South Kerry SH Championship: Kilgarvan 4-13; Austin Stacks 1-8.
Our Hurlers lost their first game of the season, going down to a strong Kilgarvan side, in the final of the South Kerry SH Championship played at Lewis Road on this Saturday afternoon (15th Oct).
Kilgarvan were three points up inside the first six minutes but then we got into the game with Andrew Morrissey putting over our first score a minute later. Colm Ó Giollagáin added two more from frees after he himself was fouled and likewise Ciarán Breen. Then in the 12th minute James Smullen kicked over a beauty to put us in the lead for the first time. Kilgarvan restored their lead with two more points, but Colm equalized again in the 20th minute – a massive long-ranged free after Ciarán was fouled again.
Two minutes later, however, came the first of Kilgarvan’s goals to be followed by two more points to leave them five clear at half time (1-7 to 0-5).
We had an ideal start to the second half when Paul Daly found the net from a brilliantly taken penalty, awarded after a melee in the square. Points were then exchanged by the 5th minute, ours coming from a huge effort by Ciarán Breen after some super play by Andrew Morrissey, what a game Andrew had in his familiar number 7 jersey. But in the space of the next minute this game was put out of our reach when Kilgarvan banged in two more goals. This extended their lead to eight points (3-8 to 1-6) and in the remaining 23 minutes of the game they added a further 1-5 while our contribution was just two more points, both from Colm Ó Giollagáin frees.
The scoreline might suggest that our defence was suspect but nothing could be further from the truth. Seán Hartnett, for example, making his first competitive appearance in goals, made a string of superb saves and was served for a lot of the time during the course of the hour with some super defending.
Peter Doyle, Colm Ó Giollagáin and Kevin O’Leary picked up slight knocks during the course of the game and we wish all three a full and speedy recovery.
Team: Seán Hartnett, Kevin O’Leary, Peter O’Regan, Seán King, Johnny Downey, Paul Daly (1-0 pen), Andrew Morrissey (0-1), Andrew Foley (Capt), Ciarán Breen (0-1), James Smullen (0-1), Killian O’Riordan, Colm Ó Giollagáin (0-5 frees), Peter Doyle, Francie McLoughlin, Ronan Gilsenan
Subs used: Ian Moynihan (33m), Labhrás Long (44m), Tadhg Meehan (48m), Eamon Browne (49m), John Connolly (53m).
It was a pity that we were on the losing side on this occasion, as 20 years ago almost to the day – well to the month and a day to be precise (16th Nov 1996) – we won the South Kerry SH Championship against the same opposition. Making his SH debut on that day in the Dr. Crokes alternative pitch at Deerpark was a 16 year old who has given unbelievable service to the Hurlers since then and he was there again today giving his all for the cause, and that was the outstanding Peter O’Regan (see separate paragraph below).
Now it’s one more competition to be concluded and that’s the SH Co. League (Div 3) Final between ourselves and Duagh which is due to go ahead in Connolly Park on next Saturday afternoon (22nd Oct) at 4pm.
THE1996 TEAM: The team that lined out in Deerpark, Killarney (Dr. Crokes second pitch) in the 2-9 to 0-11 victory over Kilgarvan on Saturday, 16th November 1996 – the day Peter O’Regan made his debut -was as follows: Tadhg O’Halloran, John Paddy O’Sullivan, Pat Dowling, Mike Tangney, PETER O’REGAN, Brendan Long, Joseph O’Connor (0-1), Pádraig Teahan (0-1), John Lyons, Darren Crotty, Joe Rogers (Capt) (0-3), Michael Callanan, Seán Holden, Kevin McNamara, Brian Neenan (1-4).
Sub used: Jonathan O’Regan (1-0).
The Team Management on that day was: Frank Courtney, Tadhg O’Halloran, Jim Gannon and Damien Hogan.
The following is an extract from the ‘Stacks Notes’ of that week. The team on the day was a nice blend of youth and experience. Making hugely impressive debuts were wing backs, Joseph O’Connor and Peter O’Regan. Indeed Peter was captain of our U14 winning Co. Championship team in 1994.’
And the other coincidence with that day was that of Tadhg O’Halloran’s involvement with the 1996 Management team, as well as being the goalkeeper – today Tadhg’s brother (Mike) is our Team Manager. And also on the panel that year was Seanie O’Leary, brother of today’s player, Kevin, and of Michael of today’s Masnagement team.