All-Ireland club championship semi-finals / O'Loughlin Gaels 0-19
Newtownshandrum 1-16: A fizzing Catherine wheel of a match at Semple Stadium spun one way and then another, further illuminating the bright spring afternoon for a crowd of 9,000, before coming to an inconclusive finish.
This lively AIB All-Ireland club hurling semi-final will be replayed at the same venue next Saturday and if neither side deserved to lose, they each know they had sufficient opportunity to win.
It ended with Ben O'Connor driving a free over the bar for his 10th point and the equaliser. It was appropriate that the afternoon's most influential figure should have the final word.
Carrying an injury into the match O'Connor put on a tour de force show at centre forward, bamboozling O'Loughlin's captain Andy Comerford who was never able to exert his hoped-for domination at centre back. Comerford held the centre but his prey seldom took the conventional route and popped up all over the half-forward line, hitting three points from play and registering five wides to go with his 10 points.
"It was tough enough coming up to it," was O'Connor's recollection of the equalising free, "but someone said something to the referee and he moved it in 10 yards. In fairness to Séamus (Roche, referee) he didn't put pressure on me by saying it was the last puck. It was only another free like you'd practise in training.
"We were delighted to get another day and I'd say if you'd asked O'Loughlin Gaels 10 minutes into the second half they'd have been glad to get another day as well."
O'Connor's knee injury had threatened his participation and an inability to train for the past few weeks left him in a bad state at half-time. "He was only working off 70 per cent," said team coach Ger Cunningham, "and was in here puking his guts up at half-time before going out for the second half. To allow him do that is perhaps questionable but there was no way he wasn't going back."
The Kilkenny champions started strongly and led by four points, 0-6 to 0-2, with corner forward Maurice Nolan scoring three of his four first-half points.
There were signs, however, in Newtownshandrum's attacks that their opponents' defence wasn't watertight. A couple of goal chances had led to points by the 14th minute when Jerry O'Connor dropped a ball into the square. O'Loughlin's goalkeeper Kevin Cleere didn't hold it and in the scramble Dan O'Riordan got the vital stroke to put the Cork side ahead, 1-4 to 0-6.
For the next half-hour only one team looked likely to win. Liberated from their initial inhibitions, Newtownshandrum got into their rhythm. Their forwards got on top and the supply to the Leinster champions' attack dwindled.
The Cork backs pushing up - Pat Mulcahy hit a point from 70 metres - and O'Loughlin's made mistakes in possession. Only a dogged performance by Brian Hogan - "the outstanding full back in Kilkenny," according to his manager, "but hopefully he won't be as busy the next day" - prevented further damage. Given the turnaround in fortunes, the Kilkenny side should have been glad to get to half-time only four behind, 0-9 to 1-10.
There wasn't much sign of revival in the early stages of the second half. Jimmy Comerford's switch to centrefield didn't have the impact of his similar move in the Leinster final and by the 40th minute the margin was up to six.
It didn't look as if O'Loughlin's experience of tight finishes was going to be of much relevance. But a sequence of frees, angrily contested by Newtownshandrum helped inspire the comeback. Nigel Skehan proved his reputation from dead balls by potting most of them although, like O'Connor, the lapses will be a matter of regret this week.
One Newtownshandrum source said afterwards the referee was "a disgrace" but coach Cunningham admitted there had been a lack of discipline and honestly conceded "the equalising free was questionable".
Giving the referee plenty of lip proved an unsuccessful manner of protesting and a number of frees were made easier as a result. Having regained the initiative O'Loughlin's were flying. Their defence took a firm grip and the better-supplied forwards turned the screw.
Sure enough the Kilkenny champions ran the match to ground and Skehan's final free in the 54th minute pushed them ahead, 0-19 to 1-15. There were then enough chances to win it but Newtownshandrum held the deficit to a point and three minutes into injury time another disputed free was given against Andy Comerford.
"We're a bit shell-shocked at the end," said O'Loughlin's manager Michael Nolan. "It was a very fast game of hurling but we made stupid mistakes at times and dropped five or six balls and scores came off them. And we missed more frees than usual. We started well, lost our way and regrouped at half-time. Some of the bigger stars mightn't have played as well as usual so hopefully they'll be better next week."
NEWTOWNSHANDRUM: P Morrissey; J McCarthy (capt), B Mulcahy, G O'Mahoney; I Kelleher, P Mulcahy (0-1), P Noonan; J O'Connor (0-1), AT O'Brien (0-1); D Mulcahy (0-1), B O'Connor (0-10, seven frees), JP King; J Bowles (0-2), D O'Riordan (1-0), M Farrell. Subs: M Morrissey for O'Riordan (41 mins); J O'Connor for Farrell (55 mins).
O'LOUGHLIN GAELS: K Cleere; B Kelly, B Hogan, B Murphy; A O'Brien, A Comerford (capt), S Dowling; N Bergin, A Geoghegan; J Comerford, M Comerford (0-2), N Skehan (0-11, eight frees, one 65); M Nolan (0-4), C Furlong, B Dowling (0-2).
Referee: S Roche (Tipperary).
