LEINSTER SHC SEMI-FINAL O'Loughlin Gaels 1-21 Ballyboden St Enda's 3-11:AFTER AN absorbing contest yesterday in Nowlan Park had finally concluded it was the local side, O'Loughlin Gaels, who were able to make the short trip home across the road to get ready to defend the AIB Leinster hurling club title for Kilkenny, which has held the title for the past two years.
In a way O’Loughlin’s made hard work of the semi-final, as they looked more composed and likely to advance for most of the second half but still had to scramble to pull out an equaliser at the end of normal time before spurning an opportunity to win the match in 60 minutes when Mark Bergin drifted a free wide.
It was to the credit of Dublin champions Ballyboden, driven by a big second-half performance from Conal Keaney, that they hung on and nearly won, but for most of the match they were chasing their opponents with varying degrees of effectiveness.
O’Loughlin Gaels were sharper and more clinical once the Dublin club’s dominant opening 20 minutes had elapsed.
There were a couple of key phases in the match, the most decisive coming in the second half of extra time when, with the scores level, the winners emerged to hit four unanswered points for a margin of victory greater than any lead they had previously enjoyed.
Points from Brian Dowling, captain Martin Comerford – a great strike from out on the left wing – and two from top scorer Mark Bergin finally put the contest beyond Ballyboden’s reach.
Of nearly equal significance was the six minutes or so before half-time when the Kilkenny champions rattled off 1-3 without reply to turn the match on its head.
With ’Boden well on top at 1-6 to 0-4, the first couple of points of the comeback came from Danny Loughnane, turning his marker nicely and then nipping in after an attempted intercept had failed.
Peter Dowling added the third and then in injury time after Gary Maguire hadn’t managed to secure a long-range free by Bergin, Brian Dowling flicked the ball into the net to give his team the interval lead, 1-7 to 1-6.
Asked afterwards for his reaction O’Loughlin Gaels’ manager Michael Nolan was unequivocal.
“Relief. Relief, more than anything else. We knew if we stayed at our own game that we’d get there. It took us a long time though. We’d have settled for being a couple of points down at half-time. We were hurled off the field for the first quarter of an hour in fairness, after that we got stuck in.”
Once the second half started and even though Paul Ryan levelled from a free, it was as if Ballyboden didn’t quite possess the same conviction and self-belief they had shown earlier.
They battled commendably but it always appeared to be rearguard stuff as opposed to the controlling directives coming from the Kilkenny side for whom Brian Hogan commanded the centre of the defence and Comerford was increasingly influential after moving deeper.
Mark Bergin wasn’t flawless off placed balls but he was sufficiently prolific to knock over 11 points, all but three from frees.
A measure of the winners’ grip on the match was the manner in which they hit back within a minute of six of the opposition scores to help reassert their initiative. It was a far cry from the early stages when fumbling and hesitancy in the face of the opening Ballyboden blitz helped to gift Keaney an opening which he duly exploited for a 1-2 to 0-1 lead on five minutes. Points from David Curtin and Shane Durkin emphasised the flow of the match at centrefield. Glitches began to appear in their play however and Loughnane nearly got a goal in the 15th minute whereas Ballyboden hit a couple of poor wides.
When the match turned against them the Dublin club maintained a foothold with two frees from Ryan which ended up in the net – the first in the 44th minute hammered in from close range after Keaney had been pole-axed by Andy Kearns and the second in the last minute when the ball’s flight may have got lost in the sun and briefly threatened a famous victory.
Niall McEvoy rescued the Kilkenny champions from the puck-out to send the match into extra time. O’Loughlin’s full back line was in defiant form late on with Brian Kelly and Eddie Kearns influential figures.
“We’re gutted,” said Ballyboden manager Liam Hogan. “We genuinely thought we had a real good chance of winning here today. We came down with the intention of winning, nothing else. We trained all year for this one day and it just wasn’t to be.”
O'LOUGHLIN GAELS: S Murphy; B Kelly, A Kearns, E Kearns; A O'Brien, B Hogan, N Bergin; P Dowling (0-1), S Cummins; A Geoghegan (0-2), M Bergin (0-11, 0-8 frees), N McEvoy (0-2); B Dowling (1-2), D Loughnane (0-2), M Comerford (0-1). Subs:C Bergin for Cummins (51 mins), Cummins for C Bergin (70 mins).
BALLYBODEN ST ENDA'S: G Maguire; S Hiney, D Spain, M O'Sullivan; B Treacy, S Nolan, M Travers; D Curtin (0-2), S Durkin (0-2); C McCormack, S Lambert, D Sweeney; P Ryan (2-5, 2-4 frees), C Keaney (1-1), J Doody (0-1). Subs: P Buckridge for Sweeney (41 mins), N McMorrow for Doody (41 mins), D O'Connor for Lambert (58 mins), D Curran for Treacy (79 mins).
Referee: D Murphy(Wexford).
