Kiladangan do it the hard way again

GAA: FBD Insurance County Senior Hurling Championship Group 3

Kiladangan 1-23

JK Brackens 1-21

Report: Shane Brophy in Nenagh

Kiladangan were put to the pin of their collar to earn their second victory in the County Senior Hurling Championship group 3 as they held off the challenge of JK Brackens in a gripping encounter on Sunday evening.

The win guarantees the holders progression to the quarter finals with a game to spare but for the second year in a row they had it all to do to get past JK Brackens who were the only team not to lose to Brian Lawlor’s charges in last year’s championship run. And for long stages of this game, it looked to be the same again as Kiladangan just couldn’t shake the Templemore/Clonmore side off, whose physicality made things difficult for the North side.

In an extremely competitive game that had a spikey under-current right from the start, it was the sending off of Sean Hayes in the 47th minute that really got Kiladangan going. In the context of the game where other off the ball incidents yielded just yellow cards, Sean Hayes can count himself unlucky to be the fall guy following an incident with Jordan Moloney which saw the wing back yellow carded as he limped from the field injured.

The perceived injustice certainly spurred Kiladangan on even more, if they weren’t already, and responded accordingly to hold out for a two-point victory. It was a win they deserved as they outscored Brackens 1-13 to 1-7 from play, with both sides’ tallies enhanced by placed balls in a game littered with frees, more from the physicality of the match rather than fussy refereeing.

Both Billy Seymour and Lyndon Fairbrother scored ten points each from frees but it was the dead-ball striking of another variety that was the talking point from the game with Brackens Shane Doyle converting no fewer than four side-line cuts from four, two in either half, all from the left-hand side. It is a tremendous skill when it comes off and the latter two points came inside the last ten minutes when they brought the margin down to one point, but they couldn’t get back on terms having led briefly earlier in the half.

As Kiladangan tend to do under pressure, they don’t panic and managed to go four clear again as JK Brackens indiscipline allowed the North side to keep their noses in front. However, a Shane Doyle goal in the final minute set-up a grandstand finish before Paul Flynn’s point in added time sealed the deal for Kiladangan.

As with last years encounter, Kiladangan found it difficult to play against Bracken’s football-like set-up where they like to play a sweeper and work the ball through the hands up the field.

It meant a congested middle third where county colleagues Willie Connors and Paddy Cadell were to the fore for their respective sides, just behind Alan Flynn as the games most influential player as he got on an amount of ball as Kiladangan’s spare man in defence.

The game itself was slow to get going, with little free-flowing hurling in the opening quarter which Kiladangan shaded 0-6 to 0-5 with all bar three points coming from frees.

Brackens came out to take the lead with points from Andrew Ormond and Doyle’s first side-line cut, but Kiladangan quelled the rising with a Dan O’Meara goal on twenty minutes, reacting quickest to the break after Jack Kennedy had saved a Willie Connors drive.

These are the kind of games where Joe Gallagher is so important for Kiladangan, and he scored three first half points as well as a number of frees as they kept their noses in front with Sean Hayes also landing two points as they led 1-12 to 0-11 at the break.

They quickly stretched the advantage to five after the resumption through points from Tadhg Gallagher and Darragh Flannery, but Brackens were more offensive after the break and reeled off six points in a row from Shane Bourke, Ormond, Paddy Cadell and three from Fairbrother to take the lead after forty minutes.

Billy Seymour missed two scoreable frees but quickly refocused again to convert three more along with a Hayes point from play to reopen a three-point lead, when the latter was sent off and the game upped a level in intensity, but Kiladangan know what to do under pressure as they saw the game out.

Player of the Match: Alan Flynn (Kiladangan)

Kiladangan: Barry Hogan (7); Darragh Flannery (7), James Quigley (6), Fergal Hayes (6); Jack Loughnane (6), Alan Flynn (9), Declan McGrath (7); Willie Connors (8), Tadhg Gallagher 7); Joe Gallagher (0-3, 8), Tom O’Meara (6), Sean Hayes (0-3, 7); Billy Seymour (0-10f, 7), Paul Flynn (1-2, 7), Dan O’Meara (1-1, 7).

JK Brackens: Jack Kennedy (7); Martin Delaney (7), Tom Murphy (7), James Bergin (7); Eanna McBride (8); Jordan Moloney (7), Cathal Scully (7), Adrian Bourke (7); Paddy Cadell (0-1, 7), Conor Cadell (0-1, 7); Shane Bourke (0-1, 6), Andrew Ormond (0-2, 6), Shane Doyle (1-4, 0-4 s-cuts) 8); Dean McEnroe (6), Lyndon Fairbrother (0-11, 10f) 7).

Sub: David O’Shea (6) for Moloney (50 inj).

Referee: Sean Lonergan (Moyle Rovers)