Undone in the second period, from a winning position.
July 10, 2025
Killavullen came up just short in an absorbing game to conclude the Division 4 Hurling, league in Avondhu for 2025, in a game against Ballyhooley, played in the superb pitch, that is Castletownroche, on Tuesday night last.
Ballyhooley opening the scoring from a free, only for Sean Woulfe to equalise from a 65 metre shot after Colm Looney’s shot, was pushed outside the post. Ballyhooly edged ahead again with another converted free. We then got a breakthrough, when Colm Hannon finished to the net coolly after getting on a breaking ball.
Ballyhooley stayed in touch even though we had the lions share of possession, with two further points from placed balls, and we spurned another goal chance. Colm Looney got a point for us, and get saw the mordancy of a bizarre decision, when Colm finished to the net when his man was fouling him plainly, but no goal or penalty was awarded and the play brought back for a free out the field. Scant consolation that Sean Woulfe scored the free. Ballyhooly got a point back from their impressive and young Centre forward, who excelled on the night, and caused us no end of problems. Colm was causing consternation in the Ballyhooley rear guard when the ball was delivered into him, and eventually, he got the goal, that his general ball deserved and Sean added another point from play, before the interval to leave us leading handsomely, 2-04 to 0-05 at the interval.
Ballyhooley got the opening point of the second period, and we got the same score from Colm Hannon to leave things as they were at the break. Niall Feaheny was introduced for Padraig Cronin. Ballyhooly though were gaining momentum, and got a goal from a free, when our backs massed on the line did not clear the ball. It proved to be a real spurn for them, and they rattled off three points in a row to take a one-point lead. Seamus O Mahony was working hard for us and got an equaliser and though we were wayward with our shooting in attack, our strong defensive play, was keeping us in the game. Kian Lane edged us ahead before Ballyhooly equalised from a free and then went up a point once more. Again, in a game that was slipping away from us, and though we were outmuscled and pushed aside, especially in our half forward line, we equalised though Colm Hannon, after catching a great ball in the air. We went ahead with another point from Seamus O Mahony, but Ballyhooly equalised from another free.
With two minutes to go, we were dealt a cruel blow, when Ballyhooly got in for a goal, and try as hard as we could, we could not engineer a levelling goal but in doing so, spurned a number of great point scoring chances, that contributed to a wide tally of nine, in that fateful second half. We scored a point from a free, but with the last puck of the game, Ballyhooly got another point to win out, on a score of 2-13 to 2-10. Afterwards, Aisling Carroll, from the Carroll family in Charleville, presented a lovely old, repurposed cup to the Ballyhooly captain, who was courteous and eloquent in his acceptance speech.
A game that certainly got away from us, but the six points, and nine wides in the second period was telling, but great credit to all involved for getting to the final.
The team and scorers were.
- Darragh O Connor
- Tomas Fennell
- Kevin Fox
- Conor Brennan
- Joe Cagney
- Cian O Connor
- Sean Palmer
- Seamus O Mahony (0-02)
- Padraig Cronin
- Sean Woulfe (0-04, 0-03F, 0-01 x 65M)
- Colm Hannon (1-02)
- Colm Looney (1-01)
- Kian Lane (0-01)
Substitutes
- Niall Feaheny for Padraig Cronin
- Ian O Mahony
- Colm Hayes
- Barry Murphy
- Ian O Gorman
- Michael Cagney
