Inside Track with John McIntyre

The best wine was left until last, and boy was it needed! For the weekend’s other three senior hurling preliminary quarter-finals served up a series of sobering defeats, totalling 42 points. The first knock-out games of the title race had left several teams punch drunk.

By the time Castlegar and Sarsfields took to the field at Kenny Park on Sunday, question marks over the wisdom of even having preliminary quarter-finals were starting to circulate. Killimordaly had been hammered by 17 points; Athenry finished 11 points adrift of Tommy Larkins, while Moycullen had already conceded four goals to champions Loughrea in eventually falling short by 14 points.

It all left Castlegar and Sarsfields trying to salvage some form of competitiveness from the weekend’s action, and though the game was expected to be relatively tight, the general expectations were that the men from New Inn/Bullaun would prevail even without the injured Joseph Cooney, Paddy Mac Carthaigh and Alex Connaire in their starting line-up.

They were facing a Cashel team which had sent shock waves through the parish – for all the wrong reasons – when suffering an almighty thumping from Turloughmore in the second round of group matches. It was a humiliating loss for the most decorated club in the championship’s history.

But Castlegar restored some pride with a determined showing against Clarinbridge in their next outing and given a couple of close battles with Sarsfields over recent years, Mattie Murphy’s troops would have viewed last Sunday’s clash in Athenry as not beyond them.

From the off, they fought like a team still stung by that drubbing from Turloughmore. Greg Thomas was quickly proving a handful in the full forward line; the remarkable Ger Farragher was again rolling back the years, while defender Dean Higgins lofted over two inspirational first half points from inside his own half.

Cashel were putting it up to Sarsfields in a full-bloodied collision and the pre-match favourites were grateful for the scoring impact of Darren Murphy, who would finish the match with seven points from play. It was nip and tuck for much of the opening half until raiding defender Leon Connaire rattled the net in the 27th minute.

Pictured: Sarsfields’ Diarmuid Mac Cárthaigh holds off the challenge of Castlegar’s Sean Nearyvduring Sunday’s Senior A preliminary quarter-final at Kenny Park. Photo: David Cunniffe.