SOMETIMES, there’s just no getting away from experience. For all Athy’s endeavour and brave-hearted nature, the chances they missed were too costly because Garrycastle gobbled up the breaks and turned those moves into scores at the opposite end.
Those kind of scores really hurt a football team but twice in the second half, Athy left a score behind them at one end and watched Garrycastle pop one over on the counter. In the last 15 minutes, Athy scored just one point and conceded 1-2. They were losing the third quarter 4-1 when James Eaton smuggled in a goal to get them back on level terms but this was a whole new ball game for Athy.
They hadn’t faced a task as demanding as this before in the Leinster championship and for a team with the knack of opening up after half-time, they just couldn’t get into gear.
It wasn’t for the want of trying. The catch that Kevin Feely took down after Eaton had scored the goal is still replaying in my mind. The boy is a wonder. I haven’t looked forward to, or enjoyed, watching someone play the game as much as this since Niall Buckley was at his imperial best.
In fact I could go back further to when a certain Larry Tompkins was the apple of my eye but this time we’ve got to move before someone else does. It will be heartbreaking if Feely isn’t playing football rather than soccer next year. So far he’s been able to mix both but he’s needed with his county next year.
Heaven knows what the Lilies might do with him and a fit-again Dermot Earley on the field. And after Sunday’s display, Paddy Dunne has to be a live contender for a place on the Kildare panel. His contribution against Garrycastle was immense and if victory was measured by hard yards gained rather than points scored, Dunne and Feely would have led Athy to victory.
Dunne was everywhere, winning the ball on the deck, plucking it out of the air, always available to give or receive a pass. It was his most complete performance to date, mixing it against stern and stubborn opponents, who were doing their level best to stifle Athy in midfield.
At one stage Dunne flung a point over with his left peg, risking a shot everyone watching would have wished him not to try but there was a brilliant defiance about the score. He took responsibility and didn’t doubt himself. It was a serious statement of intent and he showed real leadership in doing so.
As I write, it’s still hard to believe that there were four points between the sides at the finish. Athy were, at most, one score behind their experienced opponents. And the only reason they were chasing the game rather than leading it in the closing stages was their lack of experience.
On another day they might have converted all their goal chances, of which Feely had one, but in the years to come they might think it wiser to always take a score unless a goal seems a certainty. Athy’s only real clear cut chance was the one that Eaton scored. Had they opted for points from the rest, Liam McGovern would have had the opportunity to pop over an equalising point in the final minute rather than having to blast a goal just to get his side back in the game.
It’s getting harder to score a goal in football these days but it was never easy to begin with because a one-on-one is never a certainty when you have the ball in your hand. Getting the ball to your foot quick enough to slide it under an advancing keeper is a very difficult task and when you approach from an angle, the difficulty only increases – that’s why we see so many fisted points. Too often the temptation for a forward is to blast the ball when delicacy is required and only Eaton’s finish could be described as such. He had to rely on a little luck to get the chance in the first place because Danny O’Keefe went for the blasted approach with the initial effort.
O’Keefe had another chance later in the second half but that time he blasted wide altogether. Had he taken his time, he might even have cut inside his man for a pop at goal. He, like the rest of his teammates, will learn a huge amount from having been in that position. It is only two games since his instinct was spectacularly rewarded against Edenderry.
Garrycastle are in a different class and the way they turned this game in the second half was wonderful to watch. Once, their keeper conceded a free for over-carrying, but most of the time they kept their heads and their handling skills didn’t betray them.
Unlike Old Leighlin and Edenderry, Garrycastle had the firepower to do damage when the game opened up. Just as they funnelled men back when needed, they poured forward at speed when the game required it too.
Athy should rest up well over the winter and really study the video of the Garrycastle game. They will learn a lot from the ways in which their opponents succeeded and the ways in which their methods failed. Winning back Kildare will be their toughest task next year and no doubt there are St Laurence’s men already in training, solely motivated by the chance to re-establish authority over their neighbours.
Athy need to be mindful of that because it won’t be like this every year. I’ve no doubt they’ll win this competition some year soon and their fate is in their own hands. They’ve made it that way.