The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Devastated’ Thornhill reflects on good year
“DEVASTATING,” that was the first word out of Bobby Thornhill’s mouth when asked to reflect on what had just happened.
It’s easy to see where the Cork native was coming from. To have battled back the way they had to have a chance of victory (or even a draw) snatched away from them so suddenly was a huge blow to everybody involved.
“I had this reflection of coming down on the car here and I just said we’d give this a right go,” he continued.
“We had been there before and pipped on the post, but I said today we were really going to give it, but you just cannot give away so many scores. It can’t be done. To try and come back and to win it would be unbelievable, but unfortunately at the stage that we scored the goal, we conceded a goal just minutes later. That was the killing part for us.
“Now Pádraig Boyle had a chance to go a point ahead and it just curled wide. There was times during the game that we should have scored. There were scores there for us.”
Ballyduff’s poor start was the defining element of the game, the original sin that Ballyduff just couldn’t quite wash clean. No matter how hard they tried the Kerry kingpins were always left chasing the game.
“On reflection on this game go back to the Kilmoyley game,” he said.
“It was something similar, the first half and then it was a complete transition in the second half. It was partly through it today, but it was to get going again. If it had been a draw it’d have been a brilliant draw.
“Again you come back to the scenario, hurling won today. I thought it was a very good sporting performance... would any other team have folded? Irrespective of the scoreline at the end, there was only two or three minutes to go and they got the goal and two points and things like that.
“It was a very spirited performance by us for long parts of the game. We could have won the game very easy, would it have been justice? I’d probably say no, but you know at the end of the game we were still there, had chances to win it.”
One man whose performance stands head and shoulders above all others is that of Mikey Boyle. He was a man possessed on Sunday afternoon, lording it aerially and driving his side forward (he also scored two top quality points from play).
“Mikey is brilliant,” Thornhill said.
“He’d get on any Tipperary team, Cork team, Waterford team. He’s just got a great hand. He’s 100% committed all the game, 100%, he’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. He’s a very good player, he’s a great guy, great to be around, great to be around the team, his enthusiasm. He’s the leader of the pack.
“When you look back at our year we had a great year. The County Final. The County League. The North Kerry championship and we’re still in another final. Overall it was a good year, it could have been brilliant had we won today and got a Munster championship.”