Diarmuid Ó Mathúna 1-14
St James 0-14
JOHN MURPHY REPORTS
IT was always going to take something special to finally separate St James and hosts Diarmuid Ó Mathúna in this entertaining Dubliner Cheese Carbery Division 1 hurling league clash at foggy Castletownkenneigh.
It arrived in the 56th minute as the visitors, who had dominated most of the second half, finally delivered on their monopoly of possession and breached the Saints’ citadel to score the all-important and only goal of the game.
It could be dubbed the O’Donovan movement, as outstanding midfielder Kevin, with a long booming delivery from midfield, saw his namesake Gearóid pick up the loose ball and crash the ball to the visitor’s net from an acute angle.
It was a body-blow to the vanquished who responded with a free from their impressive scoring sorcerer Aaron Hayes and a delightful point by Kevin O’Brien. But buoyed by that crucial goal Mathúnas held the line to finish on a high with yet another pointed free by the brilliant Jamie Lucey.
It was a victory that Mathúnas manager Liam O’Reilly was well pleased with given the fact that their forces were somewhat depleted.
‘We were struggling to field a team prior to this game with fellas away and injured. JP O’Callaghan lined out in goal and did brilliantly, while all the other lads focussed on the task on hand and performed superbly,’ O’Reilly said.
‘We looked more likely to score a goal before we finally did near the end. We picked up a lot of breaking balls, we spread it nicely off the shoulder, so if we can improve on that and get back some of our panel – we were missing ten of last year’s team today – things will be looking up for the championship’.

Jamie Lucey and Aaron Hayes, who gave wonderful exhibitions of dead-ball accuracy, shared four early points, as veteran JP O’Callaghan rolled back the years in the 15th minute to foil Mark Evans with a brilliant point-blank save. It was vital as the Saints were trailing by a double scores margin, 0-6 to 0-3, at that juncture but imposing their will much more on the exchanges with the Evans clan, Aaron O’Driscoll, Kevin O’Brien, David Hayes and James O’Sullivan defending astutely and more proactive in attack. In fact, by the interval, they had battled their way to equality on the scoreboard, 0-8 to 0-8, and had all to play for on resuming.
However, the hosts – with Ted Lordan, Joe O’Driscoll, Jamie Lucey, the O’Donovan duo of Gearóid and Kevin, Jack O’Callaghan and Ronan McCarthy all upping the ante – hit them with a flurry of points, four in all from Joe O’Driscoll, Jamie Lucey (free) and a cracking brace by Gearóid O’Donovan inside the opening ten minutes on resuming.

Undaunted, the Saints, with Aaron Hayes a model of consistency from frees, again battled back. They had cut the deficit to a point, 0-13 to 0-12, before Mathúnas delivered that knockout blow that scuppered the Ardfield/Rathbarry boys’ chance of victory.
Scorers - Diarmuid Ó Mathúna: Jamie Lucey 0-8 (5f); Gearóid O’Donovan 1-4; Jack O’Callaghan, Joe O’Driscoll 0-1 each. St James: Aaron Hayes 0-11 (8f); Joe O’Sullivan, Cathal Hennessy, Kevin O’Brien 0-1 each.
Diarmuid Ó Mathúna: John Paul O’Callaghan; Gavin Ahern, Ronan McCarthy, Shane Corcoran; Seán Hennessy, Jeremiah Hurley, William Horgan; Jack O’Callaghan, Kevin O’Donovan; Robbie Lucey, Ted Lordan, Joe O’Driscoll; Jamie Lucey, Gearóid O’Donovan, Brian Horgan. Sub: Eoghan Mangan for Brian Horgan (42).
St James: Diarmuid O’Donovan; Shane Murphy, David Hayes, Peter Whelton; Cristoir Hayes, James O’Sullivan, Andrew Whelton; Cathal Hennessy, Joseph O’Sullivan; Kevin O’Brien, Paul O’Sullivan, Ian Evans; Aaron Hayes, Mark Evans, Aaron O’Flynn. Subs: Jonathan Hill, Eoin Deasy, Kieran O’Donovan (all second half).
Referee: Kevin Crowley (Ballinascarthy).