Delight for Niall Hurley as Dohenys turn it around

Dohenys trailed Aghabullogue by ten points as they went in at half-time in Saturday’s SAFC clash – or, rather, didn’t go in.

The Dunmanway side stayed out on the field as they worked through the issues that had seen them fall 1-13 to 0-6 behind in Kilmichael.

Thankfully for them, they managed to swing the momentum against last year’s Premier IFC winners, to the relief and delight of manager Niall Hurley.

“We had to do something different,” he said.

“We always go in at half-time and I just said no, something different here, so we stayed out.

“Maybe that was a trigger for the lads that there was something seriously going on, from our side as well on the line.

“I'm delighted with the young fellas – we lost a couple of lads from last year's panel, it’s an all-new management team and Dave O’Donovan came in with us, we’re delighted to have him with us, he’s a huge asset.

“I'm happy with the point.”

Had Dohenys been a bit more fortunate with late opportunities for white, orange and green flags, they could have snatched victory in a game where they had never led.

However, such an outcome seemed remote in the first half against the wind as they found it difficult to stem the Aghabullogue flow.

“Look, we know their firepower up front,” Hurley said, “we'd been preparing for nine months for this game.

“We know they’ve great names there and they're well-established – they lost to the All-Ireland champions back in the winter there in the Munster final against An Ghaeltacht.

“There's plenty of video footage and you can watch them but when you're playing them, they're an awesome team and they're on a great roll.”

Next up for Dohenys in Group A is a clash with Kanturk, who beat Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh on Saturday night.

Hurley will hope for more of the second-half spirit, albeit without the slower start.

“At half-time, it was looking grim,” he said.

“We'd saved a penalty but they responded well. We tried to set up but physically they brought it and we didn't bring it. They were first to everything, we were second. We brought no dogfight, they brought the dogfight.

“But, look, all day long I'm going to take the draw and I’m delighted with the lads’ response at half-time.

“We’ll be facing physicality again facing Kanturk, it’s game on with them now.”