WATCH: Inniscarra and Castlemartyr should be proud of their efforts in brutal conditions for hurling
Barra O'Tuama and Jack McGann, Castlemartyr winning this ball from Inniscarra players Owen McCarthy and Dan O'Connell in their Co-Op Superstores premier intermediate hurling championship final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture Dan Linehan
IT'S rare that a draw leaves us satisfied.
We’re beings who like to know, who like the know the result, the winners, the losers so we can talk about it all, dissect it all and bring closure to all. The clash of Castlemartyr and Inniscarra in the Co-op Superstores PIHC final on Sunday however, was not one of those occasions.
This game was of the type where people were willing the game towards parity as the game slipped into the four minutes of added time. And it was all due to the horrendous conditions that both sides endured from the moment they took to the pristine Páirc Uí Chaimh surface.
This was not a day for tactics, systems or managerial masterclasses, it was a day for fighting for every, single ball. Both sides did, and both sides won their fair share and lost their fair share. It was a shame that the biggest day of the year coincided with the heaviest rain of the decade but it did, and both teams need to be commended for their impeccable attitude and grace in the most dire of circumstances.
Of course, whoever comes out on top in the replay next Saturday night will still point to the signposts that were there yesterday as the amongst those that mattered. When they do, they won’t be reminiscing about glorious moments of skill, or sublime scores from the sidelines.
It will be all about the little things, like Billy McGann keeping the ball alive down by the South Stand to earn a free for Mike Kelly late on, or Jack Harrington’s goal-line clearance for Inniscarra just before half time. The game was littered with hooks and blocks, with tackles and shoulders and each side just kept going with wave after wave of effort that matched the sheeting rain that was blowing in over the Blackrock End.
Castlemartyr were looking to keep the good times rolling. Eight years ago they bridged a 50-year gap between county titles as they defeated Ballinhassig in the rain in the old Páirc Uí Chaoimh to claim their third Junior A hurling title. Yesterday they were looking for their third county in a row.
They had plenty of performances to take courage from. Ciarán Joyce was magnificent at centre-back, Daragh Moran was rock solid behind him while big Joe Stack hit 0-4 from play on a day that should have forbidden such a contribution. Mike Kelly hit 0-7, 0-2 from play and his free-taking was in general, brilliant. However, he did have a chance to win it at the death only to see his effort veer wide but that was more to do with the will of the hurling gods than anything else.
They lost intermediate finals in 1991 and 2003 while they had failed to get out of the group stages in the last two years of this championship.
If they were overawed by the occasion, they didn’t show it. Liam Ryan hurled up a storm at centre-back, Fergal O’Leary pilfered 0-3 while the veteran Colm Casey played like he’d been waiting for the occasion his entire life while contributing 0-2.
They will do it all again next Saturday and one would think that Inniscarra might have a bit more to be pleased about as they get back to work during the week. They looked to be heading for defeat as the clock ticked past 60 minutes, and though Kieran Rice’s goal put them ahead, they still had their hearts in their mouths as Kelly stood over the last puck of the game.
Castlemartyr looked to have done enough when they led by two with time running out and they would have felt that they had won it again when Joyce earned that late free. But they didn’t, and those injury concerns they had coming into the game aren’t going to go away in the next six days.
Still though, both teams will re-group and go at it again, and this time there will have to be a winner.
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