MURPHY’S SECOND HALF GOAL SECURES FINAL BERTH FOR KILLAVULLEN
Last Wednesday night Killavullen played Charleville in the semi-final of the Division 2 hurling league, and emerged victorious, but it was not always clear that they would do so.
Charleville opened the scoring on the night before Liam Cronin got our opening point, in the 6th minute and the same player scored a long range point in the 8th. Barry Murphy scored in the 9th minute before Charleville got a point back, only for Barry to score again in the 10th minute.
The returning from injury Ian O Gorman was showing up well in his centre forward berth at this stage and scored in the 12th minute, but Charleville stayed in touch with another point. Paul O Sullivan was next to score for us, before the pivotal moment of the 1st half occurred after Charlie Lillis and Paul combined well, and released the inrushing Eddie Cotter. His drive was direct and true and found the back of the net, though the young keeper from Charleville would have been clearly unsighted by the clever run of Pa Cronin across the box.
Jack O Connor scored a point in the 17th minute, but Charleville answered that with a point, then saw Barry Murphy cancel out that score, and next Charleville brought their tally to 0-05 in the 22nd minute.
Killavullen’s direct running from midfield was causing Charleville no end of problems, and we got 3 points in a row from frees, two from Barry and another long range effort from Liam Cronin, that dissected the goal posts, despite the trappy wind across the field.
Charleville got two quickfire points in the 28th minute; one after a short puck out went askew, to leave the gap at the break 1-11 to 0-07 in our favour.
Charleville, now playing with the slight wind advantage in the second half, made immediate inroads in the 1st and 2nd minutes but Jack O Connor slipped over a lovely point in the 5th minute to ease us into the scoring groove for the second period. Eddie Cotter scored in the 9th minute but Charleville got a goal in the 10th minute. A twenty one yard free was powerfully struck and evaded the five people on the line to bring their tally to 1-09 as against 1-13 for us.
From the puck out, the sliotar was worked quickly to Charlie Lillis to get in on the scoring act and a positive response to their goal. Charleville though were now right bang in the game when they scored 3 points without reply by the 16th minute. With only two points between the teams, our loyal supporters were glad of a Barry Murphy point only for Charleville to hit two points to bring only a solitary point between the teams in the 24th minute. Again Barry scored from out of the wing and then scored a free after a wild pull that caught Jack O Connor, high up on his thigh. Charleville got another back, but Killavullen backs, with Seamus Fox and Billy Norris very prominent got a ball quickly from defence to Barry to bring our tally to 1-18.
With Charleville pressing for the win, and leaving space behind, Pa Egan threaded another ball through to Barry in isolation. Barry Murphy, bearing down on goal is a bigger certainty to finish well, than any horse running in York last week, and he duly hammered the ball to the net, in off the cross bar. We needed that because Charleville repeated their scoring trick from another close in 21 yard free, but Liam Cronin ensured our win with a point in the 7th minute of injury time.
The final score was 2-19 to 2-15 in our favour. We will play the winners of Ballyhea V Fermoy in the Division 2 decider, at a date and venue to be arranged.
Team: 1. Cian Lankford 2. Billy Norris 3. Kevin Fox 4. Pa Angland 5. Pa Egan 6. Seamus Fox
7. Paul O Sullivan (0-01) 8. Eddie Cotter (1-01) 9. Charlie Lillis(0-01)
10. Liam Cronin (0-05, 0-02F) 11. Ian O Gorman (0-01) 12. Jack O Connor (0-02) 13. Tadgh Moakley
14. Pa Cronin 15. Barry Murphy (1-08, 0-04F)
Substitutes 16. Sean Woulfe for Pa Cronin 17. Garry Lane for Ian O Gorman (injured) 18. Stephen Rice for Charlie Lillis (injured)
JUNIORBCOMPETITIONEXIT
Killavullen, short a plethora of players, who played Junior A Football this year , went down to Buttevant on Saturday night last, in the Junior B football championship. On the night, no fault could be apportioned to the players that put on the blue and white jersey, and indeed, the junior A selectors were well impressed with the endeavours of the team.
The players available were, Padraig Coakley, Ed O Connor, Joshua Sheahan, Declan Cronin, Lukas Sheehan, who was just back from Canada, Sean Woulfe, Kevin O Connor, Niall O Keeffe, Timmy Ryan, Joe Howard, Jonathon Owens and Stephen Rice.
