The Big Match coverage comes with thanks to George Corbett Skoda.

Mount Sion 1-15

Roanmore 0-17

Late heroics from Austin Gleeson and Adam Regan booked Mount Sion’s place in this year’s Waterford Senior Hurling Championship Final on a drama-packed afternoon at Walsh Park.

Both sides finished with fourteen men, and it looked as if Roanmore had left it late to prevail – but Gleeson then took it upon himself to send Sion through by the skin of their teeth – as their quest for a first News & Star Cup since 2006 continues.

Regan and Ethan Flynn traded early scores before Regan turned provider on two and a half minutes – offloading to Jamie Meaney who made no mistake in finding the back of the net to establish an early Mount Sion advantage.

Gavin O’Brien and Martin O’Neill traded frees before Roanmore themselves came upon an advantage of a numerical kind – Luke O’Brien receiving his marching orders on ten minutes following an off-the-ball strike on Cian Manning.

Mount Sion responded valiantly to that setback – two dead balls from O’Neill and a Stephen Roche effort moved them 1-5 to 0-2 in front – but Roanmore worked their way into the game and then began to work the scoreboard.

Gavin O’Brien found the radar from a ’65 before Brian Everard swept over twice in quick succession – and when Brian Nolan swept in to intercept and split the posts, it was suddenly a two-point game approaching the interval.

O’Brien and O’Neill traded dead balls but two superbly taken efforts from ‘Blondie’ established a four-point lead for the 14 men at the break – Jamie O’Meara was happy, but knew there was a long way to go.

Jamie Gleeson and Paul O’Sullivan traded the opening blows of the second period before Nolan brothers Brian and Billy got the Sky Blues in the stands shouting with two booming efforts.

Up stepped Rory Furlong to open his account not long after and we were locked at 1-10 to 0-13 approaching the final quarter.

Martin O’Neill split the posts again from a free before the numbers were made even – Frank McGrath was shown a red following a high challenge on Jamie Meaney – and like clockwork, up stepped O’Neill to tap over and widen the gap.

Billy Nolan raised another white flag as Roanmore refused to give in – but a superb O’Neill effort from play swung things back in Mount Sion’s favour.

Gavin O’Brien fired over for the Sky Blues before Shane Mackey won the sliotar and sent it flying between the posts on 58 minutes – talk of extra time on the terraces.

Remarkably, Roanmore moved in front for the very first time on 59 minutes – O’Brien’s close-range free edging them ever closer to a county final at the expense of their bitter rivals.

The shouts from the Sion sideline were self-explanatory – “Hit Austin!” – and hit Austin they did. The 2016 Hurler of the Year snapped the sliotar from the skies right as three added minutes were announced over the tannoy – and from an almost impossible angle, he showed his class to raise the white flag and send Walsh Park into raptures.

He wasn’t done there though, as with the final play from an Iggy O’Regan puckout – once again Gleeson rose highest – and he handpassed to the unmarked Adam Regan, who made no mistake to send Mount Sion on to the decider.

31 August 2025; Adam O’Regan of Mount Sion scores the winning point during the Waterford County Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final match between Mount Sion and Roanmore at Walsh Park in Waterford. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

A derby in name, a derby in nature – form is temporary, but class once again proves permanent.

Mount Sion: Ian O’Regan; Stephen O’Neill, Luke O’Brien, Ben Flanagan; John Kennedy, Austin Gleeson (0-1), Gavin Power; Jamie Gleeson (0-1), PJ Fanning; Martin O’Neill (0-10; 0-8f; 0-1 ’65), Stephen Roche (0-1), Donal Power; Adam Regan (0-2), Mikey Daykin, Jamie Meaney (1-0).

Subs: Martin F O’Neill for Donal Power (HT); Ben Frisby for Stephen O’Neill (40); Evan Curran for John Kennedy (46); Emmanuel Adebayo for Gavin Power (60)

Roanmore: Jack Chester; Oran Hartney, Frank McGrath, Charlie Chester; Brian Nolan (0-2), Billy Nolan (0-2), Cian Wadding; Rory Furlong (0-1), Sean Burke (0-1); Conor Ryan, Gavin O’Brien (0-6; 0-5f; 0-1 ’65), Shane Mackey (0-1); Ethan Flynn (0-1), Paul O’Sullivan (0-1), Brian Everard (0-2).

Subs: Callum Carroll for Brian Everard (41); Lee Hearne for Paul O’Sullivan (54): Ethan Hayes for Ethan Flynn (60)

Referee: Thomas Walsh (Modeligo)

The Big Match coverage comes with thanks to George Corbett Skoda.

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