Not many would have tipped Lisdowney to win the ever-competitive Kilkenny intermediate hurling championship…and that might just be the understatement of the year.
But from the blue, the forgotten men of Kilkenny hurling have bolted and they’re in dreamland now. Next year, they’ll rub shoulders with Ballyhale, James Stephens, Tullaroan and the rest of the game’s giants. For a club that ‘nobody knows,’ it’s incredible company to be holding and 2020 is a year which they will never forget.
Promoted in 2013, Lisdowney have survived but never threatened since. Beaten quarter finalists here, narrow escapes there. The tide has been turning recently though, an U21 championship in 2019 giving hope and bringing some young players on.
Last month, the club’s second team won the Junior A Championship in Kilkenny and suddenly Lisdowney were on a roll. Young Ireland’s were defeated in the intermediate quarter final and fellow favourites Glenmore went down to Lisdowney in the semi.
Those young players were sending shockwaves around the county, belief was coursing through the parish.
— Lisdowney GAA Club (@LisdowneyGAA) September 26, 2020
“I don’t think we were favourites for any game we played all year. But after winning the under-21 championship and the Junior A, momentum came from those wins, everyone was on a high after them,” says the team’s goalkeeper Liam Dunphy.
This fairytale had life in it yet. By Saturday, last year’s narrowly beaten finalists Thomastown were expected to right that wrong. Come Saturday evening, they were well on their way. But from three points down in injury time, from five points down in extra-time, from two penalties down in the shootout, Lisdowney found a way.
“We had the game lost four times. It looked over in normal time, it looked over in extra-time and in penalties as well,” adds Dunphy.
A good keeper will get you a long way in a shoot-out and Dunphy, a former Kilkenny minor and under-21 goalie was playing with confidence, having pulled off some spectacular saves in normal time.
But the best was yet to come as despite having missed his penalty, the stopper made three saves in the shoot-out to bring the intermediate championship to Lisdowney for the first time in its history.
“At the end of the day, if I let in 45 goals and we still won, I’d still be happy,” he says with a hoarse voice.
“It’s just, it was some feeling and I’ll never forget it. I just ran to the corner and looking up to see all the boys running at you, it just kind of hits in then what we’d done.
Lisdowney after winning Kilkenny intermediate final @buff_egan pic.twitter.com/vySjf1WuzM
— Danny Lahart Photography 2 (@ynnadtrahal) September 26, 2020
“There’s five or six of us who’d hit penalties before training so we kind of knew who’d be hitting them, but then some of the lads didn’t finish the game and were gone off. So lads kind of stepped up and asked to hit them. I know sure after missing my penalty, I tried not to think about it too much because it was the last thing you’d have wanted in your head.
“As a goalie, I enjoy the penalties. In the 21 final last year, they got a penalty too and we kept it out. I find there’s no pressure on you as a keeper. If you save it, everyone’s buzzing, if you miss, you can say it was a good shot!
“Nobody knows our club. You’d be talking to lads and you’d say you’re from Lisdowney and they’d say ‘where’s that?’ Nobody kind of thinks of us as being up at that kind of a standard, so to be up there now is just unreal to be honest…”
They know all about Lisdowney now…
