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28 August 2008
Clooney/Quin U-16 Hurlers, backed by a large band of supporters, had to battle for a place in the championship semi-final in rain-soaked Ogonnelloe on Monday.
Playing against the physically stronger O'Callaghan's Mills/Broadford combination, scores were at a premium while physical exchanges were plentiful in the 1st half.
The Mills took the early lead with a pointed free in the 1st minute. They doubled their lead with one from play 5 mins. later.
Both defences were showing a mean streak. Ruaidhri McNamara, Bryan McInerney and Niall McMahon were very prominent for C/Q while our forwards were well marshaled and restricted to shooting from distance.
There were 16 minutes on the clock when we registered our 1st point. This was a well-hit 65m free from Peter Duggan. As we struggled to break down a teak-tough Mills' half-back line, it was our opponents who did most of the hurling in the next 10 mins. Credit to our defence who were up for the challenge. Keith Hogan stood firm in the goalmouth to deny The Mills twice while Dave Barry drove out time and again with ball in hand. The Mills' only reward for their dominance in this period was a pointed free after 23mins.
Jason Ryan and Alan Miller then got a grip on mid-field and C/Q finished the half strongly. As we laid siege on the Mills' defence it was Peter Duggan who popped up to score a crucial goal from close range in 'injury time'.
As the half-time whistle blew it was C/Q 1.1 O'C M/B 0.3.
The 3rd quarter belonged very much to Clooney/Quin. The C/Q half-back line of Dave Barry, Ruaidhri McNamara and Mark Taylor were unyielding, our midfield players were first to every ball and our forwards began to pass the ball around and open up The Mills' defence.
Joe Clune fired over the bar in the 1st minute. Peter Duggan converted his own free 3 mins. later. The Mills interrupted our scoring to send over a free after 5 mins. In the 9th minute, Peter was fouled again and ,this time , sent his free to the edge of the small parallelogram where Niall Hehir 'doubled' the ball to the Mills' net. It was now 2.3 to 0.4.
Johnny Reynolds got goal-side of his marker to score point No. 4. In the 12th minute a good move involving Niall Hehir and Ryan O'Neill resulted in the latter firing over a sweet point from the right wing.
The Mills stemmed the tide with another pointed free in the 22nd minute but C/Q were still rampant. Niall Hehir flashed over a point a minute later before Alan Miller elected to take his point after bursting through the Mills' cover.
The Mills converted another free in the 26th minute but this was canceled out by a wonderful effort from play by Peter Duggan.
At 2.8 to 0.6 it looked like 'game over'. However, the East Clare amalgamation had no intention of giving up, despite the fact that they had been reduced to 14 players at this stage.
They piled on pressure on the C/Q rearguard and were rewarded with a goal from a 20m free 2 mins. into stoppage time. A minute later they had the ball in the net again but time had beaten them and full-time whistle blew on the puck-out.
So, C/Q are through to the semi-final where they will meet Smith O'Briens.
Final Score: Clooney/Quin 2.8 O'C Mills/Broadford 2.6.
Our Scorers; Peter Duggan 1.3 Niall Hehir 1.1 Joe Clune , Johnny Reynolds, Ryan O'Neill and Alan Miller 0.1 each.
