Wicklow hurlers power past Longford
THE gulf between the hurling worlds was evident in Kilcoole on Sunday when Wicklow blew away the challenge of their Longford opponents in the Kehoe Cup clash.
The Nicky Rackard Cup side held their own for 25 minutes, but an unanswered 1-04 in the last 10 minutes of the opening half put Wicklow firmly on the front foot and with the addition of Andy O’Brien and Warren Kavanagh at the break there was only ever going to be one winner.
The ability to use players who have played in the higher-level competitions (Walsh Cup) brings a certain unevenness to the playing field, but Seamus Murphy won’t be complaining as he used 10 subs throughout the game which included the welcome sight of Stephen ‘Chester’ Kelly who has committed to the small ball game for 2018 in what is a huge boost for Wicklow hurling ahead of the national league.
Performances on the day will have to be judged with the quality of the opposition to the fore in the evaluations, but there was still a job to be done and done it was, with Wicklow’s second half showing being quite impressive given the wholehearted changes made in personnel.
One man who was looking sprightly throughout and who finished with 2-04 on the day was George O’Brien at full-forward. The St Pat’s attacker has surely nailed down a starting spot in the inside line with this positive 70 minutes following a decent showing in Louth the previous week.
Andy’s introduction gave the inside line an altogether more venomous look for the second half and caused a real headache for the Longford defence.
There was a nip and tuck feel to the opening quarter hour. Longford’s Patrick Walsh opened the scoring after three minutes from a free and he added a second after five with George O’Brien’s opener arriving in between after the Wicklow full-forward win the ball superbly before rifling over the Longford crossbar.
A long ball from the impressive John Connors provided O’Brien with the chance of his second score a moment later and the determined St Pat’s man obliged to make it 0-02 to 0-02 in front of a small crowd at the well ordained Kilcoole venue.
Wicklow opened a 0-04 to 0-02 lead after 12 minutes with Gerry Connors and James Cranley adding to the home side’s tally while Longford were coughing up opportunities early on with Walsh, who has an uncertain looking free-taking routine, being guilty of four wides in this period.
The visitors took the lead after 18 minutes when Sean Stakelum – with strong connections to Tipperary – got in behind Billy Cuddihy before lashing home past Bob Fitzgerald to make it 1-02 to 0-04.
Unfortunately for Colum O’Meara’s men, they registered two quick wides after this excellent major and their momentum was spoiled.
A lovely move up the field saw Wicklow grab the equaliser with 20 on the clock. Bob Fitzgerald picked out his Annacurra col- league Martin O’Brien who horsed the ball up the field to Eoin McCormack. The Bray man picked out Gerry Connors who split the posts with a beauty.
With Patrick Walsh proving under the weather when it came to placed balls, Longford switched the free-taking duties to centre half-back Daire Duggan and the burly defender dropped over a 65 to return Longford to the lead after 22.
A fine Seanie Germaine catched resulted in the lofty attacker being fouled and James Cranley pointed the free to make it all square again.
Longford tried switching things up in their attack and sent in Shane O’Brien for Johnny Casey after 27 minutes but Wicklow got a major boost after 28 minutes when a long hopeful ball from Ronan Keddy was tapped home by the flying Seanie Germaine to make it 1-06 to 1-03.
On his home patch the hard-working Keddy drove over a fine point a moment later and then a beast of a point from the fired-up Garry Byrne was followed by a John Connors effort and Wicklow led at the break by 1-09 to 1-03 with Longford leaving plenty of scored behind them with a worrying wide count.
Seamus Murphy and his management team decided it was time for the big guns and Andy O’Brien and Warren Kavanagh emerged for the second half in place of James Cranley and Shane Doyle.
Garry Byrne continued his fine performance at half-back with a tasty effort from the sideline to add to John Connors’ converted free two minutes into the second half to give Wicklow a healthy 1-11 to 1-03 lead.
Longford’s reshuffled pack, which included their full-forward dropping to wing back, the fullback to midfield and their midfielder to full-forward, were unable to gain any real sort of traction in the second half thanks to a hungry Wicklow defence for the most part and a chronic lack of supply too, it must be said.
A George O’Brien point thanks to a Warren Kavanagh ball was followed by the introduction of Anto Byrne for Gerry Connors and 1-01 from Andy O’Brien that finished the game as a contest and made it 2-13 to 1-04 after 13 minutes.
Wicklow rang the changes from here on in with players like Oisin Furlong, Darragh Maloney, Enda Donohue, Paul O’Brien, Christy Moorehouse Junior, Conor McNally and Stephen Kelly all getting game time.
Warren Kavanagh dropped over a bomb from deep for one of the scores of the game after 16 minutes and from here on in it was pretty much all Wicklow with Emmet Byrne, Luke Evans, and Enda Donohue all pointing before George O’Brien took control of the situation and hammered home 2-01 to put an end to the scoring and leave Wicklow as convincing winners at 3-19 to 1-06.
Longford played DCU/St Pat’s last night (Tuesday) to see who will meet Wicklow in the Kehoe Cup final. A draw would have been enough to see Longford through.
Anything other than a Wicklow win will be a shock from the decider, but it will provide another chance for Seamus Murphy to have a look at his panel and, hopefully, it will also give the county hurlers a timely boost as they set sail into the challenging and choppy national league waters in the coming weeks.
Scorers – Wicklow: George O’Brien 2-04, Andy O’Brien 1-02 (2f), Seanie Germaine 1-00, Garry Byrne 0-02, James Cranley 0-02 (1f), Ronan Keddy 0-01, Gerry Connors 0-02, John Connors 0-02 (1f), Warren Kavanagh 0-01, Emmet Byrne 0-01, Luke Evans 0-01, Enda Donohue 0-01 (f).
Longford: Patrick Walsh 0-04 (3f), Sean Stakelum 1-00, Daire Duggan 0-01 (65), Karl Murray 0-01.
Wicklow: Bob Fitzgerald; Martin O’Brien, Billy Cuddihy, Emmet Byrne; Shane Doyle, Peter Keane, Garry Byrne; Ronan Keddy, John Connors; Luke Evans, Gerry Connors, Eoin McCormack; James Cranley, George O’Brien, Seanie Germaine. Subs: Andy O’Brien for J Cranley (H/T), Warren Kavanagh for S Doyle (H/T), Anto Byrne for G Connors (46min), Oisin Furlong for E Byrne (57min), Darragh Maloney for M O’Brien (57min), Enda Donohue for J Connors (60min), Paul O’Brien for E McCormack (60min), Christy Moorehouse Jnr for G Byrne (60min), Conor McNally for B Fitzgerald (64min), Stephen Kelly for R Keddy (inj, 64min).
Longford: Eanna Daly; Aidan Sheridan, Karl Murray, Paddy Corcoran; Gerard Moore, Daire Duggan, Daniel Connell; Bart Hanley, Patrick Walsh; Sean Stakelum, Seamus Hannon, Johnny Casey; John Mulhern, Jody Leonard, Reuben Murray. Subs: Shane O’Brien for J Casey (27), Paul Leonard for G Moore (49min), Ray O’Brien for J Leonard (53min), Michael Farrell for B Hanley (60min), Declan Lee for D Connell (60min).
Referee: Thomas Gleeson (Dublin)