GAA Notes 27th August 2013

Post date: Sep 08, 2013 7:40:18 PM

Sponsored by Tallow Area Credit Union

Senior Hurling

Tallow 2-10 De La Salle 0-13

We scored our first win over De La Salle in many years last Saturday night in Dungarvan to book our place in the knockout stages of the senior hurling championship for another year. Despite the (mostly idiotic) rumours that surrounded the game, we played with a focus, determination and intelligence that ensured victory. It must be said too that we played with a lot of courage and by this I mean that our defenders and midfield weren't afraid to pick out a man with a shorter or low crossing ball. When this type of ball goes wrong there's often audible groans from the gallery towards the man who played it whereas if a defender lashes the ball up in the air then the forward is blamed for not winning it.

Two Paul Kearney frees sent us on our way before the Cleaboy men responded with a point after six minutes. Thomas Ryan then had his first goal shortly after this and gave us a four point lead after twelve minutes. De la Salle hit back by winning a penalty on the quarter hour mark but Sean O Sullivan pulled off an excellent save to keep the green flag quiet. A De La Salle free shortly afterwards narrowed our lead but then a pinpoint crossfield pass from Shane Feeney found the hand of Thomas Ryan behind the De La Salle rearguard and he made no mistake with a cracking goal to stretch our lead to six points. Two more De La Salle frees ate into our lead before we had Sean O Sullivan to thank again with another superb save. The Cleaboy men scored another point on twenty seven minutes to reduce our lead to a goal but we finished the half very strongly with the Kearney twins picking up where they left off last week with three points between them. The halftime score was 2-5 to 5 points.

We started the second half with a degree of purpose winning two frees in the first five minutes which Paul Kearney slotted over but three De La Salle points in succession brought our lead back to five after ten minutes of the second half. Another Paul Kearney free was answered by a De La Salle point which in turn was replied to with a Shane Mc Carthy point. We were getting on top defensively now with James Murray and Tom Mc Grath sweeping well and Fada coming more into the game and our six point lead was restored on twenty one minutes by an amazing point from out on the right touchline by William Henley. The effort of the first twenty minutes of the second half led to us tiring as the game entered the closing stages and De La Salle did our heartrates little favour by pushing on and scoring the last three points of the game. You felt though that only a goal would bring them back into it and we were disciplined defensively to make sure that they never got this chance. The final whistle reflected a job well done and a three point win.

Team: S O Sullivan, T Mc Grath, M O Brien, K kearney, J Murray, D O Brien, B Henley, K Geary, R O Sullivan, W Curley, P O Brien, A Kearney, S Feeney, P Kearney, T Ryan. Subs used W Henely, S Mc Carthy.

We now move on to face Mount Sion in the quarter final which will be played on the weekend of September 14th. It goes without saying that we will be underdogs for this game but as Woody Allen would say, ninety per cent of success is about turning up and we will arrive with a plan and bit of battling spirit and who knows where that will take us.