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DOON booked his place in the Limerick Senior Pitching Championship final with this win over Kilmallock.
In the end, the east side of Limerick went 2-20 to 1-17 winners at the LIT Gaelic Grounds.
And, the impressive victory came with intercountry duo Darragh O’Donovan and Richie English injured.
Doon now plays Na Piarsaigh or Patrickswell in the final next Saturday.
Doon was led by seven points from Pat Ryan and two goals from Jack Ryan.
Doon held a 1-12-0-10 lead at halftime.
Kilmallock was assisted by a gentle cross breeze in the first half, but Doon seemed to benefit from the previous week’s quarterfinals against the South Liberties.
Doon was helped to take a five-point lead at halftime by five game points from intercountry Pat Ryan.
It had the initial two points in the middle where the men in red were leading.
Oisin O’Reilly and Graeme Mulcahy had points from Kilmallock, but with two successive touchdowns by Josh Ryan, the East Limerick men were 0-6 to 0-4 in 11 minutes.
David Woulfe had a good score for Kilmallock and it was a one-point game in the 20th minute.
Then came Doon’s goal, created by Josh Ryan and finished at close range by Jack Ryan.
When Pat Ryan scored his fifth of the day and Bary Murphy his second in the game, Doon was 1-10 to 0-7 ahead with 23 minutes played.
Paudie O’Brien and Kevin O’Donnell struck back for South Limerick’s men, but two late free runs by Murphy secured a five-point lead for Doon at halftime after a half in which Kilmallock had six widths, the double that of Doon.
The lead was seven points within three minutes of the restart with Murphy and Ryan again scoring.
Houlihan (’65 & play) hit back for Kilmallock and with 10 minutes left in the new half it was Doon 1-14 Kilmallock 0-12.
In the second half of the water break it was 1-17 to 0-15 with points from Ciaran O’Connor and O’Donnell attempting to ignite a Kilmallock fight.
Then as the semi-final entered the final 10 minutes, Jack Ryan scored his second goal and a 2-18-0-15 lead on a night the teams shared 18 widths.
When the stopwatch reached the end of normal time, Graeme Mulcahy scored a goal from Kilmallock, but it could not be denied that Doon returned to the county final, which he last lost to Na Piarsaigh in 2018.
* See the print edition of the Limerick Leader for a full match report.
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