Clonakilty look To Future

Clonakilty were never expected to defeat Dolphin in The Charity Cup encounter in The Vale last Saturday. Even the most partisan supporter would realistically acknowledge that a club from the new Division 1A, even without their five Munster professionals, were going to be too strong for Clon’s limited squad in an early season outing. The final score of 6 – 53 however was not anticipated. Clonakilty fielded well below strength but will take great heart from the performances of many of the young players on view. The young guns not only held Dolphin in the early exchanges but for thirty minutes dominated the game territorially and took a well-deserved early lead with a penalty from David Lombard. Such was the pressure exerted that consistent infringements from the city club should have drawn a yellow card or two but only penalties were awarded. Lombard added another but it was to be Clon’s last score of the day. Yellow cards did play a part in the result however, as on the first occasion that Dolphin got into Clonakilty territory Michael Peter O’Regan was sin-binned for an instinctive handling on the ground offence and then Clon Captain Alfie Harte, playing at 8, joined him when he was harshly judged to have kicked the ball out of the next scrum. A replay would show clearly that the ball came off a leg in a turning scrum and was completely accidental. Whatever chance Clon had of keeping the game tight went out the window when reduced to thirteen. During this period the two extra men were used by Dolphin to great effect and they scored three soft tries to put the match out of reach. They scored a further five to underline their superiority but Coach Dave O’Mahony will have been pleased with the attitude of a Clon side that never threw in the towel and but for some handling errors and the fact that they never got a decision or bounce of the ball would have put a better look on the scoreboard. With so many new faces and youth in the make up of Saturday’s team Clonakilty can look to the future in general and division two of The all Ireland League in particular with hope and enthusiasm. The squad was: Conor Moloney, JD O’Mahony, Darragh Lynch, David Lombard, Seamus Hayes, Robbie O’Donoghue, Eric Murphy, Tom Ryan, Hugh O’Neill, Conor Forde, Eoin Scannell, Sam Dignan, Ger McCarthy, Michael Peter O’Reagan, Alfie Harte (Capt), John O’Regan, Ciarán Murphy, Alex O’Mahony, Eric White, Derry O’Neill and Seán Young. Dolphin will again provide the opposition for the only fixture this weekend when the J2 side visit Musgrave Park for the Dennehy Cup. It is expected that this tie will KO at 12 noon.

Loose Head