half from a brilliant Conor Bowe free from throw-in along with a Gearoid O’Connor free.

That mini-revival was short-lived with Ruairi Leahy again finding the target a minute later which was followed by another long ranger from Enda Dunphy but Moyne were keeping it tight with substitute Sean Hayes making an early impact with a well-taken score in the 35th minute.

But they simply couldn’t muster enough to trouble Enda Dunphy in the St Marys goal and even though they hit some nice scores in the second half from Ciaran Lloyd, Conor Bowe, Gearoid O’Connor, and Damien Cantwell, Marys were happy to allow them to shoot from range as they always had enough of a cushion to see out the game comfortably.

Marys hit some lovely scores in the final quarter and they came from two players in the form of Enda Dunphy who gave an exhibition of long-range free taking, hitting a further two points, while Ruairi Leahy really filled his booths with three more points to finish the night with a very impressive personal tally of 1-8, all from play.

The St Marys men will now look forward to a tough game against Gortnahoe Glengoole this weekend, while Moyne Templetuohy look like a team in real trouble as they head for the relegation battle in the coming weeks.

St Marys: Enda Dunphy (0-4f); Conor Deely, Ross Slattery, Tadhg Condon; Tadhg Sheehan, James Morris, Thomas Charles; Seamus Kennedy (0-2), Richie Gunne (0-1); Ruairi Leahy (1-8), Sean Kennedy (0-6, 0-4f, 0-1 65), Niall Hoctor; Ross Peters, Peter McGarry (0-3, 0-1 sl-cut), Cathal Deely (0-1).

Subs used: Dean Cagney for Sean Kennedy (46); Josh Ryan for R Peters (49); Jamie Peters for Hoctor (53); Gearoid Buckley for Cathal Deely (56); Darragh O’Connor for Gunne (59).

Moyne Templetuohy: Paul Maher; Kieran Larkin, Eoin Gorman, Tommy Hassett; John Coughlan, Conor Bowe (0-2), Ciaran Lloyd (0-1); Pierce Meade, Éanna Guilfoyle (0-1); Paudie Gleeson, Gearoid O’Connor (0-6, 0-5f), Tom Meade (0-2); Diarmuid Fogarty, Tossy Hamill, Jack Taylor (0-1).

Subs used: Sean Hayes (0-2) for Gorman (HT); Shane Lowe for Coughlan (36); Damien Cantwell (0-1) for Fogarty (39).

Referee: Paddy Russell (Emly)

Match report by Enda Treacy of the Tipperary Star.