The headlong dash to complete our hurling championship continues with semi-finals topping the bill next Sunday. Killenaule and Kiladangan will bring novelty to the event; Sarsfields and Clonoulty add familiarity.
The last four supply a neat geographical spread with all divisions represented. Coincidentally these four were also the group winners in Roinn 1 of the championship, which indicates consistency over the season. So, whatever one’s misgivings about our structures, the best, just like cream, are coming to the top.
So, the County Board remains on target to meet deadlines, though only after a Loughmore appeal during the week failed to win support at the County CCCC. A subsequent statement by the club expressed disappointment at the failure of both referee and Board to acknowledge that a timing error was made in their one-point defeat to Drom.
A key issue, I suppose, that doomed their appeal was the fact that the regulation thirty minutes was played and everything else then is at the discretion of the match official. There’s a lot of understandable sympathy for Loughmore, though in the circumstances an appeal was never going to succeed.
At one stage there were rumours that the club would seek legal redress but thankfully that didn’t materialise. Maybe the message for Loughmore in the future is to make sure they are not a point behind nearing the end of a game, given that referees seem to have such difficulties with their timepieces.
Anyway Drom’s season didn’t survive the next challenge as North champs, Kiladangan, pulled off a significant upset on Sunday last. The Mid side was a 4/9 fancy heading into this clash, the odds perhaps coloured by last year’s corresponding fixture where Drom put five goals past their opponents en route to a ten-point win. This time there was to be no such leakage as Seamie Callanan and company endured a tough day at the office.
After an even first half the critical action took place early in the third quarter when Drom were hit for a two-goal double whammy in about four minutes. Full forward, Paul Flynn, was central to both majors. For the first it was his flick away from a defender out in the right corner which put Tadhg Gallagher through for the finish. Again for the second Flynn supplied Ruairi Gleeson before the latter did a cheeky lob over goalie, Damien Young, who had advanced to cut down the angle.
At one stage Kiladangan went nine-up, Drom’s recovery not helped by a string of bad wides. Impressively the North side kept composure, county minor sub-goalie, Barry Hogan, pulling off a few essential saves before he was eventually beaten by Mikey Connors deep into added time.
It was a notable win by Kiladangan. They didn’t employ any special tactics to cope with Seamie Callanan. Full back, Hughie Flannery, did a tight job on the full forward near goal and others picked him up when he drifted out to the half line. It was a frustrating outing for the hurler of the year in waiting. It just shows that if the supply lines aren’t efficient then even the best of players can look ordinary.
It was an impressive showing from Kiladangan. If I was to pick a man-of-the-match it would be full forward, Paul Flynn, though Tadhg Gallagher and Ruairi Gleeson and David Sweeney would be in the reckoning also. Darragh Egan too won a lot of ball and hit one classic first half point from the Old Stand sideline on the forty metre line over the shoulder and over the attempted block.
It’s a troubling one for Drom who continue to struggle to get the best out of their resources. James Woodlock tried to rally them but too many of the side were off colour; perhaps the exertions of the previous week had an effect.
Kiladangan will face Killenaule in a first-ever semi-final meeting of the clubs. The South side put behind them their tepid form in the divisional decider to produce something much more enthusiastic this time against Kilruane. Again this rates as an upset, though a lesser one than the Kiladangan game.
You have a feeling with Killenaule that so much depends on ‘Bubbles’; if he’s on song they’ll bother most teams but if he’s peripheral they’re in trouble. On Saturday last ‘Bubbles’ pitched in with thirteen points, seven from play, and that was the essential difference. Niall O’Meara certainly found him too elusive and his team paid a heavy price.
They led by four at the break but quickly went eight up early in the second half following a Paidi Feehan goal. They were nine-up approaching the last quarter but then hit a major wobble as Kilruane came storming back. Seven unanswered points had Killenaule feeling the jitters. ‘Bubbles’ was shouting for calm in the defence. A Dean O’Connor point was critical in stopping the rot and then ‘Bubbles’ reinforced the resistance with a beautiful side line ‘cut’ from the New Stand side. They’d weathered the storm and held firm to the end.
Declan Fanning remains a steadying presence in defence, giving Brian O’Meara little latitude on this occasion. Eoin O’Connell is having a strong season at midfield and Paidi Feehan pitched in with 1-2 on this occasion. Still so much revolves around ‘Bubbles’ in that attack.
Their semi-final clash with Kiladangan will be interesting. They’ll be outsiders. Interestingly neither club has ever won the senior championship and you need to trace back quite a distance for their last appearance in the decider. For Killenaule that was ’42 when they were skinned by Sarsfields; in ’38 Kiladangan were similarly dealt with by the ‘Blues’. So history beckons for one of them on Sunday.
Both teams have played Kilruane recently and in each case the margin was reasonably tight. That form line would suggest that they’re well matched though I suspect Kiladangan are the more balanced outfit and deserve to be favourites.
I’m not going to delay much on the other two quarter-finals last weekend because, to be blunt, they were very poor affairs. On Saturday, after a sluggish first half, Sarsfields steamrolled Borrisoleigh on the turn over.
There was quite a gap in the betting odds between these two and it’s easy to see why. It looked to me as if Borris’ invested everything in their first half effort and the tank was running on empty after the break. In fairness they lost Conor Kenny early on and just couldn’t match the overall slickness of the Sars’.
It’s difficult to get an accurate handle of Sarsfields’ whereabouts based on this contest. They seem to have an issue at full back where Ronan Maher had to be deployed early on to curb Niall Kenny. They played Paudie Maher at number six and Denis Maher also on the half back line. If they’re looking ahead with ambition I would have thought Denis Maher is needed to add muscle to a light-weight attack.
Clonoulty too had an easy passage against Mullinahone – certainly easier than I anticipated. The first half was a horror showing from the South champions. They looked totally out of sorts and were hit by a very economical Clonoulty who clocked up points at will – their first wide came in injury time. The loss of Eoin Kelly before half time pretty well sealed the outcome.
And yet Clonoulty didn’t really ‘bury’ the game in a second half of quite poor fare. In fact Mullinahone pulled back the lead to just four points entering the final few minutes; earlier Enda Keane hit a reviving goal for the South champs. There was no late reprieve, however, for Mullinahone as Paudie White sealed it all with an added-time goal for Clonoulty. An injury to John O’Keeffe will be a major worry for the West champions as they prepare for this game.
Sarsfields will be red hot favourites in this semi-final as they chase down a first three-in-a-row of county titles since the 1960s. The sides met in a quarter-final last year where Clonoulty were heavily out-gunned, losing by 1-23 to 1-14 despite a late goal. Clonoulty scored a significant win against Sarsfields in the 2011 semi-final, which was revenge for the previous year’s final where the ‘Blues’ once more prevailed.
So there’s plenty of recent history between this pair. Clonoulty can be backed at 10/1 to win the county whereas Sarsfields are on offer at 1/3. Given those odds it will be quite a sensation if the West champions pull off this one.
Finally I teasingly posed a question last week re Carrick Swans heavy defeat to Kilruane and whether or not it was a record setter. It wasn’t. Back in 1960 the same Swans lost a county quarter-final to Sarsfields by 10-14 to 1-2. As ever SOD is my obliging encyclopedia and apologies to Swans for scratching old wounds.
