Foley proves secret weapon for Adare

In a game in which it was difficult to pick out any particular individual (a great display from Andrew O’Shaughnessy who scored 4-9 from 4-11 for Kilmallock), Jack Foley was selected as man of the match, for his performance for Adare when moved to centre back after the opening quarter.

Afterwards, Jack explained why, despite the late winning surge, they had failed to live up to their billing.

“In fairness to Ahane, they’re a great championship team, pulled us all over the place. We were at sixes and sevens, couldn’t get our shape right, and they went into an early lead, 6-2 . Mark (brother and team captain) went out midfield and did better, and we came back well, went in level at half-time.

“Then it came apart again, they went into the lead, our shape was all over the place. We got great confidence from winning last year, came back at the end, but Jesus we’re really relieved to have won this one. The sending-off had a big bearing on it, though I suppose Seanie (O’Connor) was unlucky; the ball was just gone, a half second, but he pulled and hit JP.

“We had only a point scored in the second half to then, but after that, we lifted our game, and the forwards especially really came up trumps.

“This one was important to us, everyone was saying to us we’d only be a flash in the pan if we didn’t win another county, so we had something to prove. We didn’t play as well as we did last year, but we have done back to back now. We want to be a force to be reckoned with, and hopefully we’ll do that, in the next few years.”

Still alive this year anyway, but that almost certainly wouldn’t have been the case if keeper Timmy Houlihan hadn’t pulled off a vital save in the 49th minute, at a time when Ahane were very much in the ascendancy.

“People will say that, but scores win games, not saves,” countered Houlihan. “And we got those in the last few minutes, when the game was on the line. We were lucky too, we were getting the breaks we weren’t getting in the first half. It’s great to win the second one now, for the parish.”

The breaks Houlihan was talking about were the late frees, won in the half back line and taken by full back JP Healy, two of which led directly to points. According to Healy however, that wasn’t the way it was planned.

“Standing over the frees, I was trying to send them over the bar, but obviously that didn’t work. We got the scores anyway, and that’s all that matters now.

It was a very relieved Mark Foley who accepted the cup from county board chairman Donal Fitzgibbon, relieved on the double, that his late shot had dropped over the bar.

“I knew the shot was on target, but didn’t know if it was going to end up dropping over or not. Thankfully it just dropped on the right side.

“It’s sweeter than last year, because everything went right for us on the day. It’s good to win one now, not playing well, that’s nearly a nicer one to win, it lets you know you can come out on top in a tough battle.”

With the senior county football final to come next Sunday, in which 11 of the hurlers will probably start, then the Munster club championship to follow, there will be a busy few weeks ahead for Adare.

“Yeah, but this is the one we wanted, this was the target we set ourselves at the beginning of the year. The football is a bonus, but we’re delighted with the win today.