Amazing Hackett goal gives Moycarkey incredible late win in dethroning of Kiladangan

FBD Insurance Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final

Moycarkey Borris 2-21

Kiladangan 3-16

Max Hackett has firmly opened up the senior hurling championship in Tipperary as an incredibly taken late, late goal in second-half stoppage time shocked reigning champions Kiladangan in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader in FBD Semple Stadium.

It was a barely believable finish to the game as Moycarkey trailed their opponents by four points going into the three minutes of added time at the end of the game, but slowly pulled the deficit back through a Kyle Shelly free, and a glorious missed goal chance for Steven Walsh; who contrived to miss his doubled effort from a David Costigan squared delivery.

However, they stayed coming, and when the impressive Kieran Cummins pointed his fifth of the day to leave just a point between the sides with 30 seconds to go in the game and the tide going firmly in toward the Kiladangan goal as the North champions completely retreated back.

An equalising point was a strong possibility considering the momentum shift and when Moycarkey Borris won possession from Barry Hogan’s resulting puckout, Peter Melbourne came out with the ball before Eoghan Hayes played a lovely ball into Max Hackett, who managed to field above James Quigley and shrug off the tackle to finish unbelievably well to the top corner past the helpless Hogan to give Moycarkey an incredible win under the circumstances of the game.

Seemingly coasting after a dominant first-half display, Kiladangan had taken a 2-13 to 0-11 lead in at half-time and they will be disgusted with their second-half effort in the game, scoring just 1-4 in the second half as they probably took the Moycarkey resilience for granted.

Indeed, they didn’t help themselves with some really poor wides - especially from Billy Seymour frees in the last ten minutes particularly - and Paul Flynn’s dismissal through a second yellow card in the 57th minute. All in all, it was not what we have come to expect from Kiladangan over the years when they are in the driving seat.

It would have taken a brave man to put any sort of money on Moycarkey Borris coming away with the win before throw-in as they were firm underdogs coming into this game, competing in their first senior quarter-final since 1991. It was an even taller task after the first half as they were floundering for so much of that opening 30 minutes.

The swirling breeze in Semple Stadium made it a bit awkward to ascertain who it favoured but it seemed to be in Moycarkey’s camp in the opening half but it didn’t make much of a difference as Kiladangan raced into a 0-6 to 0-3 lead with all of those six points coming from play - and from different sources to boot - Tadhg Gallagher, Billy Seymour, Andy Loughnane, Conor Byrne, and Decky McGrath all on target.

Moycarkey Borris were retreating and allowing Kiladangan the ball in their own half and it wasn’t working early on, as they had only a Bill Flanagan-shaped outlet up top and he was isolated more often than not. That allowed Kiladangan chances to work the ball through the lines, and they did to good effect as it saw them goal in the 14th minute when Tadhg Gallagher broke the cover and fed Shane Gleeson who played in Conor Byrne close to the goalmouth to finish past Rhys Shelly.

It was all to easy at times and the gaps continued to appear at the back of the Moycarkey defence when, again, Tadhg Gallagher found acres of room to run into at the 21-yard line and fed Billy Seymour to his right; the Tipp senior hurler finishing with a lovely strike as the ball bounced in front of him. Kiladangan in control at 2-9 to 0-7.

Moycarkey needed to keep plugging to stay in contention and they had Kieran Cummins and Joe Maher to thank largely, as the pair were working well in possession and hit four of their last five points of the game to keep them just about in touch at the break, trailing 2-13 to 0-11.

There was still life in Moycarkey despite a nervous first-half performance and they finally jolted into the fray after the resumption and had hit 1-3 within eight minutes through a brace of Kieran Cummins points, and a fortuitous but welcomed goal in the 34th minute. That came from a speculative Tom Ryan point effort from under the new stand and with the ball hanging high on the edge of the square, the stick of Kyle Shelly put off Barry Hogan under the dropping ball and as it carried to the back of the net.

It is hard to legislate for the drop off from Kiladangan in the second half as the game completely turned in Moycarkey’s with Kiladangan having to wait until the 43rd minute to register their first point of the second period which came from the stick of Bryan McLoughney.

In fairness to Kiladangan, it did seem like they weathered the brunt of the Moycarkey Borris storm when Bryan McLoughney goaled in the 49th minute; a long delivery breaking in behind the cover for Shane Gleeson who fed McLoughney on his shoulder and the match-winner from the 2020 county final finished expertly.

That goal had been coming as only three minutes earlier Rhys Shelly made a barely believable save from Tadhg Gallagher and you would have expected that Kiladangan would use all their experience and match smarts to see this one out with ten minutes to go.

However, bit by bit, Moycarkey stayed plugging away at the lead and in the final ten minutes plus injury time, they scored 1-6 without reply with substitution in the form of David Costigan (2) and Kyle Shelly (free) making a scoring impact but there was still a four-point gap going into the three minutes of additional time.

Paul Flynn’s red card didn’t help matters for Kiladangan as he picked up a cheap second yellow in the 57th minute and that seemed to set the the Kiladangan players into panic mode as the team completely retreated to hold onto their lead, inviting pressure from Moycarkey who were smelling an upset as points from Steven Walsh missed a huge goal chance to point. At the same time, Kieran Cummins again found his range. One point in it and 30 seconds to go for Moycarkey to find their winner.

It was all on the resulting puckout from that Cummins free and with Kiladangan losing that long ball from Barry Hogan, Moycarkey played out the ball to Eoghan Hayes who hit direct down the throat of Max Hackett who came up with the biggest of clutch moments to goal and send the Moycarkey support into dreamland.

Kiladangan: Barry Hogan; Fergal Hayes, James Quigley, David Sweeney; Willie Connors, Alan Flynn, Joe Gallagher (0-1); Decky McGrath (0-1), Tadgh Gallagher (0-1); Shane Gleeson (0-1), Billy Seymour (1-4, 0-1f), Paul Flynn (0-2); Bryan McLoughney (1-2), Andy Loughnane (0-1), Conor Byrne (1-2).

Subs used: Darren Moran for McGrath (25, blood sub); Sean Hayes (0-1) for Loughnane (38); Darren Moran for Gleeson (56).

Moycarkey Borris: Rhys Shelly (0-1f); Peter Melbourne, Tom Ryan (1-0), Kevin Hayes; Tom Hayes, Eoghan Hayes, Steven Walsh (0-3); Jack Fallon, Kieran Cummins (0-5); Niall Heffernan, Max Hackett (1-0), Joe Maher (0-5); Kieran Morris (0-3f), Bill Flanagan, Jack Hayes.

Subs used: Kyle Shelly (0-2f)  for Morris (HT); Joe Egan for Heffernan (HT); David Costigan (0-2) for Flanagan (41); Joe Doran for J Hayes (56). 

Referee: Alan Tierney (Shannon Rovers)