Loughlin calls for more clinical Clonkill
April 30, 2011When Sean Loughlin looks back on 2010, his biggest regret is that Clonkill didn't deliver knockout blows when they had both Raharney and Castletown-Geoghegan on the ropes in the respective senior and minor championship finals.
With seven minutes remaining in the senior decider, Clonkill had a six-point lead on Raharney and looked set to retain the Examiner Cup. But somehow the champions let victory slip from their grasp as late goals from Paul Greville and Brian Connaughton handed the Deelsiders a remarkable win and left Clonkill shell-shocked.
It was a similar story in the minor final. Six points up with less than 10 minutes remaining, Clonkill were reeled in by a fancied Castletown-Geoghegan team who came back to draw the match in controversial circumstances before winning the replay comfortably.
"We left the senior and minor titles behind us," last year's senior player-manager Loughlin ruefully reflects.
"Whatever about the minors, the seniors should not have lost. We should have had the experience to close out the final. We got caught with Brian Connaughton's sucker punch goal right at the end and had little or no time to recover.
"It was a hard one to take, but Raharney played to the final whistle and showed what a great team they are in the Leinster club championship. I was delighted to see them go as far as they did. They blew a highly-rated Coolderry team away and ran Oulart-the-Ballagh very close. They were great ambassadors for Westmeath hurling."
He continues: "It was disappointing to lose the minor final as well, but overall, I think Castletown were the better team. They have been setting the standards at underage level over the past few years and I see them as dark horses for this year's senior championship.
"I would class it as a good year from a Clonkill point of view only for we didn't finish those games off. We're happy to be contesting finals. God knows, we went long enough without getting to finals before we finally made it back to one (at senior level) in 1998."
A holder of five senior hurling championship medals, two senior football championship medals (won with The Downs) as well as Leinster and All-Ireland intermediate honours, the long-serving Loughlin was appointed manager in succession to Pat O'Toole at the start of last season with Aidan Davitt, Christy Murtagh and Pat Murtagh acting as his selectors. Former Birr All-Ireland club Donal Franks joined the management set-up midway through the season, assuming the role of coach.
"As I was still playing, we decided to bring in Donal and his knowledge of the game was a big help to us," he recalls.
Clonkill opened their Examiner Cup defence with an emphatic 3-24 to 0-6 victory over 2009 intermediate champions St. Brigid's at Cusack Park. The gulf in class between the sides was huge with Clonkill wasting no time to kill off their opponents. They hit St. Brigid's for 1-1 in the opening four minutes and went on to lead by 2-13 to 0-4 at the interval. No fewer than eight Clonkill players got on the scoresheet with the impressive Eoin Price, Paddy Dowdall and Luke Folan accounting for their goals.
The victory earned Clonkill a place in the winners' section alongside Castlepollard, St. Oliver Plunkett's and Castletown-Geoghegan. A powerful second half display saw the green and golds overwhelm Castlepollard on a 1-20 to 0-6 scoreline in their opening game. 'Pollard were just three points down at half-time, 0-5 to 0-8, but were completely outclassed by a rampant Clonkill in the second half.
Another victory was expected against Plunkett's, but it failed to materialise as the Mullingar club pulled off a shock 3-10 to 2-11 victory. Eddie Casey's charges struck for a hat-trick of goals in the first half to lead by 3-4 to 2-6 at the interval and they withstood strong pressure from the champions in the second half to maintain the lead throughout.
That defeat left Clonkill needing to beat Castletown-Geoghegan in their final winners' group match to progress to the semi-final. The contest looked set to go to the wire when Clonkill led by just three points at the interval, but just as they had done against 'Pollard, they turned on the style in the second half to run out facile 4-17 to 1-8 winners with county star Brendan Murtagh helping himself to 2-6.
The semi-final provided the Loughegar men with an opportunity to avenge their earlier defeat to St. Oliver Plunkett's. Sean O'Leary's 22nd minute goal helped Plunkett's to a slender 1-4 to 0-6 interval lead, but they only managed two further points in the second half as Clonkill fought back to secure an unconvincing 0-14 to 1-6 victory. The win was greatly facilitated by a wasteful Plunkett's performance, particularly from placed balls.
The county final pitted Clonkill against a Raharney team who were eager to prove that their 2008 success at the expense of the green and golds was no fluke. And in one of best finals in years, Raharney produced a late comeback to snatch the Examiner Cup from under Clonkill's noses.
There was little to choose between the sides in the first half with Alan Dowdall's point giving the champions a 0-9 to 0-8 lead at the break. It remained close until the 49th minute when Niall Dowdall goaled to put Clonkill six clear. However, the switching of Paul Greville from wing back to full forward proved to be the final's turning point.
