Win over Carbery will give Seandún a greater chance to gel

Having been out of senior hurling action for five years, Seandún were keen for their return not to be a one-and-done.

In Tuesday night's Co-op SuperStores Divisions/Colleges Hurling Championship tie against Carbery in Ovens, they didn't have things straightforward - they trailed for much of the first half and their shooting left much to be desired - but ultimately they prevailed on a 1-26 to 0-26 scoreline.

With no second chance for the losers, there was a lot riding on the game and so Seandún manager John O'Callaghan took pride in how his team had come out on top.

“Yeah, delighted for our boys to get into the next round," he said.

“It was a tough game, Carbery put it up to us. We could have had it won in normal time, but in fairness, Carbery came back and it was a fantastic game from both players and mentors and the whole lot.

“We looked at the stats at half-time, we had ten wides in the first half, they had three and it was just an awful lot of wayward shooting from us.

“We didn't utilise the forward line that we had, but second half we got going. It’s hard for us because we didn't have much done, so the lads were kind of gelling together for the first night.

“We had only played Bishopstown in the challenge game and a few training sessions.” 

A goal from attacker Dylan Barrett was the key score - it came at a time when the city side trailed by three points and it was ultimately the difference.

“It was a fantastic move in fairness," O'Callaghan said, "and we said that to the lads at half-time just to kind of pop off the shoulder and run at them.

“They did and that's where the goal came from. It was an outstanding goal in fairness to the lads.

“We went ahead and we were well up with a couple of minutes to go and in fairness to Carbery, they came back and they drew the game.

“We brought them back in at the end of full-time and we reset. We knew that both teams were struggling with the heat and the conditions and, in fairness to all lads, they stuck in there we got the result at the end of the night.

“Some of the younger lads got going – Seán Daly inside corner-forward, he was a threat all night and we had the legs at the end of it, in fairness.”

 Now, the hope is that more time together can reap further rewards.

“We'll go back there and we'll reset and we'll get back onto the clubs and we'll see how we're fixed going forward with the lads that showed up and played with us tonight," O'Callaghan said.

“The club scene is busy, so we'll go back and we'll try to get training, a few training, a few practice matches and see where we go and we'll give Muskerry a game and see how we get on.

“Look, the most important thing is that Seandún have a hurling team and we're out playing senior hurling and the lads have an opportunity to play senior hurling. 

“Every fella gets an opportunity. We sent an email out to all the clubs to see who would be interested and look, the lads showed up and they're mad for it, in fairness.”

“You can see the joy in their faces tonight when they're going into the dressing room there. Look, they came out tonight with a mission to beat Carbery and they've done it and we're into the next round and we go from there.”