A rampaging O’Loughlin Gaels side won the Kilkenny under 14 league final in Clara this week, with the club having already claimed All-Ireland titles, in both hurling and football, this year already.
The game took place on Wednesday night. Dicksboro provided the opposition, and the game was a thriller. O’ Loughlin’s Robbie Buckley put in a solid man of the match performance, with his personal tally by the end of the night standing at 3-10.
After nine minutes, the sides were level, 1-2 each. Buckley had notched up all of O’ Loughlin's scores, while Dicksboro full forward, Jim Dollard, added a goal to two frees from Andrew Gaffney.
Dicksboro enjoyed a good spell and went 1-4 to 1-2 before the 20 minute mark.
Another purple patch from Robbie Buckley saw him send over three points, to leave his side ahead at the break, 1-5 to 1-4.
On the restart, O’Loughlins upped the pace and added to their total.
The hardworking Cian Loy got on the score board with a well taken point for the John's men.
All this time a very talented Dicksboro side were trying in vain to break down the outstanding O'Loughlin Gaels defence, who had their best hour yet. The full back line of Shane Fahey, Pat Clifford and Jay Leahy were all man of the match contenders.
O’ Loughlin’s centre back, Gary Bryan, was outstanding, along with Thomas Gleeson and Jack Lawlor.
But still the Boro boys were not going to give up. They began putting the O’ Loughlin’s defence under heavy pressure. The defence came away every time with clearance after clearance .In one such clearance, Gleeson broke out with the ball and off-loaded to Shane Maher, who moved it to full forward, Buckley, who buried it to the back of the goal.
On 39 minutes, the Boro scored their first point of the second half through a free from Andrew Gaffney.
The Boro were trying very hard to get scores and all the O’ Loughlin’s effort was now in defending. Joe Bolger, Shane Mahoney and Marcus Stapleton hooked and blocked all night.
On 53 minutes, Andrew Gaffney threw over another free which was followed by a lovely score from Buckley, this time on the right wing. Aaron Malone finished the scoring for Dicksboro with a good score from the midfield area.
