Cathal Dunbar was nearly back in Redmond Square when he stood over the sliotar.
Gorey outfit Naomh Eanna went into their Wexford SHC group game with Oulart The Ballagh as slight underdogs. The underdogs left Wexford Park on Sunday evening with their ears pricked and their tails wagging.
Perennial champions Oulart the Ballagh were dethroned last year by the rampant St Martin’s and their 2018 campaign has began in a similar vein.
Oulart have played four group stages games to date and they’ve only emerged victorious from one of those games. Their most recent defeat coming against Naomh Eanna at the weekend and they now face an uphill battle to progress to the knockout rounds.
Here’s the state of things in Group B at the moment, with Naomh Eanna flying high and Oulart still only just inside the top four qualifying spots.
As the above table shows, the north Wexford club have been scoring freely. They’ve 100 points to their name in four games with their potent attacking duo of Conor McDonald and Cathal Dunbar doing the damage up top.
That man Dunbar’s mere presence in the green and white is a moot subject in Wexford, after he opted to move from his native intermediate club Ballygarrett Réalt na Mara, to Naomh Eanna last year, but the lively forward has put that controversy behind him with a string of impressive displays in this group stage up to now.
On Sunday, he continued his fine recent form, as he grabbed the game by the scruff after the interval as Naomh Eanna overturned a deficit that once stood at ten points.
Dunbar, who was on and off the Wexford senior team this year, saved his best until late on in the sunny south east when he cut a line-ball over the bar from just beyond his own 65.
It rose the Naomh Eanna crowd, it even brought some of the Oulart folk to their feet, but it sure as hell helped sink the county’s kingpins as the table-toppers went onto win by 2-22 to 1-17.
You can watch the cut in the below video from 8.52.
The blowing wind certainly made a difference, but there’s no taking away from that sweetest of sweet strikes.
Shades of Ronan Maher for Tipperary against Limerick in the league.
Down in Wexford they’re asking if it’s the longest sideline ever scored.
@OfficialWexGAA hurler Cathal Dunbar scored a sideline FROM HIS OWN 65 playing for @NaomhEannaGAA at the weekend!
Ridiculous! Must be longest sideline ever scored? I'm sure 'Uncle Jim' would know the answer @SecondCaptains @saveciaranmurph?
Original: https://t.co/bZKp8gfX3Q pic.twitter.com/pUavyTtnMk
— Shane O Leary (@shaneoleary1) August 28, 2018
Video Credit: Wexford Today.