The county dual star revived Raharney's hopes when he beat Brian Murray with four minutes remaining. Brendan Murtagh restored Clonkill's two-point advantage in an instant, but Raharney refused to throw in the towel and in the fifth minute of stoppage-time, Greville won a free which Brian Connaughton dispatched to the net to give the Deelsiders a famous 2-14 to 1-16 victory.
"Without trying to take anything away from Raharney's victory, we may have peaked too soon last year," the Clonkill player-manager says.
"We were flying in the Leinster League in the early part of the year and had a great win over Tullaroan from Kilkenny. Ballyboden St. Enda's eventually beat us in the semi-final, but we were short nine players due to their involvement with the county team and in fairness to Ballyboden, they were short a few as well.
"Raharney have the cup so they are the team with all the confidence going into the new season. We haven't lost anyone from last year so we hope to give a good account of ourselves again. I'd expect Plunkett's, Lough Lene Gaels and Castletown to be in the shake-up as well."
The minor and under 16 finals brought no joy either for what has been one of the county's most successful clubs over the past decade. There was a controversial end to the minor final when Neal Kirby pounced for an equalising goal which Clonkill were adamant was a square ball infringement and therefore should have been disallowed. Castletown made no mistake in the replay, winning by 2-14 to 2-5.
In the under 16 final, meanwhile, an impressive Raharney side accounted for Clonkill by 3-9 to 1-4 to claim a first ever title in the grade. The Deelsiders led by 1-5 to 1-2 at half-time and pushed on with goals from Dan Fox and substitute Ciaran Doyle in the second half.
Sport was put into perspective towards the end of the year when news broke of senior panellist Johnny Fitzsimons' tragic death at the age of just 21. He won under 14, under 16, minor and under 21 medals with Clonkill and enjoyed similar success with The Downs. His brother James was also part of the senior panel last year, while his father Jimmy was club chairman when Clonkill brought the All-Ireland intermediate title back to Loughegar in February 2009.
"It was a massive shock to everyone in the club. When you're training with someone two or three times a week and then suddenly he's gone, it's very hard to come to terms with," Sean concludes on a sad note.
The Clonkill team which suffered a heartbreaking SHC final loss to Raharney was: Brian Murray; Stephen Cleary (captain), Martin Scally, Sean Loughlin; Shane Power, Andrew Mitchell, Fergal Fagan; Eoin Price, Enda Loughlin; Anthony Price, Brendan Murtagh, Alan Dowdall; Niall Dowdall, Paddy Dowdall, Michael Heffernan. Subs used: Luke Folan and John Fagan.
Clonkill lined out as follows in the minor final replay: Daniel Sheridan; Thomas McLoughlin, Kelvin Reilly, Thomas Egan; Finbar Thompson, Cathal Scally, Ciaran Crentsil; John Egan, Niall Folan; John Heffernan, Paul Poynton, Conor Thompson; Enda Morrison, Anthony Price, Dylan O'Regan. Subs used: Niall Murray, Luke Loughlin, Ciaran Morrison and Shane Carroll.
Under 21 glory
Clonkill were crowned under 21 (13-a-side) hurling champions for 2010 following an emphatic 2-16 to 1-4 victory over Lough Lene Gaels in the delayed final at Robinstown on January 30 last.
Runners-up to Raharney in 2009 when they were forced to play the semi-final and final on the same weekend, the green and golds were in no mood to slip up again and laid the foundations for their success when outscoring the Gaels by 0-10 to 0-1 in the second quarter. This scoring burst helped them to a 12-point lead at the break and there was no way back for their Collinstown opponents in the second half.
The final might have turned out differently had Stephen Bardon's rasping shot in the 10th minute hit the net rather than the crossbar. Following that let-off, Clonkill settled down to play some excellent hurling with a flurry of scores from Cathal Scally, Anthony Price, Niall Foran and Alan McGrath ensuring them of a comfortable half-time lead.
The game had started at a frenetic pace with Anthony Price's early goal for Clonkill being quickly cancelled out by a similar effort from Thomas Doyle at the opposite end. But after the crossbar had denied the Gaels their second goal, it was all Clonkill
It continued to be one-way traffic after the restart with Mark Keegan's goal putting the seal on a facile win for the Loughegar-based club.
Clonkill's under 21 championship winning team was: Dylan O'Regan; Kelvin Reilly, James McCormack; Conor Thompson, Niall Dowdall, Cathal Scally; Shane Power, Niall Foran; Mark Keegan, Alan McGrath, Enda Morrison; Mick Heffernan, Anthony Price. Subs used: Colm Caffrey, John Egan, Thomas McLoughlin, Paul Poynton and Hugh Gaffney. Tweet
