Relegation hurts. Boherlahan and Dualla is the latest club to feel the pain after taking a heavy tumble to Moyne and Templetuohy last Saturday evening. Nineteen years after celebrating Dan Breen the club slips out of senior ranks and heads into a difficult future.
Tide and time as they say (whoever they are?) waits for no man and the years have been unkind to the parish that gave us Toberadora. The class of the nineties has been slipping away for some years now and the follow-on material has been well shy of requirements. It’s a narrative common to several other clubs.
Seamus Hickey was a talented teenager just out of minor ranks in 1996 when he took his place on that winning formation which frustrated Toomevara. On Saturday evening last he was the last man standing, the sole survivor from that famous county win. He’s been a great warrior for the club despite some crippling injuries and has done more than most to keep the boat afloat. His brother Darragh has been central to the cause too and when he had to be helped off with a back injury approaching half time there was an air of inevitability about this game.
Ironically Boherlahan produced a whirlwind start to the match slipping 1-3 past Moyne before last year’s intermediate champions recognised they were in a contest. The goal was a thing of beauty. Conor Moloughney showed deft control to the right of goal before slipping the ball across to Darragh Hickey who drilled low past Paul Maher. It was a textbook score.
All of this happened while Boherlahan were playing into a stiff wind and one wondered if there was a big game left in the team to once more escape relegation. Moyne did eventually settle and Tom Meade had a cancelling goal but even at half time their lead of four points seemed modest given the elements.
Alas and alack it all petered out pretty dismally for Boherlahan in the second period. Despite the wind at their backs it was Money who settled into a rhythm and soon the gap was widening alarmingly. Some top quality free taking from Martin Kelly was part of the script but a John Hassett goal was a major input too. Then Diarmuid Fogarty added a second and some classy points from the likes of Jason Bergin were all too much for Boherlahan.
It’s certainly a watershed moment for the Boherlahan club who’ve been senior since a county intermediate win way back in 1981. They beat Portroe on that occasion with a team that included the likes of Seamus Power, Pat Power and a young Liam Maher who fifteen years later would score the winning point in the ’96 county senior final. Coincidentally in their first match as seniors in ’82 they thrashed a Moyne team; history sometimes has a way of evening the score.
More recently of course it was the generation of the nineties which elevated Boherlahan to the top rung. It would prove an exciting decade for the club winning a county minor title in ’93 and then graduating to senior glory three years later. That was the side which included Conor Gleeson, the Flanagans, Philip O’Dwyer, Liam Maher and many others of real quality. Mind you it was a team that could have won more, losing the ’95 final rather heavily to Nenagh and being caught in ’97 by Clonoulty in that truly quirky game where the West side came from eight-down in the final minutes to swipe a bizarre victory at the close.
Arguably it’s been a slippery slope ever since and last Saturday was the final slide. For whatever reason the underage supply lines have been redundant for quite some time so this outcome was inevitable. The worry now is that like Cashel K.C. and others they’ll struggle in the lower grade. Either way it’s sad to see great teams fall from grace.
The other relegation battle between Holycross and Cappawhite has been deferred to July 17 and I’ve heard varying reasons for the move. Holycross it seems had sought to have last weekend free and it’s also suggested that Eamon O’Shea was keen that Cathal Barrett wouldn’t risk that shoulder at this stage of his recovery.
Whatever the reason, the clubs are going to have to sweat it out for another three weeks before knowing their fate. It was widely expected that Cappawhite would struggle this year to hold senior status but Holycross is something of a surprise. Cathal Barrett’s injury was untimely but it’s no particular secret that other internal issues have been unhelpful too. Anyway they’ll still be fancied to hold their status when that game eventually takes place.
At this stage the four divisional championships have taken shape with all regions now down to the latter stages. In the West champions Eire Og are in the final and awaiting the outcome of a semi-final meeting of Kickhams and Clonoulty. In the South Ballingarry surprised a few when putting Swans to the sword last weekend. Killenaule and Mullinahone next play with the winners into the final and the losers facing Ballingarry in a semi.
The Mid is at semi-final stage. J.K. Bracken’s last week put a healthy score past Moycarkey in a game where Shane Bourke starred. The Templemore side now faces Loughmore in one semi-final with Sarsfields and Drom/Inch the go-to fixture in the other semi.
Up North their fourteen senior sides have been whittled down to seven following wins last weekend by Templederry over Ballina and Toomevara over Kilruane. Incidentally there were complimentary reports of Michael Breen’s form with Ballina and absolute rave reviews of John O’Brien’s display with Toomevara. The upshot now is that Templederry are through to the semi-finals where they’ll be joined by the winners of three quarter-finals: Toomevara v. Portroe, Silvermines v. Roscrea and Lorrha v. Kildangan. People are fancying Templederry at this stage to make history though Kildangan have their backers also and some are reluctant to dismiss Toomevara.
All this club action of course goes on hold now ahead of the Munster final and thereafter it all depends on the outcome of July 12. A Tipperary win over Waterford will leave some scope for games ahead of the All Ireland semi though a defeat sees the county in action sooner in a quarter-final.
While excitement is starting to build ahead of the Munster final on Sunday week that growing buzz was put on hold last week as the hurling universe acknowledged the passing of Jimmy Doyle. The eulogies have been lavish and heartfelt for one who seems to have simply been the darling of hurling followers all over. Something about the man just seemed to endear him to everyone who knows anything about the old game.
He has variously been described as the Messi or the Van Gogh of hurling so there must have been something magical about the man on a hurling pitch. I don’t remember him in his prime which would have been those golden years of the early sixties. I do recall his final years including that ’73 game in goal against Waterford where his career seemed to go full circle having begun as a fourteen year old minor goalie back in ’54.
In an era of robust tackling it seems to have been the remarkable skill level that set him apart and it’s interesting to speculate how much more suited he’d be to the present game. Clearly though as well as the skill he had the whole package being elusive and brave as well so it’s no wonder so many observers nominate him as the greatest they’ve seen. He clearly embellished the game in an era of raw intensity and even rawer tackling.
For me the most poignant moment from last week was captured in that photography from the streets of Cork where a local club organized a guard of honour as the cortege passed on its way to Ringaskiddy. His popularity knew no boundaries. Genuine hurling followers recognise brilliance wherever it comes from.
Finally Tipperary played a challenge game against Laois last week in their build up to the Munster final. The word seems to be positive on the injury scene but we should have a clearer picture next week.
By Jonathan Cullen Thu 2nd Jul
