O’Loughlin Gaels hold firm as Kilcormac-Killoughey leave themselves with too much ground to cover

Leinster club SHC semi-final: O’Loughlin Gaels 0-17 Kilcormac-Killoughey 0-12

From the moment they deposed All-Ireland champions Ballyhale in the Kilkenny final, O’Loughlin Gaels knew the pressure was on to pick up the trail of their predecessors in the wider world. It’s an environment they hadn’t experienced in seven seasons.

Immediate challenges included the county hurlers’ holiday in New York and the assorted celebrations that follow a county title.

Manager Brian Hogan acknowledged that his team had trodden a tricky path to get to Saturday’s AIB Leinster semi-final against Offaly’s Kilcormac-Killoughey.

“The last match [quarter-final against Mount Leinster Rangers] was as much a mental challenge as anything. You’re coming off a high – it’s so difficult to win Kilkenny. Then you celebrate for a couple of days which is also important. To try and reset was the challenge and to be fair to the lads, today they came out and played really well in the first half before sitting back a bit.”

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It was that first half which decided the semi-final. Kilcormac are a side on the rise, having won Offaly this year with a clutch of the county’s effervescent under-20s on board.

They soared in the second half of their quarter-final against Naomh Éanna in Wexford with full forward James Gorman a menace under high ball and under-20 hotshot Adam Screeney providing rapier accompaniment to the broadsword.

With home advantage for Saturday’s semi-final they were seen as having a strong chance to upset the visitors.

Key to what unfolded in front of 3,500 spectators was what Hogan felt was the respective strengths of the teams.

“Doing analysis over the last two weeks, we felt the match-ups suited us. We were set up nicely to counter their threat. They like to play direct and look for James Gorman and Screeney inside. You couldn’t ask for two better defenders than Huw [Lawlor] and Mikey [Butler] but saying that, defence doesn’t start with the six backs; it starts farther out the field.”

That was true. Gorman got off a nice score early in the match but had neither the service nor the latitude to terrorise All Star full back Lawlor. Screeney was in the same position, having to fend off Mikey Butler, another All Star, with inadequate supply.

Their half backs were also commanding. Paddy Deegan blocking off the central approach and his wings, David Fogarty and Jordan Molloy alert to breaking ball and adventurous enough to get forward for a score each.

As Lawlor said afterwards: “It was tough going. It always going to be tough and we were up against it for long periods of the second half. We just wanted to break the ball and we trusted our half-backs to get back on the breaks.”

Those threats contained, the Kilkenny champions put together some fluent movement through the middle third, which they largely dominated. Conor Heary was named Man of the Match by TG4, a reflection of his bustling display around centrefield where he and Eoin O’Shea were conspicuous in finding space and breaking tackles. It was essentially one-way traffic. Kilcormac acknowledged that they had been slightly out of focus in that first half, their work rate and accuracy needing improvement.

Were it not for some slack shooting, O’Loughlins would have been out of sight by the break. Even Mark Bergin, their captain and ice-man on the frees who scored 0-7, had an at times wayward afternoon.

Overall, those 10 first-half missed chances were a matter of frustration for Hogan even though he credited the creativity which opened up the shooting lanes. As it was, Kilcormac could just about pick out their opponents in the distance.

Trailing 0-3 to 0-10 at half-time, Kilcormac rallied on the resumption but as their manager Shane Hand accepted afterwards, they had left themselves too much to do even with a deceptively strong wind behind them in the second half.

He was rightly proud of their resilience in getting the margin twice down to two points but the winners were always able to finesse a score to stay firmly in front.

The visitors’ attack was fast and menacing. Corner forwards Owen Wall and Seán Bolger were sharp and threatening – 0-2 each and no misses on a day when their team had 13 wides and three dropped short.

Kilcormac’s improvement was based on tightening up on their opponents. Oisín Mahon and Cillian Kiely made the middle third a more forbidding place and the forwards eliminated the loose shooting. Charlie Mitchell scored 0-3 in the second half and Screeney converted all his frees.

The recovery cut the margin twice to two points but O’Loughlins never panicked – even in injury-time at 0-14 to 0-12 when they ran off the last three points of the match.

They will face Na Fianna next weekend in Croke Park. Mikey Butler took issue with the emerging narrative that Ballyhale’s absence will benefit Waterford’s Ballygunner.

“We’re not getting any credit at all. Even in Kilkenny this year, we were always underdogs. But we don’t mind that. We know how much work we have done coming into these matches. We have the fitness and we have the hurlers. It’s just about going out and showing it.”

O’LOUGHLIN GAELS: S Murphy; T Forristal, H Lawlor, M Butler; D Fogarty (0-1), P Deegan, J Molloy (0-1); J Nolan, C Loy (0-1); C Heary (0-1), M Bergin (capt; 0-7, 6f), E O’Shea (0-1); O Wall (0-1), P Butler (0-1), S Bolger (0-1). Subs: C Kelly for Butler (half-time), L Hogan for O’Shea (38 mins), J Ryan for Nolan (59 mins).

KILCORMAC-KILLOUGHEY: C Slevin (capt); T Spain, O Mahon, B Kavanagh; J Quinn, C Kiely (0-2, 1f, 65), E Grogan; C Spain, D Kilmartin; Leigh Kavanagh, C Mahon, J Screeney (0-1); C Mitchell (0-3), J Gorman (0-1), A Screeney (0-5, all frees). Subs: Cathal Kiely for L Kavanagh (half-time), P Geraghty for Gorman (43 mins), T Geraghty for Kilmartin (57 mins), T Guinan for J Screeney (62 mins).

Referee: Seán Stack (Dublin).