This article is from page 95 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 95 JPG
EXPERIENCE told in the end. That added touch of guile and know-how that two previous All-Ireland titles have given Laois champions The Harps. Their inter-play was slick, their movement elusive but some- times it is the smaller things that prove the difference in a tight con- test. For instance over a dozen times throughout this decider, The Harps got themselves out of trouble when surrounded, by dropping the hurley and handpassing to another player. In contrast, when Kilmaley were pre- sented with a similar predicament, nine times out of ten, their players opted to try and strike and invariably they were blocked down.
Those little differences are all part of a learning curve for Kilmaley who were only competing in their first national final and pride was just as evident as disappointment at the final whistle as manager John Carmody shrugged off the rain to reflect on his players’ performance.
“On behalf of Tommy Keane, Pat Lynch and myself, we were abso- lutely proud of the girls. Every time they have taken the field this year, they have fought to the last inch and they did the same today. Going into injury time, we were still only a puck of the ball behind but it just wasn’t to be today. They were just that small bit ahead of us.
“I suppose when you are playing teams like this, that you don’t see every week, it may take ten or fifteen minutes to get to grips with a side. We made moves and they worked and we stormed into the game. We had a tremendous last ten minutes of the first half and we felt that at half- time we were in a great position, not having hurled well, to be going in on level terms. But you have to credit the Harps because we threw every- thing we had at them in the second half but they just seemed to have that bit extra on us.
“We had a few half chances just af- ter half time that just went narrowly wide and you never know, if we had
gone ahead or got that point up, we might have seen a few mistakes in their game. But they got the scores and pushed home.”
Still with County and Munster hon- ours already secured, it has been a real whirlwind adventure for Carmo- dy and his side this year and he en- visages a bright future for his young Kilmaley side.
“Ya it’s been a great year. We are county and Munster champions and we only beaten by a puck of the ball in an All-Ireland final so they are a young team and hopefully they will stay committed and improve as time goes on.”
In a year of firsts that reaped so much, coming back even stronger will be a bigger test of this side in the coming year.