Killavilla 2-12 Tullamore 1-15

[Lone Shark]

The group stages of the Offaly senior club hurling championship were finally concluded in low key circumstances on Sunday morning in Kilcormac, and the closing act turned out to be the one and only draw played out in any of the three groups this year. Coolderry’s twelve point win over Durrow on Friday evening ensured that the four intermediate semi finalists were all senior clubs, and so with no team eligible for promotion in 2005, the threat of relegation no longer remained, and these clubs both knew that at worst they would still be hurling at senior level in 2006.

Only Killavilla of the two had the chance to prolong their 2005 senior hurling campaign, and though Ray Fitzpatrick’s fantastic late overhead strike would have been worthy of winning any game, referee Noel Flynn’s decision to play a mere nine seconds of injury time meant that all it did was stave off defeat, as neither side was given a chance to go on and take the winning score. No doubt there will be Killavilla followers who will feel their side were denied an opportunity to secure a playoff, but in truth they had been on the back foot for most of the half, and even though Tullamor were playing with fourteen men, the town side would have been the more likely team to raise a decisive flag.

Though it was a pleasant summer’s morning, and no doubt an attractive alternative to Sunday morning mass to many in the crowd, there was a deceptively strong breeze blowing from the road end of the pitch, and Killavilla had the advantage and wasted no time in making it pay. Darragh Hogan was always likely to be their main threat, lining out at centre forward, and he wasted no time in making his presence felt, Straight from the throw in he won a breaking ball and floated it over from 60 metres out, and then straight away caught the resulting puckout and was fouled, giving Ray Fitzpatrick his first converted free of the game.

Tullamore with their younger and faster team looked to take on the Killavilla backs by running at them, and though they were creating chances, they needed an early score to settle. After three early wides, they took the lead on ten minutes. A high ball into the full forward line was not dealt with, dropping in behind Kevin Martin and two Killavilla defenders, and Pe Kelly slipped in behind to rise the ball and shoot under Niall Meagher. This seemed to relieve the pressure on the Tullamore players, and points from Shane and Pe Kelly followed to push them further in front.

Tullamore were having to work very hard for their scores, and once Killavilla went on top, with the elements in their favour they were always likely to find the scores easier to come by. They dominated the second quarter of the game, scores from Fitzpatrick, Eoin Quinlan, Kevin King, and Darragh Hogan putting them back in front before Shane Dooley broke the run with a free. Fitzpatrick and Hogan again registered scores before the half time whistle however to leave the interval score at 0-8 to 1-3. Tullamore will have felt a little bit hard done by at that, because they gave themselves more than enough chances to be at least level. Eight wides to only four scores in the first half is not a ratio that will please their management team, and they could easily have had a second goal when Gearóid Ó’Grady burst through but his shot was well smothered by goalkeeper Niall Meaghar at close range.

The second half began with Darragh Hogan repeating his first half trick of scoring within seconds of the restart, though this was soon cancelled out a Shane Dooley score. Meaghar in goals again kept his team in front by making another close range save, this time from Pe Kelly who was on his own in front of goals after a fine ground ball across the goals from Kevin Martin came to him.

Kevin Martin’s next contribution was with 36 minutes on the clock, and was not so positive. An altercation with Michael Carroll left the Killavilla player on the ground seeking treatment, and after one of the umpires got the referee’s attention, clearly unsavoury play was the verdict as the former All Star was given a straight red card. The two players had been clashing regularly throughout the game, but Martin’s actions threatened to have a big part in handing the advantage to Killavilla. That it didn’t transpire as such was largely down to a baffling decision by the Killavilla management to leave the spare man operating in the full back line until the end, when most of Tullamore’s scores were coming, wind assisted, from the half forward line and midfield. For the rest of the game, the extra man had little or no effect on the game, and was an opportunity to influence the game that was missed by Killavilla.

Shane Dooley with two frees and Shane Kelly again put Tullamore briefly in front before the second goal of the game was scored. Enda Dooley went on a burst, had a good shot saved by Seán Martin, but substitute David King was on hand to crash the rebound home.
Tullamore kept their momentum up though, and the scores kept coming. Dooley and Fitzpatrick exchanged frees, before James Keane, Shane Kelly, and Ó’Grady put over a succession of fine points to retake the lead. John Phelan had been moved up from corner back to the forwards, and he levelled matters before two Dooley frees and O’Grady again put three points between the sides. Fitzpatrick converted another free, before Pe Kelly hit what looked to be the final score from 65 metres after a well directed block down by Cillian Bane.

The final and best score of the game was yet to come though. Peter Hogan lofting a high ball into the danger area, and in a sea of hurls looking to make contact, it was Ray Fitzpatrick who got the decisive strike and left Sean Martin with no chance. Though the final whistle meant that it was their last act of the 2005 Offaly senior hurling championship, at least it was a fine closing act.

Teams:

Killavilla: Niall Meagher; John Phelan (0-1), Michael Carroll, Brian King; Bryan Buckley, Eoin Meagher, Peter Hogan; Eoin Quinlan (0-1), Eamon Phelan; Liam Dunphy, Darragh Hogan (0-4), Enda Dooley; John Dooley, Ray Fitzpatrick (1-5, 0-5 frees), Kevin King (0-1).

Subs: David King (1-0) for Kevin King, Brendan Hogan for Liam Dunphy.

Tullamore: Seán Martin; Alan Martin, Padraic Feeney, Stephen Egan; Cillian Bane, Nigel Mannion, Benny Dagg; Shane Dooley (0-7, 0-6 frees), James Keane (0-1); Shane Kelly (0-3), John Rouse, Gearóid Ó’Grady (0-2); Damien Fox, Kevin Martin, Pe Kelly (1-2).

Sub: Paul McConway for Damien Fox

Referee: Noel Flynn

[As Such Ger]

Hi Lone Shark,

Just in case you are using this for the papers or whatever, the ref was not Noel Flynn, it was Catch Buckley from Clara...

[Lone Shark]

Good man - cheers. Another instance of someone falling for the programme......

[Treasurer]

Would you say the group stages are concluded? Isn't their a play off in that group yet?

[Lone Shark]

There is, and one left in Group one as well.

However the league games are concluded, and it suited the paragraph to write it that way, so I did.