This article is from page 101 of the 2007-03-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 101 JPG
SPORT is cruel. A Harty Cup medal is one of the most prestigious prize on offer in the game, but typically a hurler will only get one shot at win- UND OreaK@) alse
For this year’s St. Flannan’s side that chance materialised on Sun- day against De La Salle, but cruelly they were denied by a combination of atrocious weather conditions and some suspect refereeing decisions.
There is no question of sour grapes among the St. Flannan’s camp, but they would be well within their rights to query some of Seamus Roche’s de- cisions and why the fixture was ful- filled in the first place.
The weather was like something out of the old testament and by the end of an hour’s hurling both goal- mouths were flooded. In fact it was impossible to decipher, such was the muck, where the respective sidelines were.
“You couldn’t but praise the lads
or fault any of them for the effort they put in,’ explained joint-manager John O’Connor in the aftermath of the defeat.
“The lads were terrific especially in the second half and once we got into that three-point lead Donal (Cahir) turned to me and said if we could get one more score we would go on to win it. But that score never came and De La Salle came back at us.
“Their second goal, which brought them level, really killed us. In a match like that, in those conditions, a goal is almost mentally worth four or five points and after that all the momentum was with De La Salle.”
The circumstances that led to Stephen Power’s second goal were more than suspect. St Flannan’s led by three points in the 49th minute when Power dropped a long-range free into the Flannan’s goalmouth. The sliothar dropped among a forest of hurls before becoming completely submerged in a flooded goalmouth. Then, and inexplicably, Seamus Ro-
che penalised St. Flannan’s ‘keeper Donal Tuohy for lying on the ball. Stephen Power rammed the 21-yard free home and a critical turning point had been reached.
“Most referees, especially in those conditions, would have _ stopped play and given a throw-in,’ adds O’Connot.
‘The referee was very harsh. How the hell he figured that it was a ’21 is beyond me. The ball had literally disappeared into a puddle of water. There was nothing that Donal (Tuo- hy) could have done especially with the goalmouth so crowded. That goal absolutely killed us.”
Such a talking point should never have materialised since the game should never have gone ahead. A sug- gestion that O’Connor agrees with.
‘The referee said to us at half time that if the conditions got any worse he was going to call it off. Even if he had called it off when we were three points up we wouldn’t have minded. Both sets of players deserved better. You just couldn’t hurl in those cond1- tions. Tactics went comepletely out the window and De La Salle, for ex- ample, only scored once from play. Look it’s not sour grapes. The con- ditions were the same for both sides, but it would also have been fairer to both sides if the game had been called off.”
St. Flannan’s now await the loser of the Leinster final between Castle- comer and Kilkenny CBS before they know who they face in an All- Ireland quarter-final in three weeks time.