Guest blog post by Padraig O'Connor.
It was the Minor A hurling final between Kilmaley and Feakle/Kilanena in Cusack Park in Ennis on the 27th of September 2014 and it was a day I won't forget.
This was our third Minor A hurling title in six years, while also reaching our third final three years in row and winning two out of the three, so we were a very successful team. We won in 2012 and lost in 2013 so we knew what both winning and losing felt like, I guess this was an advantage going into the 2014 final. We had great trainers and coaches behind us which was a huge benefit.
We were unlucky with injuries throughout the year so it was great news that we were going into the final with a full squad. We did however lose a player during the game due to injury with a shoulder injury. This was a big year for myself personally because I was battling with a big injury for the past two years so it was a big achievement for me to get back on the field and win the final. I was injured at the start of the year and then made my way back into the starting team after the first two games.
It was a very tough game because we were up against a tough side who we lost to during the league so we knew that we had a big task ahead of us. It was a very tense last few minutes, we were up by three points and Feakle were pressing hard to get a goal and out our defense on a lot of pressure. Thankfully we kept them out and won the game by three points on a score line of 1 - 13 to 0 - 13 points.Unfortunately I got injured with 10 minutes left in the game. I was very dissappointed that I had to come off because I was having a good game. It was the old injury that had come back again but it did not really bother me at the time because we were moments away from winning another minor A title. It was a great day to get back from injury but I knew i would have a long road of rehab ahead of me but I also knew that I would be back again in the future.
[@PADRAIG__OCONNOR is a Minor A Champion currently studying in the Sports Management Programme at the Limerick Institute of Technology. Image from Kilmaley GAA Facebook page.]
