Dublin Minor Hurlers Suffer Defeat to Kilkenny in Leinster Hurling Championship Clash

Picture Courtesy Shay Hogan

DUBLIN 0-18 

KILKENNY 2-25

Dublin delivered a spirited display before eventually succumbing to Kilkenny by thirteen points in their Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Championship Tier 1 encounter at O’Toole Park on Saturday afternoon. 

Having suffered earlier reverses to both Galway and Wexford, Dublin trailed by 2-11 to 0-11at half-time with goals from Jake Mullen and Ollie O’Donovan handing Kilkenny a deserved interval lead. 

While the likes of Paul O’Connell, Luke Hayes and Rory Buggy continued to impress in a defensive capacity after the break, they proved powerless from preventing their opponents pulling away by the final whistle. 

The Dubs started brightly through an early Rory Flannery free but with Diarmuid Behan upended in the square at the opposite end, Mullen emphatically converted the resultant penalty beyond the helpless Hugh Leahy. 

After a period of scrappy play, Flannery and Josh Dowling traded points by the 8th minute before the hosts offered encouragement to the home support through successive scores from Flannery (free) and Christian Kane. 

Behan and Mullen (free) replied for the visitors before Sean Culleton brought the Dubs to within a point by the end of the first quarter with a tidy score from play. 

The early stages of the second quarter were similarly tight with points from Finn O’Donnell and Flannery just reward for Dublin’s battling efforts but Kevin Buggy began to influence the play with a brace of Kilkenny scores. 

After Leahy had denied O’Donovan in the 25th minute, he was once again blameless a minute later as a strong run by Oisin Henderson allowed O’Donovan the simplest of tasks of firing home from eight yards. 

To Dublin’s credit, they continued to offer a threat at the opposite end as scores by Daniel O’Connor, Flannery and Conaill O’Sullivan before the break helped them limit the damage to six points by the turnaround.

While O’Connor clipped over an early point upon the restart, the visitors began to enhance their position with Mullen and O’Donovan scoring two points apiece as they stretched their lead to ten points by the end of the third quarter. 

A brace of Flannery frees kept the home scoreboard ticking over but the goal required to launch a comeback looked elusive as Kilkenny replied with three points on the bounce by Behan, Ben Nevin and Mullen. 

Flannery added a trio of further frees to take his personal tally to twelve points but Dublin had to concede second best on the day with substitute Cian Byrne landing two late points for the Cats.    

Scorers – Dublin: R Flannery 0-12 (10f); D O’Connor 0-2; C Kane, S Culleton, F O’Donnell, C O’Sullivan 0-1 apiece. Kilkenny: J Mullen 1-7 (1-0pen, 0-6f, 0-1 ’65); O O’Donovan 1-3; K Buggy 0-3; D Behan, E Brennan, B Hickey, C Byrne 0-2 each; J Dowling, A Maher, K Barcoe, B Nevin 0-1 apiece.

Dublin: H Leahy; D Nolan, P O’Connell, D Fallon; C Condon, R Duffy, L Hayes; C Fitzgerald, D O’Connor; C Kane, R Flannery, C Kelly; C O’Sullivan, F O’Donnell, S Culleton. Subs: R Crowley for Kane (36), H Greene for Kelly (38), D Ware for Condon (43), D Ward for O’Donnell (45), H Greene for Fitzgerald (46).  

Kilkenny: C Dermody; O Henderson, L Phelan, D McGee; B Nevin, J Dowling, K Barcoe; D Behan, B Hickey; J Mullen, O O’Donovan, K Buggy; E Brennan, A Maher, S Hanrahan. Subs: C Holohan for Brennan (49), K Ryan for Phelan (49), C Byrne for Buggy (49), J Rhatigan for Nevin (52), P O’Brien for Dowling (52). 

Referee: Adam Kinahan (Offaly).