Harbour Rovers come unstuck

I wasn’t at the match last Sunday in Buttevant at 6 o’clock so when I got the result I was more than surprised. I was speaking to two players parents on Saturday night and I honestly thought we should be beating Charleville’s second team handy, but boy was I wrong.

My first thoughts when I heard the news were we must have been stink and useless. The match finished a draw 1-17 to 0-20 and it was the old fox Denis Gallagher who got the vital free. A kind of a Hail Mary one which Peter Condon equalised with. Now we are still through to the knockout stages as we are top of the group with one win and a draw and the first two go through.

The other news was that Stephen Condon could have broken a bone or bones, ankle or anything and this would be a major disaster as Stevie was our scorer supreme, brilliant free taker and goal scorer from the half chance. If he is out for the remainder of the season there is some stepping up to be done by the rest of the forwards. Best wishes to Stevie on his recovery and I sincerely hope he will be okay and that it is not too serious.

Scoring 20 points in a match is excellent and when Stevie went off we missed a few handy frees before getting out act together and scoring a few more. A draw for us is not the end of the world but serious questions must be asked going forward. Have we gone stale? Is the campaign trail after taking its toll? Are we a tired team? We are on the go with the bones of two years due to this Covid pandemic and boy we need to freshen up. Has the team the same enthusiasm? It is now down to an eight team championship where any of the eight think they can win it. If we obviously play the same as last Sunday we definitely will make an exit in the next match and it doesn’t matter which team meets us. Or are we going to do a Lazarus on it? The team have trained hard enough. They have got the best quality of service that can be given to any team by the loyal and committed selectors.

It will be a shame not to defend our title without showing cause. Showing the spirit and determination that was there when beating Kilshannig in the final and all and sundry before that. Only time will tell.

Hurling will not be played for 3 weeks at least. Players who caught the eye last Sunday were Jerome Fitzgibbon, Thomas Condon and in particular Peter Condon who got some fantastic scores in the second half.

Team: David O’Sullivan, Bart O’Keeffe, Jack Coughlan, Phillip Blackburn, Michael Blackburn, Thomas Condon, Jerome Fitzgibbon, Padraig Hannon, Fionn Desmond, John O’Sullivan, Pa Roche, Peter Condon, Emmett Sheehan, Ed Roche and Stevie Condon. Subs used Sean Finn, David Pyne, Denis Gallagher and Francis John O’Flynn.