*Kilmaley captain, Mikey O’Malley. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FINE MARGINS yet again were Kilmaley’s undoing as they exited the TUS Clare SHC.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Temple Gate Hotel.
Last year scoring difference caught Kilmaley from advancing to the knockout stages when their only defeat, a three point loss to Cratloe ended their year with Conor McGrath scoring in the final attack.
Two points separated them from Éire Óg at the final whistle of Saturday’s semi-final in what was only their second championship loss in two years.
It comes down to inches in the Clare SHC, Kilmaley manager Brian Culbet flagged. “The fine margins of the Clare hurling championship. I’m awful proud of our lads, they left everything out on the field, they tried their best, the couple of points of a swing in the end was the difference”.
Conor Cleary goaled for Kilmaley on fifty minutes following a Seán O’Loughlin turnover to put them in front and in the driving seat but they failed to score for the remainder of the game with Danny Russell scoring three placed balls in succession to send Éire Óg into the county final. “Conditions and how hard Éire Óg were working was a factor too, it was a strange game, there was no real set flow to it and no one controlled the game at any stage, it was very stop start, there was a lot of hard tackling and hard hitting, it was more a game of tackles than scores and they came out on top so we can’t have any arguments”.
Leading by the minimum at half-time, Kilmaley began to lose their shape in the middle of the park for the third quarter as Éire Óg hit seven points in this period. “They started very strong in the second half and we came back at them again, when the goal came the game might have swung in our favour but in all fairness they responded properly to that, they’ve been one of the good teams in the championship and that is the way it goes,” Culbert reflected.
Missed chances were costly for Kilmaley with Éire Óg goalkeeper Darragh Stack making four big saves for the Townies. “It was strange, I remember two unbelievable saves he made and that is the difference, if the two of them or even one of them went in then the game was swinging in a different direction. When you bring it down to their three dangerous players in the forwards, Shane (O’Donnell), David (Reidy) and Marco (Cleary) we managed to keep them quiet but they still won the game, it shows how good of a team they are, if you said before the match that we would keep them quiet like we did and backs were working very hard we’d have taken that but it just shows they are a good team, they have twelve other players to manage. It was a great game, it was an exciting game, the Clare championship brings up so many good games like that, unfortunately we were on the wrong side of it”.
It was Kilmaley’s first semi-final appearance in seven years but the manner of the defeat will sting for some time. Sixmilebridge native told The Clare Echo he was confident Kilmaley would bounce back. “We were a puck of a ball away last year, Conor McGrath ruined that for us, we were a puck of a ball away from Feakle the year before that, it hasn’t just been this year like these lads have had Colin Lynch training them for two years before I came in, they have had the same message for nearly five years, it is fine margins. Éire Óg were getting to the semi-final for the last how many years, what we need to do is to be consistent and be getting to the semi-finals every year, they are an unbelievable group of lads, a serious team, they have serious attitude, you’d be hoping they will go again next year and the rub of a green might come on another day, someday it will happen, I remember Donal Madden said a couple of years ago ‘wouldn’t it be great if every team got to win it once and sample the feeling’, that will be a lovely thing and it will be someone new in two weeks time, you never know who it might be next year”.
