Kiladangan's forwards prove the difference in low key North Final

GAA: Hibernian Inn North Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship Final

 

By Shane Brophy

 

We didn't get the North Tipperary Senior Hurling Final we had hoped for on Sunday but that won't matter for the folks in Kiladangan as they celebrate a seventh divisional title.

To have won five in twelve seasons is a remarkable feat for the club who are in just their fifteenth year back in senior hurling after spending much of the previous 50 years at intermediate and junior level.

They were favourites going into the this game, primarily on the circumstances for both sides which were far from ideal and more than played their part in providing one of the poorest North Finals in living memory which had little excitement to it because of the poor fair provided by both teams.

So why is that? The is no escaping the fact that both clubs hurling a fifth game in as many weeks had taken its toll. Neither team were near their best with Borris-Ileigh compromised to a greater extent having to play almost 50 minutes more than Kiladangan in their semi-final against Burgess which required double-extra time.

A team can try and recover in the most professional of fashions but it's always going to take something and certainly the maroons didn't have the zip to their play in recent games.

They were also inhibited by the fact that James Devaney and Kevin Maher who to play a County Minor 'B' Hurling semi-final the day before. While Kiladangan can point to Sean Hayes having some similar, both Devaney and Maher are more important to their side at the moment than Hayes is to Kiladangan because of the other attacking weapons they have in their attack at the moment with Tadhg Gallagher, Paul Flynn and Billy Seymour to the fore with 1-10 between them. And that is without Joe Gallagher who should be back for the county knockout stages.

 

 

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