Spirited Counsel comeback falls short
ST. KIERAN’S (KILKENNY) 2-11 GOOD COUNSEL (NEW ROSS) 2-7
GOOD COUNSEL showed great spirit to battle back against St. Kieran’s in the Leinster Schools Juvenile hurling ‘A’ league final, but it wasn’t quite enough in Thomastown on Thursday.
The New Ross boys were up against the cream of the province and acquitted themselves well. While it wasn’t their best performance, there’s more in there, but it was enough to show they will be right in play for championship glory in the coming weeks.
Good Counsel were hampered by missing the ill Danny Glennon, a key weapon in their attacking arsenal. They did have Eoin Whelan and had to resort to using him further forward than they might have liked because of Glennon’s absence.
His impact when playing in the attack was clear for all to see, but it did leave them a little small defensively and it fell to Will Foley in the Counsel goal to make several excellent saves in the second-half to keep his side in the contest.
Good Counsel notched the opening two points from dead-balls, with Whelan and Harry Codd on target.
However, the Kilkenny stronghold registered the next 2-5 without reply, as Conor Dooley slipped the opening goal in from distance and the impressive Harry Shine also found the net.
The best score of that spell probably came from Bill Hughes, as he took a stunning catch on his own ‘65, stepped into a yard of space and nailed a booming point as St. Kieran’s eased 2-5 to 0-2 in front.
Codd knocked over a couple of frees before the break but Shine replied in kind as his side retained their nine-point advantage.
Despite two Whelan points, his team were double-digits behind until he drilled a 20-metre free low to the net in the 42nd minute.
Foley made a great save from David Williams and two more from Shine as he kept Good Counsel in the game.
After Eoghan Lyng knocked over a closerange free, Whelan cracked in another major to pull his side within four, but it was too little, too late for a dramatic recovery.
Good Counsel: Will Foley (Horeswood); Joe Mulholland (The Rower-Inistioge), Peter McDonald (Mullinavat), James Quinn (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown); Bill Nunan (Fethard), Eoin Whelan (Fethard, 2-3, 1-2 frees), C.J. Fitzpatrick (Mullinavat); Joe Devlin (Bannow-Ballymitty), Cillian Byrne (Fethard); Cathal Parker (Horeswood), Harry Codd (Rathnure, 0-3 frees), Kyle Rankin (St. Fintan’s); Eoghan Lyng (The Rower-Inistioge, 0-1 free), Matthew Murphy (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown), James Doyle (St. Mullins). Subs. - Ciarán McPhillips (St. James’) for Rankin, inj. (31), Cathal Mooney (Tullogher-Rosbercon) for Fitzpatrick (42), Conor Bolger (The Rower-Inistioge) for Codd (42), Jamie Lyng (The Rower-Inistioge) for Murphy (45).
St. Kieran’s: Barry Dunne; Mark Holohan, Mick Carroll, Seán Roberts; Billy Dowling, Bill Hughes (0-1), Johnny Keane; Killian Doyle, Tim Kelly; Conor Dooley (1-0), Pádraig Naddy, Seán Keenan; Tom McPhillips, Ben Whitty, Harry Shine (1-10, 0-8 frees, 0-1 ‘65). Subs. - Niall Shortall for McPhillips (35), Rory Glynn for Roberts (39), David Williams for Naddy (39), Thomas Brennan for Holohan (57).
Referee: Ronan Devaney (Laois).