After securing the 4th win of the season against St Peregrines, without a single puc of a slioter. The St Brendan’s Hurlers, Sponsored by Bodibro. Travelled to Silver Park in Stillorgan to face the undefeated Kilmacud Crokes. On a very bitterly cold evening in Stillorgan, Someone's O must go!

And from the outset, it was the home side, relegated from Division 6 last season who would hold onto their O by scoring three points inside the opening 8 minutes, all long distance free’s. The Dark force did get on the board with a point from Patrick Lambe following a turnover from The Wexican Oisin Carley.

By the 16th minute, Kilmacud notched up another three points, this time from open play JJ ‘72’ Lennon got St Brendan’s 2nd point from a free after a foul on Liam Kennedy. Kilmacud put enormous pressure on goalkeeper Rory Tynan in which a clearance went straight to a Kilmacud player whose wild shot went across the face of goal and ended up being a sideline cut for St Brendan’s!

23 minutes gone and St Brendan’s got back in the game with a penalty after Shane Nolan was chopped down. JJ Lennon’s initial shot went over the bar, however the referee asked Lennon to retake the penalty because he was not happy with the Kilmacud goalkeeper coming off his line. Lennon hit the net second time around, but the home side responded with a point 0-8 to 1-2.

Lennon’s personal tally became 1-2 with another free this time Declan Lee drew the foul. The pressure Kilmacud put on Tynan finally told when they pucked their first three pointer of the evening to make it 1-8 to 1-3 with four minutes to go before half time and the score stayed that way as the referee blew for half time on exactly 30 minutes, Half Time score 1-8 to 1-3 to Kilmacud.

Five minutes later, the slioter was in for the second half, five seconds after that, Lennon hit a point from play after Michael Harte won the throw in. Sean Whyte brilliantly provoked his marker into throwing the slioter, which reesulted in a free in and again Lennon converted to reduce the deficit to three 70 seconds into the second half. 1-8 to 1-5. But Kilmacud did restore the five point lead with a brace of rapid fire points. 

JJ ‘72’ Lennon was St Brendan’s scorer in chief and his personal tally first became 1-5 with a free following a foul on Cian ‘The 1500 meter man’ Ó Lionáird and second with a point from play from a tight angle following a Kilmacud shot which fell short and Tynan’s clearance found Eoin Corcoran and then Oisin Carley. 1-10 to 1-7. Jack ‘The Prop’ McGrath came on as a sub and his first contribution was to win another free for Lennon to convert 1-10 to 1-8. Kilmacud woke up from their mid match slumber, aided by two young subs, to restore the three point lead.

12 minutes to go and St Brendan’s got back into the contest with a great goal when Patrick Lambe, unleashing his inner Ginger McLaughlin from 1982 with half of the Kilmacud team on his back, still managed to puck the ball into the net and had the luxury of an advantage given by the referee but didn't need it. On the other end, Eanna Larkin threw his body to stop a Kilmacud shot from going into the net.

Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for The Dark Force as the home side introduced new fresh legs who contributed four points on the spin and then ended the game as a contest with a well taken goal as the natural daylight began to fade.

A late consolation point from Oisin Carley and a brace form the home side where the last scores in the final three minutes as the referee blew for full time at 8.39pm in near pitch darkness.

So a first defeat of the season for the St Brendan’s hurlers and Cian Walsh was the first to admit that Kilmacud set a very high standard and it was up to his side to reach that standard for the remainder of the season, starting with a rematch from last years Junior D Final on May 9th against Round Towers Lusk.

Final Score from Silver Park Stillorgan, Kilmacud Crokes 2-17 St Brendan’s 2-9.

24 hours later, Cian Walsh was on the sidelines again, this time in Bohernabreena and this time for the St Brendan's Ladies Football 2nd team, hoping to finally win a game on the field of play, but will have to wait a little while longer as The Female Darkest Force went down 3-7 to 2-5 to St Annes's.

However, there was much better news coming out of Grangegorman that same evening as The St Bredan's Ladies Football 1st XV continuued their 100% start to the 2023 sesaon with a convincing 6-5 to 1-3 victory over Kilmacud Crokes 2nds team with Faye, NIamh, Vivienne, Tiarna and Jane getting the majors.