Kildalkey's Derek Doran in action against Kilskyre/Moylagh in the IHC a few weeks ago. The teams met again in the Billy Byrne Cup final last Saturday.

Game of the Week: Kildalkey add Byrne Cup to collection

Kilskyre/Moylagh put up brave battle but lose out

Last Saturday Kildalkey and Kilskryre/Moylagh met in the Billy Byrne Cup final. Kildalkey's Martin Carr and Kilskyre/Moylagh's James Reilly sent in detailed match reports that reflected the drama that unfolded. Here are their reports.

Martin Carr

With Rathmolyon and Kilskyre pitches falling foul to the weather all roads led to Ballinlough for the Billy Byrne cup final on Saturday afternoon as holders Kildalkey and Kilskyre /Moylagh battled it out to see who would win this year's final.

Kildalkey wore black armbands and a minutes silence was observed for former Kildalkey player John D Flynn who passed away. John D was an former teammate of a lot of the older players.

It was Kilskyre/Moylagh who started the brightest and took the game to Kildalkey from the off with Tom Shine proving to be a handful from full forward hitting a goal and two points from play early in the game to add to his four frees

Mattie Cully was equally prominent for the Blues hitting six frees and one from play but they looked sluggish early on Derek Doran was the target for a lot of attacks and was unfortunate to only have a point to his name after going close to scoring goals only to be denied by good goalkeeping and stout defending.

Bit by bit Kildalkey got themselves into the game and only trailed by two points at the break - 1-9 to 0-10

Maurice Keogh and Niall McNally got the other Kildalkey scores in the half.

Enda Keogh came on at half-back and he had a huge influence on the game cutting out a lot of Kilskyre attacks and was assisted greatly by Martin Doran Enda Fitzgerald and Tiernan Bird in a tough defence

Kildalkey started better in the second half with another Niall McNally point from play and a Cully free Derek Ducksy Doran was then fouled for a penalty which Cully converted but a mistake let Kilskyre in for a slack goal and with five minutes remaining it was they that led by three and looking strong for the win but this kildalkey team don’t lie down and another Cully free another McNally point and a Gary Kelly point drew the sides level at Kildalkey 1-16 Kilskryre/Moylagh 2-13

Kilskyre had two or three chances to win the game but their shots tailed wide to the relief of the sizeable Kildalkey support as referee Eamon Barry blew his whistle for full time and Extra Time was needed to find a winner

Kildalkey attacked from the start and Cully converted a free within a minute Niall McNally carried the ball in from midfield the whole way in to the danger zone somehow the ball fell into Ducksy Doran’s hand and hit a bullet to the net to put his side 4 points up

Within minutes Ducksy had the net dancing again to put Kildalkey seven points up at half-time in extra time 3-17 to 2-13.

Kilskyre/Moylagh failed to score as the momentum shifted to the Blues

Two more scores were added as Cully added a free to bring his tally to 1 -12 for the day Kilskyre got in for a point and substitute Arron Traynor had the last say with a vicious shot that whizzed over the bar as the final whistle sounded and Kildalkey who haven’t lost a game in the Billy Byrne cup claimed it for the third year in a row winning by 3-17 to 2-14

Martin O'Halloran and Keith Byrne son of Billy a great Rathmolyon hurling man presented the cup to delighted captain Shane Reilly who accepted on behalf of his team mates to add to the Division 3 league and of course the IHC

This team won all competitions they entered this year and deserve great credit for their efforts in what has been a year to remember for every Kildalkey person

Praise to Ballinllough too for having their pitch in such good condition after all the rain when no where else was playable and have continued to improve their facilities well done

Kildalkey team and scorers

1 C Barry

2 S Reilly captain

3 E Fitzgerald

4 C McGourty

5 C Colhoun

6 M Doran

7 T Bird

8 K Lynch

9 N McNally (0-3)

10 R Flynn

11 G Kelly (0-1)

12 B Rickard

13 D Doran(2-1)

14 M Keogh(0-1)

15 M Cully(1-12)(11f)(1-0 pen)

Subs

C Fitzgerald for Reilly

E Keogh for McGourty

B Conneely for Rickard

W Power for Flynn

E Geoghegan for M Keogh

M Browne for Colhoun

A Traynor (0-1)for D Doran

James Reilly

With both Rathmolyon and Kilskyre pitches deemed unplayable following the heavy rain of the past week it was the impressive facilities in Ballinlough that played host to the final of the Billy Byrne Cup competition for Intermediate hurling teams on Saturday last.

