Valiant Charleville left to rue one that got away

Diarmuid Sheehan Charleville will feel they left it behind them on Sunday, but they still have reason to be proud

O analyse Charleville’s loss last weekend in Croke park is genuinely a difficult proposition considering the team that have shown everything all season, winning their way through to the All-Ireland Final ultimately saw their season end in painful defeat – a defeat that for 30 minutes or more looked unlikely.

To begin, credit must go to a management team that not only wore their hearts on their collective sleeves over the past thirteen months guiding their charges almost to the summit of Intermediate hurling, but also managed, together, to face the media after their loss to Oranmore-Maree in the media room not long after the final whistle.

Captain Danny O’Flynn also came to show his face and answer some questions at a time when I am sure he would have rather been anywhere else than talking into a bunch of microphones trying to make sense of what had just happened.

From a sports journalist’s point of view that show of courage and respect by a group of men that had come out on the wrong side of one of the most important days in their lives is almost unprecedented in the GAA.

Players and management could have easily head for the hills, and to be honest who could have blamed them, but on this occasion the stand-out moment for me of this entire campaign will be O’Flynn’s commitment to finish out the duties of a captain.

Coach Ben O’Connor also gave his views on what was his unsuccessful return to a place he knew very well.

“I cannot thank the boys enough” said O’Connor.

“They had a great year, but it’s hard to say that after being beaten in Croke Park. I am so proud of them and what they did. We have championship in Cork again in nine weeks so we must dust ourselves down and go again.

‘’If we were told last January that we’d be playing senior hurling in 2019 we would certainly have taken that. But the further you go the greedier you get and it’s so disappointing when you get this far and be going home empty-handed.”

O’Connor was full of praise for his charges, but also recognised the quality of the opposition and one man in particular.

“After playing against the breeze in the first-half we were playing well, moving the ball nice and fast, but we got beaten by a good team today, but hopefully the experience of the last year is bound to stand to fellas going up senior.

“He [Niall Burke] was good, but we gave away some handy frees, I thought a few of them were dubious, but on the losing team you’ll think that anyway. I told them going out that we had to keep the frees down but, unfortunately, we didn’t – but saying that Burke is a good player and he has an All-Ireland with Galway.”

The goals were obviously a bitter blow for Charleville, but it was the sendings off that really did for them in the end.

“With two men short, they got