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Tony is confident that with one or two championship as both sides showed great players back from injury next year, they character and can once again be in the hunt for major determination to get a honours and at 31 years of age, he result. knows that the good times don’t last Kildalkey welcomed forever. back Enda Keogh who “We will have Padraig Kehoe and Eoin lined out at full forward Potterton back from injury next year, for this match and while Gary Kelly came back late on this caused the Kiltale year and he will be a lot fitter next year. defence a lot of Paddy Connelly will be home from the problems. The blue States also, so I’d be confident that we and whites were the can push on and compete for the title hungrier team and next year. played most of the “I’ve been playing senior hurling since A great honour for the club. County final referee Nick Fitzgerald with hurling as Kiltale 1997, so I’ve definitely seen the good his umpires Johnny Masterson, Gary Costello, Brendan Harmon and Tony Costello before the start of the senior county battled just to stay in times and the bad. You can take nothing decider at Pairc Tailteann the game. for granted in hurling and I think lads are The first half was nip Boardsmill side that had drawn with only realising that now, especially the and tuck with both sides guilty of some Kilmessan and pushed all the other younger players, who wouldn’t have bad misses but Kildalkey led by 0-6 to 0teams very closely, by 2-15 to 1-11. The experienced the bad times. Village got off to a great start with three 5 at the break with Seanie Heavey and “The club has been doing massive early points from Derek Doran and two David Harmon their scorers. work at underage level and that is frees from David Harmon before The second half was dominated by beginning to show at adult level with all Boardsmill opened their account. Doran Kildalkey but this was not reflected on the young lads that came through this was giving the Mill rear guard a torrid the scoreboard and Kiltale kept plugging year.” time and two fine efforts from his hurl away before taking the lead late on, Two thousand and thirteen was the first had Kildalkey 0-7 to 0-3 up after 15 which they held to the final whistle, year since ’04 that Kildalkey had not minutes. Francis Doran closed out the despite immense pressure from reached the knockout stages as they scoring with two fine efforts and Kildalkey, to leave the final score 0-12 to have enjoyed unparalleled success ever Kildalkey led at the break 0-11 to 0-6. 0-10.”Obviously, it was very since and Tony believes that is down to Three early second half points had disappointing to lose out at the end, but one man. from Derek Doran, Tony Fox and Gary looking at the positives and the “I don’t think we would have won the Kelly had Kildalkey eight ahead before performance of some of the younger championship were it not for Pat Boardsmill's first score of the half after lads in particular, gives us something to O’Halloran. He really brought us on to 10 minutes. But Kildalkey hit back and a build on for next year. the next level. The level of intensity he fine goal from Doran on the 15th minute “We played well against Kiltale and brought into training was something that had the points in the bag for Pat dominated for long periods, but just none of us had experienced before. Our O'Halloran’s men. Boardsmill kept couldn’t get the scores needed when on fitness levels certainly carried us through plugging away and outscored Kildalkey another day, they would have went over, some games and we owe him a lot,” 1-5 to 1-0 in the final ten minutes. but that’s hurling for you.” concluded the 2013 captain. Kildalkey could afford the luxury of a missed penalty, Conor Flynn's shot was well saved on the line by Charlie Bird but their second goal did arrive on the Best Wishes To Kildalkey Hurling Club In 2014 25th minute when Sean Heavey cut through the Mill defence to score a cracker. “We had to move the ball quicker and play the wings more now and we worked on that a lot in training. You could see as the championship went on that we were getting more and more use to the system.” The win over Boardsmill meant that Kildalkey needed to win their last game against Kiltale and hope that Longwood defeated Kilmessan to go through to the quarterfinals. The game against Kiltale turned out to be one of the best matches in the senior hurling
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