*Smith O’Briens manager, Tony Gleeson. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
WIDES proved costly for Smith O’Briens as they sustained a two point defeat to Waterford’s Dunhill in the Munster intermediate club quarter-final.
On their last trip to Cusack Park, there was joy and ecstasy for Smith O’Briens on Halloween weekend when they defeated St Josephs Doora/Barefield to be crowned intermediate champions. Their most recent venture was their first and last outing in this year’s Munster club campaign as they lost out by two points to Dunhill.
Manager of the Killaloe side, Tony Gleeson pointed to their tally of twelve wides when he analysed their defeat. “After the first ten minutes we were after doing all the hurling, we hit four or five wides in a row and we needed to exploit them early having come to Ennis from Waterford, if you tag on those three or four scores early you will put a doubt in their head but we didn’t do that, them wides really told in the second half and the last four shots again were four wides.
“When there’s a point in it at the end of the game, you’re ruing those wides but it has been a great year at the same time. The lads haven’t lost a championship match the whole way through the year to now so the experience of the heartache is nearly new to them since the Scariff game last year. It has been a great year but it is disappointing to go out with this result,” Gleeson added.
Players worked hard subsequent to the county final as part of their preparations, the Burgess native noted. “They trained really well for the last two or three weeks, they were very good, they really put their heads down the Saturday after we came back and they worked really hard, I was only saying to them maybe we got stale, we went through four battles and I think that takes a lot out of you from playing Tulla in Whitegate in the last game of the group to beating Tubber, then Tulla again and St Josephs Doora/Barefield, they were all won in the last two to three minutes and I think it started to tell today and I think they just need a break more than anything after a long year”.
Gleeson is hoping to remain in charge of Smith O’Briens when they return to the senior ranks for the first time since 2013. “I will think about things over the next week or two, we’ll sit down and have a chat then to put a plan in place either way”.
