The hurling dominos continue to fall, Nenagh Eire Og the latest big guns to see their 2016 season crumble to dust.
A late, late swoop by Adrian Ryan at Dolla on Sunday sent last year’s county finalists packing. The list of casualties in our championship is mounting; Lorrha also bit the dust at the weekend as did Moyne/Templetuohy in the Mid.
Nenagh’s hurling story is one that’s plagued by unfulfilled potential. In 2013 they lost a county final by a single point to Loughmore. In last year’s county decider the margin was again a single point in the final against Sarsfields. Perennial challengers for county honours, always listed among the favourites, yet the only certainty with them is that on a crunch occasion they’ll contrive to lose.
The thing that spooks me about Nenagh is that they offer an uncanny reflection of our county team. They never lack individual flair, they produce some fine hurlers, but as a collective they can’t seem to nurture that winning culture which would get them over the line in tight games.
They’ll be as sick as the proverbial parrots when they review Sunday’s game. They spent most of the afternoon chasing a modest Templederry lead, but then with four minutes to play they got the game-changing break. Billy Heffernan had come in as a sub and he planted an excellent goal from the left corner to put them two-up with just minutes to run.
They ought to have won from there, but this is Nenagh. Templederry had played defensively for much of that half and looked now to have paid the price. There was a warning for Nenagh when Gearoid Ryan got through immediately after the goal, but Michael McNamara made an excellent save at the expense of a ‘65’. Eanna Murray pointed the 65 to cut the margin to a single score but there was still high drama to follow.
Nenagh had played with a sweeper all day and with numerical advantage the likes of Noel Maloney, John Brennan and company mopped up most that came their way. Now, however, inexplicably they got drawn outfield and when a ball was lobbed goalwards Adrian Ryan snuck in behind the defence so you had two forwards on one defender. The breaking ball fell to Adrian who had only the goalie to beat and a player of his quality won’t miss from there. That goal came over a minute into added time and would prove a previous winner for Templederry and a sickening sucker punch for Nenagh.
Templederry had led by a point at half time thanks to two individual goals by Matthew Hogan who took the scores really well. Nenagh hit a lot of wides in that half but still seemed well in it. Mikey Heffernan was hitting the frees nicely and Andrew Coffey and James Mackey hit three points apiece from play.
Another item of interest in that period was a bust up in the Templederry half involving a cluster of players. It wasn’t exactly handbag stuff either, some serious digs were exchanged. Eventually four players got booked and there were no further flashpoints in what was otherwise a very tense but sporting affair.
For most of the second half Templederry held a two-to-three point advantage and I feared they’d pay a price for being so defensive. Adrian Ryan operated outfield and they kept pumping high ball into a few isolated and out-numbered forwards. You never felt Nenagh were out of it and Billy Heffernan’s goal looked ominous for Templederry. Subsequent events, however, altered the day’s fate dramatically.
It’s a serious reversal for Nenagh to be eliminated from both divisional and county championships at this stage of the season. Ironically they beat Templederry in their only win of the county rounds but the tables have now turned on a crucial day. The absence of Barry Heffernan was costly; Tommy Heffernan played but was clearly dragging a leg and eventually was replaced. That solitary county win from 1995 remains in splendid isolation for another season at least.
For Templederry the prospects are brighter. Injuries were a major headache earlier but this time they had players like Gearoid Ryan, Adrian Ryan and Brian Stapleton all back in harness. John Kennedy deputized in goal for Matthew Ryan and did well, but otherwise they seemed to be near full strength. Thomas Stapleton again played a strong role in defence in front of Christy Coughlan at full. Matthew Hogan will remember his two-goal salvo and Eanna Murray was steady on the frees as well as clipping over a few from play. Gearoid Ryan hit three points and of course Adrian Ryan popped up for the vital match-winner.
For trainer, Brian Horgan, and the team management it’s a major break that they’ll hope to build on. They still need to win a first-ever North title and should progress further when they play Roscrea in a quarter-final. Kildangan are probably favourites to retain the North though Templederry have no reason to fear any of the teams still in the race.
Probably one of the surprise score lines at the weekend was Roscrea’s thrashing of Lorrha. The margin was a whopping sixteen points, 4-15 to 1-10. Worryingly from a Tipperary perspective ‘Bonner’ Maher’s form continues to cause concern. Lorrha needed him at full throttle but the revs just weren’t there.
In the Mid campaign Drom/Inch had their expected win over Moyne/Templetuohy while Killenaule were too strong for Ballingarry in the South.
Meanwhile the county team continues preparations for a Munster semi-final with Limerick on Sunday week. We now know it will be Waterford again in the final, if we get through, following the Deise win over Clare on Sunday. After being in Dolla I had to do with a recording of the game in Thurles. It was a disappointing spectacle. The hurling championship has yet to really ignite. Like in the league final Waterford looked the better side but this time they closed off any late heroics by the Banner. Tipperary’s preparations thus far have been low-key. There are some niggly injuries to players like Jason Forde, John McGrath, Sean Curran and Conor O’Brien but most are expected to be okay for the big day. John O’Keeffe’s ankle injury seems to be more serious.
Before the hurlers see action, of course, it’s the turn of the footballers this week when they face Cork at the Stadium. They’re going to be against the odds, the bookies offering 11/2 against 1/8 for the rebels. That’s quite a gap.
In fairness to Liam Kearns and his management team they suffered heavy player losses during the spring. Losing Colin O’Riordan, Seamus Kennedy and Steven O’Brien would be the equivalent of the hurlers maybe losing Callanan and any two Mahers. With all of them on board they’d still be outsiders; without some key men the task just becomes so much more difficult.
In the case of each of the three players it was a personal choice, which always has to be respected. However, it would be nice if the personal choices of managers were respected too. In that regard it was disappointing to see one of our greatest ever footballers, Declan Browne, having a pop at Liam Cahill and the County Board recently over the dual player issue.
Declan took issue in an ‘ Irish Examiner’ article, which on the one hand defended the minor management’s right to exclude dual players but then took a swipe at the so-called hypocrisy of the same management when a few players played soccer games. As if the two scenarios were some way comparable? Individual players will often make unwise decisions to play a game of this or that – and I’m sure will get reprimanded for it – but to compare that scenario to where players are committed to two All Ireland seeking panels with the consequent division of training time and general focus, is clearly ludicrous. To me this read as simply a lazy excuse to have a dig at the minor management and to hell with the lack of logic in the argument.
The same article also claimed that ‘the dual mandate was passed at county convention’. It wasn’t. Burgess had a motion before convention seeking to impose a single code on players. Many felt that this was too restrictive and they favoured the status quo where individual managements would decide policy for their panel. The motion was defeated. I know people who opposed the Burgess motion but are very much in favour of Liam Cahill’s approach. It’s disingenuous then to put a spin on what happened at convention and imply that it sanctioned the dual mandate.
