Cats fail to make the kill again

CAN you imagine the following two things happening within five days of one another — Kilkenny being ahead in a National League game by nine points and losing by four; their senior hurling club champions, O’Loughlin Gaels, being up by five points with only a few minutes to go in the first half of an All-Ireland final, and losing by 12?

I know there’s big money being made by Irish punters in Cheltenham this week, but what odds would you have received on that little double? What happened in Croke Park yesterday, how did O’Loughlin Gaels let such a lead slip, end up losing by so much? There were several factors involved. The first was the switches involving the Kerins brothers, with Mark going to the edge of the square, Alan going out around the centre of the pitch. Then there was the introduction of Enda Collins in midfield in the 29th minute along with the performance of corner-forward Eoin Forde, who got crucial scores when Clarinbridge were struggling. Finally, there was the failure of O’Loughlin’s to move Brian Hogan to full-back to follow Mark Kerins. All combined gave us the final outcome.

I couldn’t understand why the O’Loughlin Gaels sideline didn’t act; even by the end of the first half it was obvious Mark Kerins had the measure of full-back Andy Kearns, and in the second half it became obvious that Brian Hogan was having real problems with Alan at centre-back — the failure to bring him to the edge of the square cost the Kilkenny champions dearly.