Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve

MATCH ANALYSIS

By Shane Brophy

They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but in the space of two years in a Croke Cup semi-final, it did for Nenagh CBS.

Two years ago against St Raphael’s College in Tulla, with five minutes of added time played, Nenagh led 3-13 to 1-17 when Eoghan Doughan was harshly penalised for overcarrying when he was fouled initially. From the resultant free, Paddy Mac Carthaigh brought the Loughrea side within one before Thomas Stafford levelled. Extra time looked likely but from the resultant puckout, Cullen Killeen rose high to win the ball before bursting forward to point from the wing to break Nenagh’s hearts.

Last Saturday, it was almost exactly the same, Nenagh were leading 2-15 to 1-15 going into added time (no fourth official’s board to know how much time was left). Nenagh goalkeeper Paddy McCormack was clattered after dealing with a devilish delivery that dropped just under the crossbar, yet no free was awarded with play allowed to continue until the referee spotted the keeper was down and called the play dead. Instead of a relieving free to Nenagh, it was a indirect free to St Kieran’s which they scored from, their third point in a row and with it another shot of momentum.

Nenagh were hanging on and after Conor McEvoy converted a long range free, David Barcoe played a captains role by landing a superb point from distance to bring the sides level in the 64th minute.

Nenagh would have taken extra time at that stage, as would St. Kieran’s, but there was more time and when the momentum is with you, so are the breaks with Ben Nevin’s long ball into the square, it died landing on the soft pitch, instead of running on to Paddy McCormack, falling invitingly to Dan Carroll to flick home the winning goal.

Nenagh had one last chance to attack, but you knew then and there the game was done.

It was a cruel way for Nenagh CBS to lose a game they didn’t deserve to. They were much the better team for the vast majority of the match but St Kieran’s College and Kilkenny hurling tradition is such that they never give in, producing a devastating finish to set up a Croke Cup final date with Presentation College, Athenry in Croke Park.

That is the hard part for Nenagh to take, the prize of playing at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day is massive and for the second time in three years they had it ripped away from them.

First of all, credit to St Kieran’s for sticking at it when things were going against them, particularly the two goals in the space of five second half minutes from Joe O’Dwyer and Eanna Tucker which looked to set Nenagh on the road to victory.

They were two brilliant finishes from the duo who tormented the Kieran’s defence all through with O’Dwyer creating Tucker’s goal and also won a number of frees in a man of the match performance.

Skipper Eoghan Doughan chipped in with his usual strong contribution of eight points, three from play, but crucially he along with Patrick Hackett weren’t as prominent as in previous matches.

The fact that Nenagh were giving up a lot of size in attack to the Kieran’s backs such as Louis Raggett, Ben Nevin, Bill McDermott and skipper David Barcoe, a Kilkenny senior to played against Cork the previous week, hadn’t shown up to that point but did in the closing stages.

The Nenagh management have trusted their squad throughout the campaign, doing so again with Cillian Healy, who hadn’t featured since the group stage win over Cashel in November, thrust into the team at midfield from the start and was tremendous, particularly in the first half, along side the always industrious Austin Duff.

They went to their bench again as the game went on with Hugo Healy and Tom Boland in particular coming into good effect but they might regret one of the players they took off being Patrick Hackett.

The big full forward hadn’t been impacting the game up to his 44th minute substitution but his physical presence would have come in handy in the closing quarter when Nenagh’s forwards started to come under pressure in the ball-winning stakes.

Management is a tough game and you make calls for the right reasons but this is one they might have loved to have back.

If Nenagh had held on, the all the talk would have been about the depth of the panel and their tactical savviness with Patrick Ryan redeployed to sweeper in the early in the second half to great effect when Kieran’s had threatened to cut Nenagh open through the middle.

Once again, players responded who might have been under pressure beforehand responded; Eanna Tucker subbed off at half time in Harty final was magnificent at corner forward. Diarmuid Fogarty at corner back had his best game of the campaign while defensively as the whole Nenagh were superb holding a talented St Kieran’s attack to just one score from play in the first half.

Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be and the Croke Cup for this group of players seem to be it, however, they are a history making bunch of players that have brought the Harty Cup back to Nenagh for the first time and twice in three years; something that can never be taken for them.