Hurling
Heavy defeat for Davis’ in final
By Daire Walsh
DESPITE a commendable effort over the course of the action, Thomas Davis fell to a 0-21 to 0-5 defeat at the hands of Portobello in the Dublin Junior ‘G’ Hurling Championship final at Kiltipper Road on Sunday reports Daire Walsh.
After losing out to St Monica’s in last year’s semi-final on a scoreline of 5-11 to 2-11, Davis were hoping to go a step further in 2022 and progress up the hurling ladder. While the Tallaght men did lose out to Portobello in a home Group One encounter on August 12 (3-20 to 2-10), victories at the expense of Stars Of Erin, St Jude’s, Ballyboden St Enda’s and O’Dwyers were enough to give them a second place finish in the final standings.
This helped to set up a quarter-final duel against St Oliver Plunkett’s/Eoghan Ruadh on September 25, a game Davis won with a single point to spare (3-12 to 2-14). The Kiltipper men had another narrow win over Lucan Sarsfields in the last-four – 2-6 to 0-9 – which seemingly left them battle-hardened ahead of their showdown with Portobello.
Based out of Leinster Road in Rathmines, Portobello emerged from Group One with five successive victories and comfortably overcame the challenge of the nearby Kevin’s on a score of 6-12 to 0-5 at the quarter-final stage. They were even more emphatic in the penultimate phase of the competition, defeating Na Fianna 6-18 to 0-4 at St Mobhi Road.
Although the fact Portobello were conceding very few scores was undoubtedly on their minds, Davis were also wary of the threat posed by their opponents in attack. Niall Maloney was operating as a sweeper deep inside the home team’s defence and this helped to curtail a Portobello side that registered 27 goals in this year’s competition.
Still, the 2021 Junior ‘H’ Championship winners were able to pick off scores when needed and brought a convincing 0-10 to 0-4 buffer into the break.
Portobello continued to ramp up the pressure after the resumption and even though Naoise Condren, Mark Kinsella and Niall Devine more than held their own in defence, Davis couldn’t halt the march of their Dublin 6 counterparts.
However, while it may have had a disappointing ending, it was a good season overall for this Thomas Davis side and they can now look forward to joining Portobello in the 2022 edition of the Dublin Junior ‘F’ Hurling Championship.