Good opener in Div 4 Hurling League
March 08, 2026
A spirited showing from Killavullen, helped with a sprinkling of star dust from the evergreen Barry Murphy in the second half was sufficient to see Killavullen come out on top, against Kilshannig, in the first round of Division 4 hurling League. This was the battle of the two previous winners of the Junior C championship, Killavullen in 2024 and Kilshannig in 2025 so the standard was quite high for this grade.
Kilshannig started brightly and had raced into a three point lead before Killavullen got their opening score, from Colm Hannon but it was decisive in that it raised a green flag. That was in the 10th minute of the game in which our new recruit from Tipperary, Eanna McInerney was prominent and generally Killavullen were battled well, to stay in the game. Kilshannig though, raised a green flag of their own in the same minute with Cian Murphy in our goal without fault for the score. In an open enough game, Colm brought us level again with another well taken goal, to leave the score 2.00 to 1-03 in the 12th minute of the half.
Kilshannig regained the initiative with two points, only for Colm Hannon to score from distance, and Darragh O Grady to score from a free to restore parity, Kilshannig again edged ahead, but were denied goal chances by our hard working defenders, who as a collective worked very hard to limit their opponents to half chances, and shooting under pressure. Darragh scored another free and retook the lead, but Colm Looney got free of his man, and shot over the bar, when he had a major on his mind. Just before the break, Kilshannig edged back in front, with a long-range point.
The ageless wonder that is / was Barry Murphy was sprung from his selectors role to partake in the game, and he was to have a profound influence, in the outcome. Killavullen also had a stronger bench than our hosts, and that was telling. Barry immediately scored a goal in the 2nd minute of his introduction after being well set up by Conor Griffin, prominent at centre back, with a deft pass to Tomas Fennell and onto Barry. Ball in hand, there is no better finisher. Eanna got a point his fine display deserved, to stretch the margin to four, but Kilshannig responded with a goal of their own, a ball that should have been cleared. Killavullen pushed on now, with a further point from Darragh, and had the lead out to three, by the 9th minute after a point from Colm. A quick thinking free, when Tomas Fennell went backwards with his short pass to Barry saw him rifle the net for the second time, in the 12th minute. Colm scored again, and Killavullen, mindful on another game the following day, for some participants, wrung the changes. We got another point from Colm, then got a fortuitous own goal and we coasted to victory of a final score of 5-11 to 2-13.
Great to be competitive in this game, and league, and certainly the more open spaces mean a fraction longer on the ball, and that suits to develop players.
The team and scorers were.
- Cian Murphy
- Patrick Angland
- Colm Hayes
- Eoin O Hanlon
- Conor Griffin
- Barry Cotter
- Eanna McInerny (0-01)
- Tomas Fennell
- Darragh O Grady (0-03F)
- Ian O Gorman
- Colm Hannon(2-03)
- Colm Looney (0-01)
- Darragh O Connor
Substitutes
- Barry Murphy (2-02) for Ian O Gorman
- Cian O Connor for Colm Hayes
- Seamus O Mahony for Darragh O Connor
- Oisin Larkin (0-01) for Colm Looney
- Seamus Cronin for Barry Cotter