Kilgarvan show real potential in Tournafulla
SOMETIMES you have to look beyond the raw numbers. Sometimes you have to acknowledge that there’s more important things than just the scoreline.
Yes, of course, to Tournafulla the result is all that matters. This is their time. Their future has arrived. A Munster title is very much in their cross-hairs now. For Kilgarvan, though, their future awaits them and, if we’re to judge it by what we saw last Saturday afternoon in Tour, it’s a bright one or at least has the potential to be.
With a young side they showed some real promise, with a young side and less hurling played than their opponents Kilgarvan stayed competitive in the game longer than many might have expected before hand.
That, much more than the ten point margin at the finish, is what we should be focussing on. We should be focussing on Kilgarvan’s resilience, on their spirit and fight and on the hurling they produced when they hit the right notes.
Naturally enough, as the scoreboard suggests, Tournafulla were the superior force. The slicker side, the sharper side and that was understandable. The Limerick kingpins had more quality hurling played more recently than their rivals from the Roughty Valley.
If Kilgarvan hurling is to develop the way it ought to given the quality of hurler they have in their ranks, they need more high quality games and they need them more regularly than they’ve had them of late.
In defence Liam Twomey and John Mark Foley stood out most of all, while up front Keith Harrington, Seán Godfrey and Donal O’Sullivan did likewise. O’Sullivan probably stole the show on Saturday afternoon with his power and pace and undoubted class.
The best of Kilgravan was more than a match for the best of Tournafulla. O’Sullivan would walk onto the Tournafulla team, as would John Mark Foley – who picked up a really nasty facial injury during the second half – and Liam Twomey.
Tournafulla simply had that little bit more quality overall, they had more experience and, we really can’t emphasise this enough, they had the match-sharpness to make all the difference.
All that said Kilgarvan did get off to a tonic start with a goal for Keith Harrington on six minutes – they were two points to one down at the time – setting them up nicely in the game.
It meant that even when Tournafulla turned on the class to shoot five scores unanswered they still had that goal to fall back upon. Even if Tournafulla were dominant in the play, Kilgarvan hung on in there on the scoreboard.
A certain amount of that they owed to Tournafulla’s profligacy in front of the sticks – the Limerick side pucked seven first half wides – but more of it was due to that resilience we spoke about.
With Conor Moroney and Cian O’Sullivan in control around the middle it felt at times like Kilgarvan were in real trouble and, yet, they still found a way to put themselves back in touch before the half-time break.
A couple of pointed frees by Seán Godfrey on the twenty fifth and twenty sixth minutes remarkably brought it back to a three point game – 1-7 to 0-13. Not even a late pointed free from the metronomic Anthony Hartnett to push Tournafulla four clear at the break, 1-7 to 0-14, dented the positive outlook for the Kerry champions.
Kilgarvan might have been hanging on by the skin of their teeth, but hanging on they were. They were in this match. The start of the second half though saw Tournafulla determined to put this game to bed early.
Following another Hartnett free, Michael O’Mahony and the impressive Paudie Smith combined for a shot at goal, which was saved by the evergreen Flor O’Brien. Crisis averted, but the warning lights were flashing by now.
A couple of swapped frees – one for Hartnett, the other for Godfrey – was but a brief interlude before Tournafulla essentially put the game beyond Mickey Foley’s brave side with a goal of real quality.
Conor Moroney – named at full forward but operating largely around the middle – and Hartnett combined before Paudie Smith pulled on a loose ball to the left of O’Brien’s goal for the game’s decisive goal.
At a stroke Tournafulla led by eight – 1-16 to 1-8 – and from there they pushed on decisively for the line with another two points on the spin (both Hartnett frees). After that the only question that remained was that of the margin.
The serious injury to John Mark Foley delayed the game for a time – the All Ireland minor football winning midfielder got a well-deserved round of applause as he was carried from the pitch upon a stretcher – but the game was up by then.
It was well worth staying for the finish, however, as it was around now that Donal O’Sullivan (another All Ireland minor winner) really came into his own. His injury time goal – he snapped up a loose ball following a save by Pádraig Collins on Godfrey – put a healthy gloss on the final scoreline, but it was no less than Kilgarvan deserved. They will be back. TOURNAFULLA: Pádraig Collins, Eoin McMahon, Jamie Lenihan, Daniel Brosnahan, John Curtin, Eoin Moroney (0-1), Jeremiah Moroney, Tom McCarthy, Cian O’Sullivan (0-3), Anthony Hartnett (0-14, 13f), Michael O’Mahony (0-1), Dean Smith, Eoin O’Sullivan, Conor Moroney (0-2), Paudie Smith (1-1) Subs: John Paul Sheehan for E O’Sullivan, 40, Batt Curtin for D Smith, 48, Gavin O’Reilly for M O’Mahony, 63, Christopher O’Connor for D Brosnahan, 66, Liam O’Sullivan for C Moroney, 66
KILGARVAN: Flor O’Brien, Ger Donovan, Patrick O’Shea, Liam Twomey, Seán Casey, John Mark Foley, Christopher Creedon, Gearóid Fennessy, Con Godfrey, Jack O’Brien, Keith Harrington (1-0), Richard O’Sullivan, Daniel Casey, Seán Godfrey (0-6, 5f), Donal O’Sullivan (1-3) Subs: Connie Cremin for J O’Brien, 15, Flor O’Sullivan for R O’Sullivan, 37, J O’Brien for JM Foley (inj), 59
REFEREE: Kevin Jordan (Tipperary)