Kinnitty 0-13 St. Rynagh’s 0-9

[Lone Shark]

The intermediates may be flying high, the under 21’s are county champions, and the minors are looking very strong also, but senior games are decided by your key players now rather than stars of the future, and in this regard St. Rynagh’s fell woefully short in Rath on Sunday evening. That Ciarán Flannery and Diarmuid Horan will be county stars of the future at various levels is fairly likely, but they are still minor players now, and outside of those two players, the entire St. Rynagh’s team scored one point, a close range free by Kevin Kelly, over the course of a whole hour’s hurling. That is beyond poor – it’s disgraceful, and for a team that had no shortage of followers saying that they’d have no fear of Coolderry in a semi final, it fell way below expectations.

Kinnitty haven’t suddenly become world beaters on the strength of this result, but they have given further evidence that they are a competent team with all the basic skills, some very classy defenders at this level, and a nice ability to take chances when presented. They’ll never run up huge scores, nor do they really have the wherewithal to trouble goalkeepers on strong sides since they never came close to registering a goal, and certainly they have an inordinately high proportion of very small players who don’t relish the more physical aspects of the game, but on the other hand they don’t concede any easy scores, they move the ball swiftly up the field, and in Michael Cleere and Richie McRedmond they have very good freetakers from both long range and close in, and they’ll keep opponents honest.

The first quarter was when the platform for victory was set, with a 6-2 lead built up thanks to some fine scoretaking from a variety of players, four of the 6 starting forwards registering scores from play in that time. They reached half time with St. Rynagh’s completely bottled up at the other of the field 9-4 in front, having registered just four wides. At the back Diarmuid Horan was getting some ball off Paddy Whelan, but was getting it in tricky positions where scoring was difficult. Ciarán Flannery was working Liam Brewer very hard, and giving him plenty to think about, but otherwise Kinnitty backs were absolutely lording matters. Andrew McRedmond was fielding ball, delivering good long passes into his forwards, and had Paudie Mulhare in his pocket. Behind Him Fearghal Kealey was completely in control, and never looked like being beaten. He definitely looked a lot more like a county hurler than Kevin Kelly, his marker, a man who was marked out for a very bright future not long ago. On the left wing James Rigney was defying his small status with a hugely busy performance getting in the way, blocking ball, clearing his lines and generally dominated Jason Ryan, his much bigger opponent. Ger Coughlan’s son may be playing up front for the mountain men, but his spirit is certainly alive and well in this twenty year old, who became even more dominant in the second half and finished up the clear choice of everyone in attendance for man of the match.

The second half saw Rynagh’s and Mulhare in particular attempt to force the pace a bit more, but they still got up to the 41st minute before registering their first score from play – a Diarmuid Horan point. However they were still in touch since Kinnitty were playing a little nervously in sight of the finish line. They missed a couple of chances, and the half forward line of Justin Kinsella, Coughlan, and Matthew McRedmond were being physically overpowered by their counterparts, and struggling to either take scores themselves or move the ball on. However it was better and better the Kinnitty defence got, the aforementioned Rigney covering ground at Tasmanian Devil rates, and Liam Bergin the younger getting on top in his corner as well. Rynaghs’s had got to 9-7 behind, and were within a goal throughout the half, so you feared for Kinnitty being robbed by a goal they would not have deserved to concede, but as it turned out they held on, and a late breakaway score by Richie McRedmond wrapped matters up.

Belmont’s performance against Coolderry in the Saturday evening game will have given them encouragement, however it’s still a huge ask to expect a game but limited side like Kinnitty to topple the champions. That said, hopefully this win will at least have given them a little bit of faith in themselves if a close finish were to materialise, and with their defence playing as well as it has done, you never know what could happen in an hour of hurling. One way or another, Lone Shark is very grateful to them for their part in some of the most engaging games of hurling I’ve seen this year, and will certainly look forward to some of their players, most likely Kealey and Rigney, gracing county shirts at various levels next year.


Teams:

Kinnitty: Liam Bergin; Liam Bergin, Fearghal Kealey, Paddy Whelan; Liam Brewer, Andrew McRedmond, James Rigney; Michael Cleere (0-4, 0-1 free, 0-3 65’s), Enda Grimes; Colm Coughlan, Justin Kinsella (0-1), Matthew McRedmond (0-1); Richie McRedmond (0-6, 0-3 frees), John Clendennin, Stephen Molloy (0-1).

Subs: Ray Carroll for Colm Coughlan


St. Rynagh’s: Damien McDermott; Conor Hernon, Pat McIntyre, Adrian Clancy; Michael Rigney, Hubert Rigney, Nigel White; John Ryan (jnr), Nigel Woods; Jason Ryan, Paudie Mulhare, Ciarán Flannery (0-6, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ’65); Gary Healy, Kevin Kelly (0-1, free), Diarmuid Horan (0-2).

Sub: John Ryan for Gary Healy, Eunan Martin for Jason Ryan


Referee: Noel Flynn

[Plain of the Herbs]

Didn't know there were two Liam Bergins. I know the goalkeeper subbed for the county, most notably in a keenly contested league match on a wet day in Ballinasloe a few years ago, and one was on the county panel this year. Was it the corner back, then who was involved this year?

I, myself thought Rynaghs would take Coolderry, and said so on this medium. Shure, if it always went to form, t'wouldn't be half as interesting!

[Lone Shark]

The corner back would have been the one involved - I wouldn't swear to it, but I think it's Dad in goals and offspring in the corner. They were both being called "Ducky" by the Kinnitty crowd anyway.

[Plain of the Herbs]

T'will be 13 years next year since Sean Robbins came up the hill into Banagher (1993).
Few, if any of the winning under 21's will remember that event.
They'll have a problem re-creating the tradition.

[turk]

it's not good enough from rynaghs

[Barracuda]

My my - how time seems to go by so fast...........

[Rynaghs Biffo]

it's not good enough from rynaghs

yet again, we seem to never produce is at senior level! i reckon it could be another 4or5 years till another county triumph. i know there is a good management team there, but maybe we need someone new and fresh with new ideas? any suggestions???

[Lone Shark]

Ultimately last Sunday saw Rynagh's key players - Mulhare/Kelly/McIntyre/Woods ect all underperform, while for Kinnitty the lads that are of prime hurling age stepped up and delivered. It's all very well winning underage titles, but you need the senior players to step up and lead them, and that didn't happen.

However I suspect that there's no quick fix - Rynagh's will still have in all likelihood no outfield Offaly panellists - let alone starters - next year, and it's hard beat a Birr or Coolderry team with that. Or even a well drilled and motivated Kinnitty side. Any change of management is just deckchairs on the Titanic I suspect.

[turk]

it's not good enough from rynaghs

yet again, we seem to never produce is at senior level! i reckon it could be another 4or5 years till another county triumph. i know there is a good management team there, but maybe we need someone new and fresh with new ideas? any suggestions???

bring back john keegan