‘We would have loved to do well in Connacht’
IT was a case of so close, yet so far for Tourlestrane joint-manager Eamonn O’Hara who witnessed his side knocked out of the Connacht series on the slenderest of margins.
The county champions were a match for Ballintubber throughout Sunday’s one point defeat, but the loss of key forwards along with Shane Dunne’s second half red card played their part.
“It was a bit of arm wrestle out there”, a deflated O’Hara reflected.
“But we didn’t expect any different. We planned for it all, bar Shane’s sending off and maybe there was a lack of discipline there in terms of our tackling.
“But overall”, he continued, “I am proud. You can look at this emotionally and say we didn’t get the rub of the green here and there but we would have taken (a two point deficit) against a breeze at half-time.
“We worked hard and in the second half when we got a run at times, they were cute enough to control the game. We always seemed to be chasing though and we never imposed our game and that’s disappointing.
“But we only conceded one point from play. There were five frees, one for indiscipline and another for a lazy pull of a jersey. We had talked about eliminating those things and they are the fine mar- gins. You have
to be
tuned level.”
On Dunne’s red card, the AllStar commented: “You could argue it wasn’t intentional and the Ballintubber player rolled out of it. It was clumsy, but there was never any intent. We weren’t getting calls from the referee and in at this that’s the reality. It could easily been a yellow card but we have to accept it.”
Unable to start key forwards Rian Kennedy and Liam Gaughan, Tourlestrane were dealt a further blow with the loss of Gary Gaughan when he limped off just eight minutes in.
“Losing Gary was key”, O’Hara concedes. “We didn’t have Liam and Rian, some of our best players this year. It did make us a bit thin up front and that had an effect undoubtedly.”
Taking stock of all that’s happened throughout the year, O’Hara says that although cracking Connacht remains a priority for him, he remains grateful for what his club has achieved in its recent history.
“The three county titles are a massive achievement”, he concluded.
“It’s a proud highlight. But we would have loved to do well in Connacht. But we didn’t perform as well as we could have. It’s a long, long way to get back here again. A lot of things will happen in life in the next year, but we have to try and regroup and refocus. But the club is continuing to go in the right direction.”