Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT’S never over until it’s over. And how that maxim will resonate with the hurlers of Oranmore-Maree and Gort this week as both teams saw the rug pulled from under their feet in the final round of senior hurling championship group ties.

With seconds remaining in their respective weekend outings, both Oranmore-Maree and Gort were on the brink of defying the odds and qualifying for the knock-out stages of the title race, but up popped John Cooney of Sarsfields and Damien McGlynn of St Thomas’ to destroy their seasons.

Instead of looking forward to the business end of the championship, Oranmore-Maree and Gort must now regroup for the relegation play-offs in trying to preserve their Senior A status. If they were the big two losers over the weekend, Castlegar and Killimordaly were the big winners.

Only for Cooney’s dramatic winning goal against Oranmore-Maree at Duggan Park last Saturday evening, Castlegar would have been gone from the championship, a scenario scarcely imaginable after hammering Oranmore-Maree in the opening round, but their form has fallen off a cliff since.

That’s the game which will haunt Oranmore-Maree. They must have sleepwalked their way into the fixture given their subsequent impressive win over Ardrahan and their second half heroics against Sarsfields. They were desperately unlucky too as referee Sean Byrne’s decision to upgrade a lineball to a free for Sarsfields in the lead up to Cooney’s goal had huge ramifications.

At the same venue the following evening Killimordaly got out of jail not through their own exploits, but rather McGlynn’s excellently created stoppage time goal to prevent champions St Thomas’ losing a second consecutive game in Galway since God knows when. Even if they had been beaten, St Thomas’ would still have qualified, but the draw was a sickener for Gort.

They had a chance from Richie Cummins to go six up just before that, but Gerald Kelly came to St Thomas’ rescue and, true to style, St Thomas’ had both the composure and quality to engineer that match-saving goal. It was a big break for a Killimordaly outfit whose challenge had faded away in the second half against Tommie Larkins. Two goals from Jason Flynn helped the table toppers to a comfortable win.

Pictured: Castlegar’s Greg Thomas eyes up his options against Conor Cosgrove of Ardrahan during Saturday’s Senior A encounter at Kenny Park. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.