South Kerry Hurling League: Duagh 1-15; Austin Stacks 1-12.
When the two sides met in the earlier round of the competition in Connolly Park we had a good ten points win (3-14 to 2-7) but Duagh reversed that result on this Wednesday evening (8th Aug) on their home turf with a well-deserved three points victory in the final round of the South Kerry League. The result means that both teams have ended up on top of the table with six points each, which means that the sides will now have to meet again in the League Final.
You could say that Duagh won this game in the opening four minutes of the contest when they went into a 1-1 to no score lead. We trailed the home side for all of the first half and went in at the break five points in arrears (1-7 to 0-5).
The closest we came to our opponents was eight minutes into the second half when we came within a point of the home side (1-8 to 1-9). That came when Johnny Downey (who really gave a Man of the Match performance all through) won possession and found Paul Daly and Paul’s perfect delivery into square was connected beautifully by Danny McGuire to guide the sliothar to the net for the score of the game. Credit to Duagh, however, who responded well with three unanswered points, and even though we never gave in – outscoring the opposition by four points to two in the final quarter – we just couldn’t get over that poor opening four minutes of the game.
It was great to see Denny O’Regan back in action again after a long absence, Denny, together with his brothers David and Jonathan, was part of the great Rock teams of the naughties and indeed, before that, the late nineties. And maybe we shouldn’t say it, but it was Denny’s brother, David, who was the main man in the formation of the Duagh Hurling Club back in noughties.
We now await a date, time and venue for the South Kerry League Final against Duagh.
Team: John Connelly, Kevin O’Leary, Ciarán Breen, Tadhg Meehan (Capt), Johnny Downey, Andrew Foley, Andrew Morrissey, Cillian O’Riordan (0-2), Paul Daly (0-6 – three frees), Ronan Gilsenan, Colm Ó Giollagáin (0-3 – one free), Daniel Teahan (0-1), Thomas Meehan, Danny McGuire (1-0), Peter O’Regan.
Subs used: William Brick (36m), Denny O’Regan (47m), Daniel McCarthy (52m).