GAA, Sport

PREVIEW: St Brendan’s To Edge Out Causeway At Second Time Of Asking

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Mike O’Halloran looks forward to the Causeway v St Brendans Garvey’s Supervalu Kerry SHC Round 1 Replay this Saturday at Austin Stack Park (7pm)…

Jason Leahy gets his shot away with Kevin Skinner close by in last week’s drawn game. Photo by Dermot Crean

St Brendan’s “won” the drawn game in terms of the number of scores (20 to 18 after extra time), they also had more scores at the end of normal time (14 to 12).

All those stats mean nothing as they left a four point lead slip with less than ten minutes on the clock.

Causeway are saying they were lucky and unlucky — lucky to escape with a draw and unlucky that Colum Harty’s penalty didn’t test the net rather than whizzing past the post and that Paul McGrath didn’t convert his free at the death.

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Who will have learned most from the draw? Perhaps Causeway will, as they needed a test of their resilience against one of the top sides in the competition.

One lesson I think they might have learned is that Colum Harty  is better suited  to midfield than attempting to match his cousin, Darren Dineen, at centre forward.

If they get a penalty, call up Tadgh Flynn to use all his experience and power to test Darren Delaney.

John Egan watched by Mark Murphy in the drawn game. Photo by Dermot Crean

Will they have learned that they have to start Billy Lyons and perhaps introduce Dooley and Goggin earlier?

As for St Brendan’s they did very little wrong apart from letting the lead slip. The majority of their players played well, especially Seamus Skinner at midfield and Rory Horgan at the back.

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Up front, John Egan was his usual impressive self but they will have to get a little more out of Tim Hannafin and Thomas Moloney.

Perhaps they will start young Padraig O’Mahony as he impressed on his introduction the last day.

They can’t expect much more from Cian Hussey, who was majestic in the drawn encounter. The amount and manner of his scores were things of beauty.

Both teams must up their aggression and intensity level because the game the last day was what could best described as “a lovely game a hurling”, perhaps St Brendan’s might have the edge in that department.

With a couple of weeks more hurling under his belt expect Brandon Barrett to have a major influence on proceedings. Causeway can also point to the grit that got them to extra time despite being down to fourteen.

VERDICT: St Brendan’s to win.