Holders edge home
Gorey see off stiff test from Rathnure
THE PETTITT’S Senior hurling championship title-holders got their defence off to a winning start, but they were made to battle all the way to the death by Rathnure in Bellefield on Friday.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise that this one was close. Despite how their seasons eventually ended, the Blackstairs club beat Naomh Eanna in the opening round of the championship last year and weren’t too far away from repeating the feat this time around.
While they are frightfully inconsistent, Rathnure are no mugs against good teams. Their workrate was exceptional, especially when they got on top after half-time, but it was more than just hard work.
They started to win all the breaks and completely bossed the middle third of the field in this Group B tie.
Of course, part of that is the desire for the battle, to win those one-on-ones, but their game intelligence was off the charts. While Gorey were reactionary, Rathnure were anticipatory.
Yet Naomh Eanna aren’t county champions by fluke, and when they needed their big players to stand up and get a grip on things, they did.
Conor McDonald, in particular, put his team on his back and drove them over the finish line just when a hero was needed.
With Rory Higgins and Ciarán O’Connor on the board early, Rathnure opened up a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after four minutes.
It was four-each just three minutes later as David O’Brien, Charlie McGuckin and Aodhán Doyle all converted.
After eight scores in seven minutes, there was only twelve more in the next 23. Naomh Eanna struck the front first, after Pádraig Doyle pointed, before McDonald collected a long, searching Jack Cullen pass and dispatched it past Dermot Flynn at the second attempt.
Naomh Eanna already had six wides on the board when McGuckin was twice denied by Flynn.
Rathnure weren’t creating the same goal chances but they were picking off their points, and when O’Connor notched his fourth in the 22nd minute his side were level (0-9 to 1-6).
Close calls were going against Gorey at this stage and their luck was typified in the 29th minute when McDonald broke onto the ball inside.
He was one-on-one, only for the whistle to go for a free in when his side desperately needed an advantage.
Pádraig Doyle converted to give them a 1-9 to 0-10 lead at the break.
The second-half was even tighter. Rathnure came out of the blocks quickly, and O’Connor notched their first four points of the half to give the Enniscorthy District side a 0-14 to 1-10 lead after 38 minutes.
Given how they were playing in the middle third, at that stage it would have been inconceivable to think they would go 15 minutes without a score.
They did but Gorey registered just twice in that time, through McDonald and a Cathal Dunbar line ball, to go one up.
Three times in the final ten minutes Rathnure brough themselves level, including a 60th-minute equaliser from O’Connor.
However, when Pádraig Doyle was fouled on the right of goal, 30 metres out, Darragh Hughes converted the 65th-minute free to win it for Gorey.
Naomh Eanna: Barry Kinsella; Peter Travers, Brendan Travers (capt.), Tom Stafford; Jack Cullen, Seán Doyle, Eoin Molloy; Aodhán Doyle (0-1), Gary Molloy; Charlie McGuckin (0-1), Pádraig Doyle (0-3, 2 frees), Darragh Hughes (0-3, 2 frees); Conor McDonald (1-4), David O’Brien (0-1), Cathal Dunbar (0-2, 1 line ball). Sub. - Jack Cushe for O’Brien (47).
Rathnure: Dermot Flynn; Mark Boland, Eoin Boggan, Cathal O’Connor; Paddy Whiteley (0-1), Pádraig Doyle, Micheál O’Connor; Michael Redmond (0-3), Eoin Higgins; Shane Lawlor (0-1), Ciarán O’Connor (capt., 0-9, 7 frees), Richie Flynn (0-1); Jason Lawlor, James Tobin (0-1), Rory Higgins (0-1). Subs. - Kiall Byrne for J. Lawlor (53), Aidan Redmond for R. Flynn (59), Lawlor for M. Redmond, inj. (60+2).
Referee: Gearóid McGrath (St. James’).