Barrett Cup Final
Austin Stacks 0-15 Waterville 0-15
Barrett Cup Final goes to a replay following a nail biting encounter in Killorglin last Sunday at lunchtime. At the end of the day neither team deserved to lose, and the final whistle was the best whistle of the day. We lined out with 31 players available for selection. Shane Beagley was very good between the sticks with the highlight of his game being a powerful point blank save about 10 minutes before end of normal time. Our Full back line had ‘Tango and Cash’ Liam Walsh and Brian Kearney aided by Paul Galvin, Half backs consisted of bull-dog Seanie Power, Tommy ‘Twinkle toes’ McLoughlin and centre back one of our other ‘pairings’ Starsky and Hutch’ Anthony Shanahan, while ‘Hutch’ being Theo Diggin @ half forward, our young centre field pairing was Shane ‘Rocky’ Crowley and Ciaran O’Connell, Paul ‘legs’ McGannon and Alan ‘Fancy’ Duggan made up half forwards while Martin ‘Top-Gun’Courtney was flanked by Pat ‘Pretty-Boy’ Costelloe and David ‘Jack Russell’ Courtney. Our strong bench consisted of Fergal Maunsell, Dave ‘Charmer’ Varley, Richie ‘Gold Dust’ Conway, Kevin ‘Jasper-ween’ O’Carroll, Fergal ‘Oscar’ Kirby, Tom Healy, Stephen Walsh, Boris Ivanov, Steven Kelly, Maurice Kelter, Padraig Breen, Pat Morgan while a few injured lads were also on the line to help out, Peter ‘sonny-boy-pop’ Williams was of great assistance to Kevin while Micheal Hogan and Garry ‘Gazza’ O’ Connor was also about.
I suppose, in some respects you could say it was the ‘Courtney Show’ as the brothers were just supreme on this day, not missing a trick and indeed they have strong links to the opposition with their Uncle playing wing back and their dad, Frank, starting his football days in the red and white before moving to Tralee and playing with the Rock. We were slow into the game and Waterville were fast to put scores on the board with a point from play in the 1st minute swiftly followed by a point from a 14yd free in the 2nd minute. Theo ‘Hutch’ Diggin opened the scoring for us with a point from play in the 8th minute. Another 14yd free to Waterville was pointed in the 10th minute. Quick thinking by Pat ‘Pretty-Boy’ Costelloe ( who was very sick with flu) took a fast free and found David Courtney, who picked out Shane ‘Rocky’ Crowley, who pointed well. The resulting kick out was won by Ciaran who found Martin Courtney, who in turn laid it off to David for his 1st point from play. Then in the 19th Tommy McLoughlin came storming forward to pick up a pass from Ciaran to point well again from play. Two minutes later and Waterville levelled again with a point from play, it was end to end stuff and in the 27th minute Rocky Crowley picked off David Courtney for another fine point from play. Half-time and we led 5pts to 4 and had picked up a couple of harsh bookings to boot.
Waterville were quick to settle in on restart and scored immediately to level up things again. We dominated for the next 15 minutes with Top-Gun pointing a free from 35yds after Ciaran was fouled in the 33rd, the 36th and Martin pointed from play, while David pointed well from play in the 39th and 41st minutes, we were really playing well at this stage. Just after this, the only dirty challenge of the match took place, with Shane Crowley being taken out of it with an elbow to the head, this knocked the stuffing out of Shane who was playing well. At this stage we had brought on Fergal Maunsell 38th minute and Dave Varley in the 40th. Waterville hit the ground running and scored 4 points, 2 from play and 2 more from frees. Another 14 yd free in the 53rd put Waterville ahead and we picked up another booking, upto 5 now.
David Courtney squared things up in the 54th but yet another soft free followed in the 57th minute to put Waterville ahead. The final minute and another free to The Rock, 42 yards out and left of the post, up stepped Martin ‘Top-Gun’ not a bother Courtney to slot just inside the post. Final whistle and all square, 11 points each and extra time to be played. Fergal Maunsell put us in front 2 minutes into extra time but not to be out done Waterville responded with 3 points, 1xfree, 1 from play and 1 x 45′ this was followed by the score of the match, a point from 50 yds by top-gun, Waterville added another on 69, while David Courtney hand passed over in the 70th minute after receiving a pass from Maunsell. The second period of extra time, and 2 teams that had given their all, The Rock a point down, but not out.
It was end to end and Dave ‘Charmer’ Varley was in the thick of things, unlucky twice, while Tommy Mc was also unlucky not to add to his tally. A couple of minutes from time and up stepped that man again, Martin ‘Top-Gun’ to slot over another free to level things up again 15points each and eventually the final whistle came. On a difficult day, a draw was the fairest result all round, fine performances in the backs by ‘Tango’ Kearney and ‘Bull-dog’ Seanie, while ‘Cash’ Walsh was steady, up front needless to say Martin Courtney and Man of the Match David Courtney were outstanding. Paul McGannon fought hard and Theo ran his socks off. We have plenty of room for improvement and we look forward to replay. A SPECIAL word of ‘THANKS’ to ALL the supporters who took the time out to support us on a Sunday which had a lot going on. I must say both Seanie and Myself appreciated the support and the the Texts from some of the senior panel who wished us luck and we’d like to congratulate the Hurlers on a marvellous victory and the Senior footballers on their victory. We expect to complete the hat trick as soon as replay is fixed. Our training resumes Wednesday night at 6-15pm with a lot of lads fighting for places. It’s Coming Home…….Barrett Cup is coming HOME!!!