Peerless Portumna stroll home

Date Published: 19-Mar-2009

THIS was frightening stuff from a Portumna side who did not even have to hit full throttle as they swept the challenge of the Waterford and Munster champions aside with consummate ease to win their third All-Ireland title in four years at Croke Park on St. Patrick’s Day.
Perhaps the greatest club team in the history of the ancient game confirmed their modern day supremacy by registering a 19-point hammering of a devastated De La Salle side, retaining their coveted crown in a final which turned out to be more of a procession than a contest in the almost perfect conditions.
Portumna barely appeared to break sweat in putting the Waterford men to the sword. The Shannonsiders did not come near the dizzy heights they reached in outclassing Kilkenny’s Ballyhale Shamrocks in last month’s semifinal, but they didn’t have to.
A team who have shown a great penchant for ‘just doing enough’ during six years of unprecedented success hardly had to get out of second gear and this was such a comfortable win that team manager Johnny Kelly and his selectors could afford to make a handful of sentimental substitutions in the dying minutes.