Conway’s goal helps Decky’s men to famine’s end
YOU wouldn’t have a heart in your chest if you didn’t ache for the men of Kilcoole last Saturday in Joule Park, Aughrim. Last year they bowed out to Ashford in Pearse’s Park in the decider and this year they fell at the final hurdle again and had to witness one of the most amazing reactions to a team winning a county final in many years. One can only imagine the loneliness and the silence of the Kilcoole dressing rooms.
What happened? The two black cards in the opening half didn’t weaken Laragh as you would have expected. As so often happens when a team is hit by an early blow or blows, they can rally and bounce back and cling on for dear life and out of sheer stubbornness. A number of players have said that that is what Decky Byrne brought to the table in 2017. If that’s the case then it was a wonderful gift.
It wasn’t that the Kilcoole men were particularly wasteful in front of goal, either. They had six sides for the day, only one in the second half. Laragh on the other hand had 11 wides.
Kilcoole led at the break by 0-06 to 0-03. The impressive Danny Kavanagh opened up the scoring after an earlier wide and immediately after Gary Cullen had been shown a black card after his trailing leg took Matt Gilbert out of play as the Kilcoole man rampaged down on the Laragh goal.
Gilbert was excellent on the day. His free-taking off the ground is exquisite to watch and he added Kilcoole’s second after seven minutes as Laragh struggled to settle.
Who else but John Nolan would get them up and running, a fine pointed free, after a foul on Keith Lawler by Matt Mannix.
The loss of Cullen was behind them now and they started to play a bit of football but Mark Miley fired wide after a nice move.
The Nolan walloped over a beauty to level things at 0-02 to 0-02 but a serious burst from Kilcoole saw them open up a 0-05 to 0-02 lead after 29 minutes with points from Lee Dutton (two) and Danny Kavanagh from a free.
Laragh hit back through Keith Lawler before Declan Roper closed out to half to leave the Kilcoole men in a healthy position at 0-06 to 0-03 ahead.
Six minutes into the second half, Kilcoole withdrew Vinnie Quigley and Declan Roper. Quigley had been having a fine game and was a really steadying influence on the Kilcoole midfield. Matt Gilbert and Cormac Byrne pointed for Kilcoole either side of two Laragh scores, one from John Nolan and the second from Liam McEvoy. Nolan reduced the arrears with a free before Kilcoole again enjoyed a dominant spell and looked like they would ease to victory after points from Gilbert and two from Kavanagh to lead 0-11 to 0-07.
Decky Byrne released Steve Olohan from the sweeper role he had played so competently all day and he galloped up the field and fired over a magnificent score.
And then came the goal. The last thing Kilcoole needed was to concede a goal with 25 minutes on the second half clock. All of a sudden Laragh’s tails were up. John Nolan sent them into a lead but back came Kilcoole but Olohan was there to thwart the danger and the final whistle sounded.
Despair for Kilcoole. Unbridled joy for Laragh.