A fairytale year ends as Reid magic proves decisive against The Harps

A FAIRYTALE year for The Harps came to an end at the hands of a magician in O’Moore Park on Sunday afternoon.

The prize for winning the Laois SHC was a home tie against the Kilkenny champions in the quarter-final of the Leinster Club SHC and that happened to be Ballyhale Shamrocks, the twelve time Leinster champions and nine time All-Ireland club champions, not bad considering they were only formed in 1972.

In total contrast, The Harps have been the nearly men of Laois hurling since their own inception in 1984, so Sunday’s game was total uncharted territory for this massively talented group of young men and they came into the contest with no fear and gave a brilliant account of themselves.

We’ve so often seen in the past the bigger teams blow away the underdogs with an early goal and flake of points to put the foot down and say there’s going to be no upset here today.

Thankfully, and like they’ve done all year, The Harps didn’t stick to that script and tore into the Kilkenny men from the off and really had the 2023 All-Ireland winners thinking on a number of occasions.

The hosts held a one point lead after 20 minutes and probably should have been further ahead but for a few uncharacteristic wides from Ciaran Comerford frees.

The youthful exuberance of Justin Duggan, Eoin Delaney. Ross Deegan and Mark Downey had the experienced Kilkenny men on the back foot more often than not and they could be accused of making a number of unforced errors due to the harrying nature from the young legs.

The young backs of The Harps weren’t simple either with Jack Kennedy putting in a huge shift at corner-forward while Podge Delaney commanded centre back and Eoghan Murphy put in a standard top notch display at half back.

Ballyhale had a stacked front six with Brian Cody, Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen on the half-forward line while Jake Mullen and Niall Shortall flanked TJ Reid at full-forward.

The Harps held them brilliantly for the opening 20 minutes and for the remainder of the game in relative talk, but a four minute masterclass from TJ Reid is what it took to turn the game on its head.

The first high ball that made its way into the dangerzone was masterfully gathered by Reid and Cody Comerford could do little but bring him to ground and a penalty was awarded which Reid dispatched.

Moments later another high ball came into Reid and he left everyone in disbelief as to how he spotted the run of Darragh Corcoran behind him, let alone how he contorted his body to hit the ball directly into his path for a second goal.

His first display after announcing his intercounty retirement may leave many Kilkenny supporters wishing that King Henry could coax another year out of his clubmate as he was a joy to behold in Portlaoise on Sunday against a top class operator in Comerford.

The Harps battled back in the second half and looked to be really turning the screw until another star in Brian Cody hit them for 1-2 in just three minutes and quashed the comeback.

It’s been said countless times already but this is an incredibly young group of players that The Harps have hurling for them and it would be an almighty shock if they don’t make another appearance in Leinster over the coming years and Sunday’s baptism of fire will stand to them more than any game they’ve played so far.

They’ve seen first hand what it takes to be the best and played against one of the all-time greats in tip top form and once this group of players can stick together there’s no telling what they could do in years to come.

Ken Hogan has brought a huge amount of confidence into this bunch and whether he stays for 2027 or not, the legacy that he’s left with The Harps is that they now know that they can win when it matters.