Limerick’s Knockaderry exit Munster club junior hurling championship at hands of Kilbrittain:
John Redington Limerick Leader Sport
RE-OPENING their pitch after a significant investment, Knockaderry’s festivities on Saturday were spoiled by their 1-23 to 1-16 defeat to Cork’s Kilbrittain before a packed four figure crowd in the Munster club junior hurling semi-final.
“A massive occasion for the club, but it didn’t work out on the field,” was how selector Donagh O’Sullivan summed it up as Limerick’s last representives in provincial club hurling competition failed to follow up on their victory over Kenmare Shamrocks in the previous round.
“We were quite happy at half-time but that goal we conceded just after the restart killed our momentum and our opponents moved on from that.”
Although a run of seven unanswered scores early in the first half left them chasing the game, Knockaderry’s goal then brought them back into contact before the turnover.
However, they just couldn’t extend their recovery past the interval despite turning over with the breeze at their backs. In the end, ability to turn possession into scores proved to be the difference as they were outscored 1-13 to 1-5 by their Cork opponents and any chance they had of overcoming Kilbritain’s third quarter blitz disappeared when a pair of red cards reduced their team to thirteen.
Knockaderry had drawn a pair of frees for Mark Danaher to put them ahead before Kilbrittain got a chance to settle down.
However, once Kilbritain’s Mark Hickey had sent over his first free, their long deliveries opened spaces and the lead changed hands when Hickey punished another two fouls and Bertie Butler increased it when he sent the resulting puckout straight back over the bar.
Up at the other end, Danaher’s luck with the frees deserted him as three from distance drifted wide and the Limerick champions were doubly punished when Hickey sent over another pair of points and again followed by Butler returning another puckout to open the gap to five points coming up to the quarter mark.
However, Knockaderry’s topscorer Danaher interrupted the Cork club’s momentum by finding his range again with his next free.
The score was followed by Jack Molloy grabbing his side’s first score from play and, after Hickey’s point from out on the right was met by another Danaher free, the sides were suddenly level when Danaher ran in between goalie and full-back to collect Enda Moran’s delivery and drill the sliotar to the net.
Conor Hogan replied only to be met by an equaliser. Kilbritain had the final say of the opening half as Hickey’s pointed ’65’ and his free sent them into the dressing-room with a lead of 0-11 to 1-6.
That lead stretched out to three points when Hogan struck innediately off the restart. After Moran replied, Knockaderry’s hopes of taking quick advantage of the breeze were dashed when Kilbritain’s Luke Griffin pounced on a loose ball squirting from a goalmouth scramble and whipped to the near corner of the net.
With their tails up, Kilbrittain outmatched Danaher’s ’65’ in reply with points from Josh O’Donovan and Philip Wall. Then after they were interrupted by a further Danaher pointed free, quickfire points from Griffin and Ronan Crowley followed by two more Hickey frees, the latter resulting in Knockaderry player Liam Molyneaux being dismissed on a second yellow card.
Turning into the final quarter 10 points in arrears as well as a man down, Knockaderry replied with a pair of Danaher pointed frees. However, they were cancelled in turn by Hickey’s free and an O’Donovan score from play.
Their task became all the more difficult when 2018 All-Ireland medallist Tom Condon walked on a straight red after O’Donovan and Hogan moved the gap out to eleven.
At that stage the subs were piling on, Ronan Keating and Griffin swapped scores. However, the hosts refused to lie down without a fight as Danaher, with three points from play and one from a free picked off the game’s four final scores.
SCORERS: KILBRITTAIN: Mark Hickey 0-11 (9 frees, 1 ’65’), Luke Griffin 1-2, Conor Hogan, Josh O’Donovan 0-3 each, Bertie Butler 0-2, Philip Wall, Ronan Crowley 0-1 each. KNOCKADERRY: Mark Danaher 1-12 (0-10 frees, 0-1 ’65’), Enda Moran 0-2, Jack Molloy, Ronan Keating 0-1 each.
KILBRITTAIN: David Desmond; Darragh Consodine, James Hurley, Eoin O’Neill; Aaron Holland, Thomas Sheehan, Colm Sheehan; Seán Sexton, Josh O’Donovan; Mark Hickey, Philip Wall, Ronan Crowley; Conor Hogan, Luke Griffin, Bertie Butler. SUBS: Conor Ustiankowski for Seán Sexton (33 mins), Eoghan Byrnes for James Hurley (50 mins), Declan Harrington for Ronan Crowley (54 mins), Tom Harrington for Josh O’Donovan (55 mins).
KNOCKADERRY: Michael O’Sullivan; David Moloney, Tom Condon, Eddie Foley; Jack Molloy, Liam Molyneaux, Darragh Lyons; Gearóid Fenniman, Mike Molloy; Kieran Storan, Rob Egan, Steven McMahon; Enda Moran, Brendan Guiry, Mark Danaher. SUBS: Colm O’Connor for Brendan Guiry (41 mins), Eoin O’Connor for Kieran Storan (51 mins), Ronan Keating for Rob Egan (54 mins).
REFEREE: John Bugler (Clare).