Foley rues mistakes that led to goals

LIXNAW will rise again. Their day will come. They’ve got the talent, no question. Even so to talk now of the future comes as cold comfort to either the players or their management team. Finals are there to be won and they didn’t win. That hurts and it’ll keep on hurting until they put it right.

“I am disappointed for the lads because I think they played very well today for stages of that game and dominated the game hurling wise for most of the game, but conceded too many goals and that is the story of the game really,” Lixnaw coach Mark Foley said after the match.

Even there you’d have to have a certain amount of sympathy for the Lixnaw coach and his players. On Sunday afternoon they came across a force of nature in Aidan Boyle.

“It was just one of those days when everything went right for him and fair play to him,” Foley agreed.

“But from a defensive point of view and there is no point in denying it and papering over it or sugar-coating it. We would feel defensively that every one of the goals were preventable because you don’t get caught under the dropping ball against Ballyduff and we succumbed to that today.

“They are very good in the air and everyone knows that in Kerry and to be fair to them, when they got the ball inside in the full-forward line today they took their chances.”

One thing that would have frustrated the Limerick man was Lixnaw’s failure to push on when they had the advantage of an extra man. Fair enough it’s much easier said than done, but to win a title you’ve got to press home any advantage you might have.

“I think when you are trying to force the game and when you are a younger team it’s easy to fall into the trap of getting over enthusiastic and lumping the ball in on top of Mikey Boyle because it suits Mikey Boyle,” he commented.

“To be fair to the lads we hurled very well for long stages when on the ball, but without the ball is what decided the game and if you told me coming down here that we would score 1-19 I would think we would win the game by four or five points, but you cannot concede goals like that and win.”

While not seeking to make excuses – and giving Ballyduff their dues – Foley did agree that the loss of John Griffin before the game was massive.

“John was a huge loss in game like that of fine margins you need you need everyone who can influence the game and John is one our main influencers and he would have shown composure down the stretch when we had the extra man,” he said.

“When you have an extra man it is about not getting over anxious and lumping ball down on top of the opposition, you just look to find the extra man and that is where I suppose the old heads come in and Tweak was a loss, but I would not like to take from Ballyduff as they were outstanding today.” BOBBY Thornhill knows Ballyduff. He loves Ballyduff. The Ballyduff job is just about the only one in hurling he’s interested in right now. He wasn’t on the look out for a job when Liam Ross came calling, but he just couldn’t say no. Not to Ballyduff.

There’s something infectious about the way they go about their business out there no doubt. Working with or even following Ballyduff will never be dull. The way they’ve turned their season and this championship around proves that.

“Ger Manly [his assistant] and I have done a huge amount of work with the lads but the real work has been done by themselves not by us at all. They just wanted to play and win,” Thornhill enthused.

“There are four Boyle brothers there and I think that maybe by 2018 a lot of the older lads will have retired so that is one of the reasons why winning today was a huge ambition by the lads.

“The effort today that was put in by the all the lads for the duration of the game was tremendous. I thought the sending off actually boosted us and drove the lads on, but I think it was the hurling that won it for us. We were composed despite a couple of decisions going against us, but those things happen all the time in games.”

The Cork pair made a very deliberate decision to go with a route one approach to the full forward line, to Pádraig and Aidan Boyle. That’s the kind of faith they have in those two players.

“Padraig Boyle is the best forward bar none I’d say in Munster he’s up another level, but today it was his brother Aidan who did the business,” Manly said.

“The Ballyduff players have huge experience behind them, Mikey Boyle; Jack Goulding is a very good player. There’s no full back line in Kerry who would hold those three.

“We played the three of them inside at the start against Kilmoyley, but we did not get the ball into them, but once we got motoring in the second half...

“The potential is there, the only difference between here and any other county is it’s done a bit quicker and as you saw when we did it quick today they couldn’t compete. The level we got to today I felt we could have got seven or eight goals there.

“We knew there was goals in their full-back line, I’m not knocking Lixnaw or anything we just felt their full-back line was there to take last week.”

They’re an astute pair these Cork men and that being the case they must be aware of the potential for a Munster championship tilt in the weeks ahead.

“I don’t know when Kanturk and St Marys is on, but certainly I’ll be at it. As you know this is something new, an adventure we’re going on. We’ll give it our best shot.

“In the dressing room at half-time it was so composed, no roaring or shouting, just three words mentioned at half-time by me, challenge your challenge and the challenge was we’re going out on the field in the second half, but certainly whenever this match is going to be on we’re going to be ready for it,” Thornhill stated.