Walsh leads the way as Mullinavat pick up Kilkenny senior hurling league points

A good start proved to be half the battle as Mullinavat got one over Erin’s Own (Castlecomer) to pick up their first points of the senior hurling league.

Led by John Walsh - he scored 0-11 in total - the ’Vat stockpiled the scores to take an eight-point lead in at half-time, a return which had a big say in their victory.

The winners controlled much of the play in the middle third, winning possession and limiting the Erin’s Own attack. With the wind at their backs they were three points up after 11 minutes (0-6 to 0-3), then hit six of the next seven scores to go 0-12 to 0-4 in front; Walsh landed seven of those (five from frees), with full-back Tom Aylward firing over a mammoth score from a placed ball well inside his own half. Conor Walsh was also among the scorers, helping Mullinavat take a 0-13 to 0-5 advantage at the interval.

The winners were quick off the mark in the second half, putting together an early scoring run that all but saw them home and hosed. Four unanswered points, three Walsh frees and a fine Adam Mansfield score, meant Erin’s Own were chasing a 12-point gap with less than 20 minutes left.

The ’Comer men may have been down, but they raised their game in the last quarter. A burst of 1-6 in the final 10 minutes which started with Michael Brennan’s goal, saw them close to within four points of the leaders (0-20 to 1-13), but Adam Mansfield settled Mullinavat’s nerves with a late solo point to see his side through.

See next week’s People Sport for full report.

SCORERS: Mullinavat - John Walsh (0-11, 0-9 frees); Conor Walsh, Adam Mansfield, Ger Malone (0-2 each); Tom Aylward (0-1, free); Michael Malone, Padraic Gahan, Oisin Knox (0-1 each). 

Erin’s Own - Michael Brennan (1-2); Jack Buggy (0-5, 0-4 frees); Conor Delaney (0-2); Shane Feehan, Shane Coogan, Declan Buggy, Dan Coogan (0-1 each).