By Eanna O’Reilly

FOLLOWING Loughrea’s defeat to Ballygunner in Sunday’s All-Ireland club final at Croke Park, team manager Tommy Kelly was naturally disappointed for his players, but felt that his side was simply beaten by a better team on the day.

Kelly had no complaints with the result and praised Ballygunner for the quality of their performance in claiming their second national title at this level.  ‘‘Of course we are disappointed,’’ he said. ‘‘We came up here with full intentions of winning the All-Ireland. But we just hit a brick wall today really. Ballygunner are a fantastic club, I couldn’t speak any more highly of them.

‘‘We did our matchups as well as we could, we worked really hard in training, and I thought we were in a really good place. But look, the bar is a lot higher than where we are at the moment, so fair play to Ballygunner.’’

The Loughrea manager felt that his team’s shooting efficiency was a major issue which undermined their efforts, particularly in the first half. Despite playing some excellent hurling in the opening thirty minutes, Loughrea’s half time scoring total did not reflect the quality of their performance.

‘‘Our wides tally was over 40% [of shots taken] in the first half. We left a lot of scores behind us; we really needed to build a lead if we were going to have any chance. Now, we still felt we were in a good position at half time. The lads were working really hard and we were winning a lot of dirty ball.’’

‘‘But look, they [Ballygunner] really turned the screw on us in the second half. We have a lot of learning to do now after that game today. We have to reach a level that’s an awful lot higher than where we are at the moment.’’

The Loughrea boss felt that the concession of a goal to Ballygunner’s Mikey Mahony early in the second half was a major blow to his side, which forced them to chase the game for the remainder of the contest.

‘‘We were always trying to claw it back [after Mahony’s goal]; we were trying to get it back to three [point deficit], and they always seemed to be able to push it out to four. They [Ballygunner] really tightened up on our forwards in the second half, and we struggled a bit for scores.’’

‘‘When you’re pressing for scores and you’re trying to go forward and win a game you have to be brave, and the lads were brave. But when you’re playing against an exceptional Ballygunner team, they are going to hit you on the counterattack and get scores. The goal really was a killer for us, and it gave them breathing space.’’

Looking to the future, Kelly felt that Loughrea needed to learn the lessons of Sunday’s defeat and keep evolving as a team. The Town put county senior titles back to back this season, and their next goal will be to continue their winning run within the county.

Pictured: Loughrea defender Kieran Hanrahan is about to secure possession against Ballygunner during Sunday’s All-Ireland Club Senior Hurling Final at Croke Park. Photos: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.