Crusheen may pay heavy price in replay
That’s far too much.
Were they anticipating there was going to be such a small crowd and trying to make up for it by charging an excessive price? Because I don’t care what anyone says, in these times, for ANY club game and regardless of any concessions for families or kids or pensioners, €20 is too much.
I hope they don’t charge that money again next week, especially given it’s a replay. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…
Was it worth €20? Well for character, for commitment, you couldn’t fault anyone on either side. But, for entertainment value, for hurling skills, no, it wasn’t worth that money. Maybe we’ve been spoiled, but this WAS a Munster Club senior final and you should expect high standards. Those standards weren’t met yesterday.
I’ll start with Na Piarsaigh, who were favourites yesterday — how many scores did they get from play? Five points, and one of those by a sub. What did Shane Dowling score? 1-7, out of 1-11, and 1-6 of that from placed balls.
For an attack that came with such a big reputation, this was a very poor return.
Fair play though to young Shane; he is only a minor, but again he carried this Na Piarsaigh team. I said he’d need help — he didn’t get a lot of it yesterday.
In defence, Na Piarsaigh did reasonably well, Kieran Breen and James O’Brien strong down the middle, Alan Dempsey impressive on the wing, and when they moved Cathal King to midfield from corner-back, he too did well, certainly improved on what he’d been doing in the corner.
One thing about this Na Piarsaigh team, they’re young, very young some of them, and this was their first Munster final at this level — they will surely have learned from it. Mostly, they will need to learn up front.
To Crusheen. I’ve seen these guys a number of times this year — this was one of their poorer games, certainly came nowhere near matching their effort against Cork champions Carrigtwohill in the semi-final win.
They can be grateful to a few individuals today that they are still in with a chance of winning their first Munster title.
Goalkeeper, Donal Touhy, did very well again, one of the busiest men on the field, in stark contrast to the man at the other end, Padraic Kennedy, who didn’t have a save to make.
I FELT Alan Brigdale would pickup Shane Dowling, but Na Piarsaigh facilitated Crusheen here in starting Shane in Alan’s corner. Alan is a good man-marker, did well on Shane.
All the Crusheen defence did well — both Brigdales, Ciarán O’Doherty on the wing, and the three Dillons, but Cathal was magnificent, my man-of-the-match. All through the game he showed great leadership, was superb in the air, scored a great point.
Pat Vaughan did well in midfield but he needs more help than he’s getting. Up front, David Forde did well, but Crusheen’s best forward was Patrick Meaney.
Question — why did Crusheen move Gerry O’Grady to centre-forward? He should have been left on the edge of the square, where he’s always capable of doing damage.
To finish, I know this, both teams can play better, but having seen what I saw yesterday, I’d fear for Crusheen.
For the second game in a row they failed to create a goal opportunity — that’s a worry.
Against that, can Shane Dowling continue to shoulder as much of a load for Na Piarsaigh?
* The man with the biggest following in Thurles yesterday was the great Tom Mac, a queue to shake his hand.
