Kilbrittain 1-14
Nemo Rangers 0-17
OLIVER O’BRIEN REPORTS
KILBRITTAIN’S best performance of the campaign wasn’t enough to see them advance to the knockout stage of the Co-Op superstores Premier Junior Hurling Championship.
The Carbery club had to beat Nemo Rangers in Macroom on Friday night to advance from Group 2, but a second draw in three games means Kilbrittain bow out.
In an entertaining game where everything was on the line, Kilbrittain arguably played their best hurling of this year’s championship. It wasn’t enough though as Nemo were resilient and never let Kilbrittain build up too much of a lead at any stage. Instead, it’s Nemo that advance to a quarter-final against Glen Rovers after Shane Horgan levelled the game late in injury time to deny Kilbrittain their spot in the next round.
Kilbrittain started with energy and a Ronan Crowley free opened the scoring with Philip Wall adding a second point. Nemo responded with frees from both Horgan and former Cork senior footballer James Masters. Declan Harrington finished a fine move to push Kilbrittain ahead and two frees from Bertie Butler either side of a point from Ronan Dalton for Nemo moved Kilbrittain 0-5 to 0-3 in front after 15 minutes.
Nemo were level again within three minutes with scores from Mark Cronin and another free from Horgan. Butler, who was tasked with the free-taking for Kilbrittain as Mark Hickey was absent through injury, added his third free on 20 minutes. The next two scores put Nemo ahead for the first time, a fine point from Dalton and a superb effort from Kevin O’Donovan.
Kilbrittain responded with force and a low ball from Maurice Sexton into the path of Wall saw the Kilbrittain man billow the back of the net for the only goal of the game. Butler and Horgan swapped frees before the break to leave Kilbrittain in command by a slender 1-7 to 0-8 score at half time.
Right from the throw-in, the impressive Josh O’Donovan put Declan Harrington through for a point. But Nemo responded with points from Horgan (free), Barry Cripps and Kevin O’Donovan to level the game again. The second half swung from end to end as it had in the first with Colm Sheehan and Josh O’Donovan prominent for Kilbrittain and Alan O’Donovan, Horgan and Mark Cronin doing a lot of work for the city side.
Tomás Sheehan and Sam Shorten put Kilbrittain two ahead once more, but Mark Cronin and a Horgan free reeled Kilbrittain back in. Butler and Horgan swapped frees leaving it 1-11 to 0-14 entering the final ten minutes.
With scores at a premium, frees were keeping both sides busy, Butler and Horgan swapped a free each again, setting it up for an exciting final few minutes. Butler edged Kilbrittain in front with time almost up and David Desmond brought off a fine save from a packed goalmouth to keep Nemo at bay. Horgan pointed the resultant 65 to level the game entering injury time.
A rousing score from Declan Harrington had Kilbrittain willing the referee to blow the whistle but with the official timekeeper saying four additional minutes, Nemo had the chance to salvage the important point from the game.
In the last minute of injury time, Kilbrittain conceded a needless free and Horgan coolly put over the resultant free to level the game for the final time. Kilbrittain had one final attack that came to nothing; the final whistle broke Kilbrittain’s hearts as the draw was not enough to see them through.
Scorers
Nemo Rangers: S Horgan 0-9 (8f, 1 65); K O’Donovan, M Cronin, R Dalton 0-2 each; J Masters (f), B Cripps 0-1 each.
Kilbrittain: B Butler 0-7 (7f); P Wall 1-1; D Harrington 0-3; R Crowley (f), T Sheehan, S Shorten 0-1 each.
Nemo Rangers: James Masters; Stephen Cronin, John Cowhig, Brian Murphy; Billy O’Neill, Alan O’Donovan, Kevin O’Donovan; Eric Dilloughery, Alan Cronin; Mark Cronin, Barry Cripps, Shane Horgan; Aidan Burns, Ronan Dalton, Colm Kiely.
Subs: Conor Horgan for Kiely (ht), John Kearney for A Burns (ht), Gavan Barrett for Dilloughery (40), Jack Coogan for B O’Neill (56), Conor O’Donovan for A Cronin (57).
Kilbrittain: David Desmond; Darragh Considine, Nick O’Donovan, James Hurley; Tomás Sheehan, Tomás Harrington, Colm Sheehan; Josh O’Donovan, Bertie Butler; Maurice Sexton, Declan Harrington, Ross Cashman; Philip Wall, Sam Dewey, Ronan Crowley:
Subs: Sam Shorten for Cashman (27), Eoin O’Neill for Dewey (47).
Referee: John Ryan (Macroom).
