Adare leave Na Piarsaigh dream in tatters

NA Piarsaigh’s dream of winning a first ever county senior hurling title was left in tatters on Sunday afternoon when an imperious Adare side handed Timmy O’Connor’s men a 17-point beating.
Off the back of an utterly dominant performance Adare collected their fifth county title this decade (2001-02 & 2007-09) and were more than worthy winners of their third consecutive county title in-a-row.
A huge roar greeted the Na Piarsaigh lads when they emerged onto the field, but it was clear that Timmy O’Connor’s men were well out of their depth by the half time interval - at that juncture Adare led 1-7 to a single point.


In the aftermath of such a heart-breaking defeat manager Timmy O’Connor tried to put into words how his Na Piarsaigh players were feeling: “we’re absolutely gutted. We know we didn’t perform anywhere near where we’d hoped to perform.
“We thought we had the team in good order there today, but obviously the occasion probably got to them.”
There was consolation however for O’Connor in that his side didn’t do themselves justice and that they can learn from this harrowing experience: “Adare are there a long time, they’re hurling senior a long, long time and we’re only up senior since ’94. They’ve won five seniors in this decade which is a tremendous achievement, but our underage structure, hopefully, will pay off dividends eventually.
“We’ve a lot of young lads on that team and there’s a lot of good young players coming through.
“So the future looks bright for Na Piarsaigh. It didn’t happen today, but hopefully it will happen in the future.
“I felt gutted for fellas like Shane O’Neill and Damien Quigley.
“I feel particularly sorry for lads like that who had hurled for the last 20 years at various levels for the club, but we’ll be back again.”
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Drom-Broadford enjoyed a 0-9 to 0-7 win over Fr. Casey’s in the re-fixed county senior football final.
Although Drom-Broadford came away with a two-point win there was no shame in defeat for a Fr. Casey’s side who gave it everything.
Indeed, when Robert Browne left the sides all square at 0-7 apiece with a wonderful right-footed effort in the 55th minute a dramatic win for the Abbeyfeale men looked entirely possible. Drom-Broadford had proven the more accomplished outfit during the entire course of the game, but with time running out Fr. Casey’s looked the fresher side and the better bet. The champions however, thanks to two brilliant Garrett Noonan points, successfully defended their county title.

BRIAN MCDONNELL