It was a mixed day for the Faithful County faithful at O'Moore Park in Portlaoise yesterday. In the Leinster Senior Football Championship match, Offaly defeated an overmatched Carlow side by a score of 2-19 to 3-7. In the semi-final round of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, however, Kilkenny outclassed Offaly in the second half to finish with a 1-27 to 1-13 victory.
Translation please?
In both Hurling and Gaelic Football, the pitch (field) has a goal at either end, similar to a soccer goal, but with upright poles extending on the sides making an H with the crossbar across the top of the goal. Getting the ball into the net beneath the crossbar is called a "goal" and is worth three points, while getting the ball between the uprights over the crossbar is simply called a "point". The winner is determined by the highest total of points (number of points plus 3x the number of goals) but the scores are always represented in terms of goals-points.
To put this into American terms, you might say that Michigan defeated Notre Dame last year by a score of 6(6)-2 to 3(3)-0.
In the football match, Offaly scored 2 goals and 19 points for a total of 25 to Carlow's 3 goals and 7 points (16). The match was not nearly that close though. Carlow scored first, but the rest of the game belonged to Offaly, save for a late flurry of goals and points that came too little too late for Carlow.
The Hurling match was the feature event of the day, with Kilkenny being consistently among the best hurlers in the nation (Cork has a fine hurling tradition themselves, so I'm now fortunate enough to have seen two of the very best hurling counties in action, as I saw a Cork-Antrim match when I was there in 2005.). Offaly hurling had some strong years in the 80's and 90's, but has fallen on hard times now. I sense that the rivalry with Kilkenny is still a fierce one nonetheless.
Kilkenny were really brilliant. They were deadly in notching points from all over the field and took advantage of nearly every open shot. They jumped to a quick lead with 3 points in the opening minutes, but Offaly fought back and tied it shortly therafter. Another point a few minutes later, though, and Kilkenny would lead the remainder of the match.
Just before the intermission, though, came the highlight of the day. Offaly brought the match back to a 1-point margin with the first goal of the match on a free (penalty shot) making the half-time score 0-14 to 1-10 in favor of Kilkenny. I have a great video of this, but its one of the ones YouTube is not allowing for some reason. Instead, though, here is a clip of a point Offaly scored on a penalty shot earlier in the half:
The second half belonged to Kilkenny, though, as Offaly was able to manage but 3 points in the side. to Kilkenny's 1-13 making for a fairly lopsided final.
The atmosphere was fun and festive. The matches were played back-to-back and tickets (20 euro for general admission in the "stand"--covered seating--and 15 for standing room only in the "terrace") covered both matches. We got their early and opted to pop the extra 5 euro to be able to sit in the shade, vs. standing in the sun, and easily found a couple of seats right in the front row, close to midfield.
The venue, O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, County Laois, was about as geographical neutral as you can get, being centrally located amongst the three counties that were participating. Offaly fans seemed to be by far the most well represented, probably owing mainly to the fact that they were playing in both matches. Kilkenny and Carlow had plenty of support as well, though, with their black and gold striped jersies for Kilkenny and the green gold and red of Carlow being sprinkled around the pitch.
The attendance, per official reports on the matches was 11,490, which seemed to be about 80% capacity.
It took about 2 hours to drive there, but coming back, with plenty of daylight left, we opted for a scenic detour home and drove through the Slieve Bloom mountains on the Laois/Offaly border, also stopping off briefly at Redwood Castle near Portumna, and grabbing dinner at an Indian Restaurant in Birr, which apparently is joked as Ireland's coldest town (rather than it's drunkest town, if the name were pronounced the other logical way that it might be.).
For more photos of the match, as well as the drive home, Flickr it!
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