It's a sign of Trinity's growing confidence that the overriding emotion following their eight-point defeat to Mary I in Thursday afternoon's Fitzgibbon Cup clash was disappointment.
It was an entertaining game at the University of Limerick and one from which Trinity felt they deserved more. The final scoreline of 3-20 to 3-12 certainly reflects Mary I's superiority but it was to Trinity's credit that they gave the reigning champions a cracker of a game in the lashing Limerick rain.
The first-half was far from one-way traffic but Brian Corry struck an important goal for the hosts after nine minutes. Trinity failed to score from play before half-time with Fionn O’Riain Broin getting all five of their points from frees.
From the restart, Mary Immaculate moved to end the game as a contest by opening up a 1-13 to 0-7 lead but Donncha Butler sparked hopes of a Trinity revival by getting their first goal, the wing forward scoring almost immediately after coming off the bench.
Less than a minute later, though, the home side notched their second goal through Michael Corry. Tim O'Mahony scored their third after 51 minutes to widen the gap between the sides to 14 points but Conor O’Carroll struck two goals in quick succession late on in a laudable demonstration of Trinity's laudable resilience.
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A defeat's a defeat but Trinity offered further evidence that they're on an upward trajectory. The enormous effort levels on display at UL on Thursday were indicative of the sense of togetherness among the team right now. While they have some way to go before matching the fitness and skill of a team like Jamie Wall's Mary I, they will rightly draw further encouragement from another gutsy display here.
It's worth noting that their freshers are on track for back to back division 2 league and championship doubles so something must be working. The next assessment of Trinity's credentials will be against IT Carlow next week.
Speaking of, Carlow further enhanced their own growing reputation after beating NUIG 2-16 to 1-16 in Dangan. Managed by Kilkenny legend DJ Carey, last year's beaten finalists recovered after going down to John Fox's third-minute goal to turn the tie on its head, Jack Fagan netting two goals in the space of 15 minutes.
With just one point in it heading into injury time, two more points ensured Carey's men booked their place in the competition's quarter-final. After five wins on the bounce and, with a potent combination of physicality, finesse, youthful exuberance and experience, it would take a brave man to bet against them going one better than last year.
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