KNOCKBRIDGE
2012 RESU
LTS
Gavin Kerrigan
A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW
SHC Knockbridge 3-11 1-3 Nao mh Moninne St Fechins 0-3 2-6 Kno Knockbridge ckbridge 0-16 0-11 M attock Ran Pearse Óg gers 3-15 2-11 K Pearse Óg nockbridge 2-14 2-7 Kno ckbridge - F inal SHL Knockbridge 4-15 2-8 Nao Mattock Ran mh Moninne gers 1-14 411 Knockbr St Fechins idge 1-9 1-14 Kno ckbridge Knockbridge 213 1-11 Pears Knockbridge e Óg 1-07 0-9 M attock Ran gers - Final
Having practically dominated the Louth hurling landscape for more than a decade now, one would perhaps expect Knockbridge to accept the occasional failure as par for the course. This is clearly not the case, however. Winning is very much part of the Knockbridge DNA at this stage and the defeat to Pearse Og in the 2012 Louth SHC final has left the players feeling pretty annoyed with themselves if county man Adrian Wallace’s tone is anything to go by…
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o, you win the county title more often than not. Then, once in the blue moon, you fail to retain the silverware. A time for being philosophical and accepting that even the best teams endure bad days at the office? A matter of shrugging the disappointment off and consigning the season to history (whilst consoling oneself with thoughts of previous bounties)? No sir. Not in Knockbridge anyway. To the contrary, it would be fair to say that the hurlers of the village are positively fuming at the manner of their county final day defeat. At The Grove on Sunday, September 16th, Knockbridge were gunning for an incredible tenth Paddy Kelly Cup success in 13 years. Three wins from three had catapulted the holders through to their perennial place in the ’12 decider and
hopes were high that they would prevail once more. They went into the match as favourites but a sub-par display saw them lose to fired-up Pearse Og on a scoreline of 2-14 to 2-7. Defeat is a rare experience for this crop of players, but for once they had to settle for second best “I’m still absolutely gutted, attacker Adrian Wallace told ‘Wee County’ a full month after that seven-point loss. “We don’t get over things easily in Knockbridge. “We beat them in the league semi-final a few weeks later and that gave us a measure of revenge. That helps us to lay it to rest a bit. If we’d lost again, we’d have to accept that they are a better team, but the fact that we beat them so easily the next day suggests that they
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caught us on the hop in the county final.” Since joining the first team eight years ago, Adrian has only missed out on two championships and one league – his record of six SHCs and seven SHLs speaks for itself. But there’s no sign of the villagers resting back on their laurels any time soon: “We want to win all the time,” Adrian confirms. “It’s been bred into us growing up and for as long as I’m a player I want to win every competition I play in, especially with Knockbridge because we know what we are capable of. “We thought we were in good shape going into the championship final and we had a good year in the other competitions we entered in 2012, but the championship is really the be all and end all. It’s nice to win the other competitions