The good crowd that turned out were treated to an enthralling encounter that went all the way to extra time. Kilskyre/Moylagh will surely feel that this is one that got away from them and particularly in normal time.

They will argue about some refereeing decisions, six players starting their second game in less than 24 hours but it was only scoring five times in the second period of normal time and once in over 20 minutes of extra time, hit 14 wides in those same spells particularly three in the final minutes of normal time that were to prove costly.

Kildalkey on the other hand fresh from their championship victories and boosted by some of their senior players were more economical with possession and while they too hit some wides their experienced and cuter team were able to dominate the extra time period and using all their guile and skill came out victors in the end.

Tom Shine opened his and the Kilskyre/Moylagh account with a point in the first minute. Kildalkey replied with a pointed free in the fifth minute.

Shine then added 1-2 in a three-minute spell, 1 point from a free and the goal after Kevin Foley intercepted a Kildalkey free to set up the goal chance. Kildalkey then began to shake off any lethargy from their championship celebrations and hit four points without reply – two from frees - between the 9th and 15th minutes.

Shine pointed from a free in the 18th minute but Kildalkey replied with a point of their own. Shine pointed another free in the 22nd minute but Kildalkey hit three points in a row between the 23rd and 27th minutes to take a one-point lead.

The “home” side equalised on the 30th minute when Stephen Tierney pointed after a good Oisin McDermott pass. Shine added two points – one a free – and Ronan McGuinness added another to give Kilskyre/Moylagh a three-point lead but another free from Kildalkey in the 34th minute left the score at 1.9 to 0.10 at the interval in favour of Kilskyre/Moylagh.

Kildalkey started the second half in determined fashion and pointed in the first minute after Charlie Usher brought off a fantastic save to deny what looked a certain goal. Tom Shine pointed a free in the third minute to restore a two-point lead.

Kildalkey pointed from a 65 in the 4th minute after James Cooke had blocked another goal bound effort from Kildalkey. In the 13th minute of the half Derek Doran used all his experience to engineer a penalty for Kildalkey and it was duly despatched to the net.

However, Kilskyre/Moylagh went downfield from the puck-out and a James Cooke effort somehow deceived the Kildalkey goalkeeper and ended up in the net to restore a one-point lead. Kildalkey pointed from yet another free in the 15th minute to tie the match but 3 points from Tom Shine, Ronan

McGuinness and Daire Shine between the 17th and 22nd minutes seemed to put Kilskyre/Moylagh in the driving seat. Kildalkey then used all their experience to get three points in the 23rd, 27th and 28th minutes to level the match again.

Kilskyre/Moylagh had their chances in added time but some poor shooting was to let them down. They thought they had a final chance in the final minute of added time when Tom Shine appeared to be fouled as he headed for goal but no free was awarded and the match was destined for extra time.

With legs tiring on both sides, it was Kildalkey who struck first in extra time with a pointed free in the second minute. They added a goal in the fourth minute to extend their lead. Kilskyre/Moylagh appeared to be thrown a lifeline in the 9th minute when they were awarded a penalty after Tom Shine was hauled down in the square.

Shine took the penalty himself but unfortunately it went narrowly wide. Kildalkey then attacked from the puckout and netted again to extend their lead to seven points at the break in extra time. With both sides visibly tiring the intensity dropped in the final period of extra time. Kildalkey pointed yet another free, James Cooke replied for Kilskyre/Moylagh and in the 14th minute Kildalkey hit the final point of the game to seal an eight-point victory.

After the game Martin O’Halloran, Chair of the Meath Hurling Development Committee accompanied by Keith Byrne, son of the late Billy Byrne presented the Billy Byrne cup to the Kildalkey captain, Shane Reilly.

Martin and Shane both paid tribute to Ballinlough for the excellent facilities and Martin congratulated Sean Geraghty on his selection on the Ring, Rackard and Meagher Team of the year for 2023.

Kilskyre/Moylagh: C Usher, J Connell, P Muldoon, J Boyle, L Maguire, D Shine (0-1), E Briody, J Cooke (1.1), S Geraghty, K Foley, S Tierney (0.1), O McDermott, R McGuinness (0.2), T Shine (1.9), K Og Lynch.

Subs: C Rennicks for E Briody, M Farrelly for Lynch, S Tunney for Foley, M Farrell for McDermott.

Subs in extra-time - O McDermott for McGuinness, P Grall for Boyle, N Farrelly for M Farrelly, G Corrigan for S Tunney

Referee: Eamon Barry