Craughwell hang on as city rivals count cost of late miss

Liam Mellows 2-14

WATCHING Jack Hastings and Enda Fallon trying to console him after the final whistle, it was hard not to feel sympathy for Tadhg Haran.

He’d scored 0-11 for Liam Mellows, and the last minute free he was presented with would have seen him finish level for the day with the 0-12 that Niall Healy shot for Craughwell. Slightly to the right of the posts at the scoreboard end of Kenny Park, just outside the ’21, Haran would normally put such a free over 99 times out of a 100. But on Saturday, he missed the chance to draw the quarter-final for Mellows.

Haran is a fine hurler, and you’d hope he comes back better for the experience. But that’s pressure, and that’s how cruel sport can be at times. He got all seven of Mellows’ second half points to go with two early goals from Stephen Barrett, and an excellent point he’d scored from play drew the teams level 0-19 to 2-13 in the 58th minute.

That was the seventh time the teams were locked on the scoreboard in the half. Craughwell had been 2-17 to 2-10 winners when the clubs met in Group A of the Senior Championship on May 10, but it is never easy to beat a team twice in the same year.

Mellows put seven goals past Carnmore two weekends previous, and after coming out for the second period 0-10 to 0-7 in arrears, it was clear that they’d need to rattle the net a couple of times to make a county semi-final at their opponent’s expense. Craughwell had bossed the first half, but were rocked in the first five minutes upon the resumption by Barrett’s goals.

Barrett scythed his way through the Craughwell cover for the first, batting the sliotar under the legs of the advancing Aidan Ryan. For the second three minutes later in the 34th minute, Aonghus Callanan, Cathal Reilly and Adrian Morrissey were all involved in the move which ended with Barrett rounding Ryan and scoring. It put Mellows in front for the first time in the match, 2-7 to 0-12.

Aidan Ryan was booked for a slap of the hurl on Barrett for that goal, but 10 minutes later he redeemed himself. Callanan, quiet all game up to then, found himself bearing down on the Craughwell goal, but Ryan brilliantly dived to his left to keep out the effort from the Mellows captain. Incidentally, Haran was completely free on his own at the edge of the square to Callanan’s left.

Those are the small margins that sporting contests are often decided on though. After Haran had drawn the sides level for the final occasion, Niall Callanan and Jamie Ryan put Craughwell two ahead, and Ryan’s point was to be the clincher. The Craughwell wing-forward shot three overall, and it was Craughwell’s greater scoring spread in the forwards that was a deciding factor in the result.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.