Niall scored two points on the night, and Sean got 1-01
Buttevant were sporting on the night as well, but their huge panel of 25 players had us looking over to their side of the fence in envy.
U16’S EXIT THE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Killavullen and Kilara Óg regrouped last night in Castletownroche for their U16 B1 grade football championship replay game, but this time Kilara did not let up in the second half and ran out worthy winners.
Kilara scored first in the second minute and their very dangerous full forward scored again after 6 minutes. We conceded a free in the 8th minute but got a lovely point back in the 10th minute courtesy of Seamus O Mahony. The middle of the field was extremely congested and clean possession was hard to come by. Darragh O Grady was a menace to the Kilara rear guard, and was fouled in the 14th minute, and Eoin Birchill converted the free. Both sides missed clear cut chances, and Kilara hit both the cross bar and the post, while at the other end, Kilara somehow scrambled both a
Michael Walsh and Colm Looney shots on goal cleared when the goalie had been beaten. Kilara scored in the 16th minute and again on the 19th minute from a free and then they intercepted a kick out from us, to rack up another point. Seamus O Mahony was isolated after a Michael Cagney strong run through the middle found him in space and he tacked over his second point of the game in the 22nd minute. Eoin Birchill scored another free after Darragh was again fouled in the 27th minute. Kilara got another point in the 28th minute, but Eoin got the final score of the game in the 30th minute, again from a free.
In the second period, Kilara came racing out of the blocks, and scored a point from play in the very first minute, but crucially in a tight game, scored a decisive goal immediately afterwards. That was crucial, and they got the next score to open up a sizeable and commanding lead. We stymied the tide with a fine point from play from Eoin, but Kilara answered that with a point of their own.
Both teams were reduced numerically after an alteration but our loss was considerable. We tried manfully to get the ball forward, but Kilara had our measure on the night, and always just seemed to get an extra hand into the tackle and wrestle the ball away.
Eoin got another free but Kilara had their gander up, and scored the next score, a major one when their extremely hard working player Michael Sheehan, just for once evaded Sean Bartley who had a superb game on the most influential player on their team in the first game, and Michael finished to the net. They tacked on another point, and we worked a close in free after a mesmerising run from Jamie Magner was unceremoniously stopped. Mark Nagle stepped up and blasted the ball to the net, despite five Kilara players being on the goal line.
Our brave effort on the night ended when they got the last score of the game, another goal to run out worthy winners on a final score of 3-11 to 1-07.
This Killavullen team will win many games in the future and have some delightful players in their midst, just lacking a deal of physicality at the moment. That will come in time, but heartbreak was our lot on this particular night.
The team was; 1. James O Keeffe 2. Colin Carey 3. Ronan Barry 4. Donal Cronin 5. Conor Griffin 6. Brian Cotter 7. Sean Bartley 8. Eoin Birchill (1-07) 9. Michael Cagney 10. Mark Nagle (1-00) 11. Darragh O Grady 12. Ben Hunter 13. Seamus O Mahony (0-02) 14. Colm Looney 15. Michael Walsh
Substitutes 16. Sean Palmer for Donal Cronin 17. Jamie Magner for Michael Walsh 18. Kieran Roche for Colin Carey.
TONY FORRISTAL / SONNY WALSH TOURAMENT
Cork under 14’s achieved a notable double, in Waterford over the weekend, when they won both the Tony Forristal A final against Kilkenny and the Sonny Walsh B final Tournament against Tipperary.
Jamie Magner from Killavullen was playing in the Cork panel that won the Sonny Walsh Tournament. Cork were 7 point down in the final game, with 5 minutes remaining but somehow conjured up some goals to equalise. Five minutes per half of extra time failed to separate the teams, so it went to a penalty shootout, which Cork won.
FIXTURES
Rebel Og
North
–
Minor B1 Football Championship - August 30th: Killavullen against Ballycastle Gaels in Mitchelstown @ 19.00
Rebel Og North – U14 A Football Championship - August 31st: Killavullen against Kilshannig (Venue to be confirmed) @ 19.00
PARISH LEAGUE
Preparations are being finalised for the parish league on 8th September.
The parish boundaries have been redrawn. At the time of going to press, the Highland / Railway Rovers team looks particularly agile. The Village will now play with Rahan, while Wallstown Pipes and Carrig Rockies are still strong and will not want to give up their fine reputations easily.
Will the old saying of “Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance” be tested on the day.