Dunne is proud and frustrated in equal measure

By Shane Brophy

Ken Dunne doesn’t have much experience of being on the losing side on county senior hurling final day, and admitted his disappointment at falling short to Loughmore/Castleiney in Sunday’s decider.

"I’m very disappointed,” he began.

“I thought we gave it a good rattle. I thought we played well in the first half. It was tit for tat, but overall, I thought we hurled better in the first half, but we went in two points down and conceded a silly score before half-time which was a blow to us but very proud of the lads, thought they were immense but Loughmore's cuteness at the end probably got them over the line.”

It was a final, that despite the closeness of the scoreboard throughout, never fully caught fire until late on with three goals in as many minutes.

"The teams matched up really well,” Dunne said.

“We had our homework done, and they had their homework done, and we cancelled each other out a lot. It became a bit of a battle around the middle again as usual. They probably just got the scores at the vital times at the end.

“The first goal was huge. I thought we responded really well. When our goal went in, I thought we had a right chance but then they went down the field, Noel got the ball from the puckout, went down towards John, great goal.”

The second goal came when Toomevara had a player down receiving treatment as the puckout was dropping which frustrated Dunne but overall, he was hugely proud of his team.

"A few things frustrated me but I'm not going to get into that,” he continued.

“That's the way it goes, semi-finals and finals can go like that, congratulations to Loughmore, they deserved it.”

He added: “We finished strong in a lot of our games through the championship. I knew we wouldn't go away and even at the end when we were in injury time and probably beaten, they were still harrying, still tackling and we were winning frees and trying to get back in it.

“We could have popped over the last couple of frees to get a bit closer, but we were trying to get that goal to get that one more chance to try and win it. I am very proud of our efforts.”

Having taken a step forward this year from defeated semi-finalists in 2023 to a first final for most of this squad in 2024, Toomevara are a team on the rise with Dunne setting out his target for 2025 already which is “to win a trophy” he said.

“It won't be easy. The Tipperary championship is very open. There are a lot of good teams in it. 7/8 teams believe they can win it every year. We're at the bottom of the hill again at the start of next year but we'll get over this disappointment and start back afresh next year."