Hat-trick scoring goalkeepers are a rare breed in hurling, and a man that has scored two of them has just left Waterford.
You may have heard about Adrian Power’s departure from the Waterford hurling panel earlier this year, a development which caused a fair bit of consternation in the Déise County given Power’s potential and the fact that the 24-year old goalkeeper featured in some of the more important league games in the spring.
With no inter-county commitments keeping him at home, Power has decided to up sticks and move Stateside for the foreseeable future, but Michael Ryan could be forgiven for sending out an SOS after Power’s exploits for his club Ballyduff Upper against Dungarvan in the Waterford Hurling Championship at the weekend.
According to the Hogan Stand website, Power ventured up the field to score three goals in Fraher Field, two from 20 metre frees and one from a penalty, but unfortunately his efforts proved in vain as Dungarvan emerged victorious on a scoreline of 2-21 – 4-9.
Championship debutant Stephen O’Keefe coped just fine in the Munster semi-final against Clare – indeed he made a brilliant save to deny Conor McGrath late on – so Waterford should be alright without Power, but it is Ballyduff Upper that we would be more concerned about.
Certainly, we’ve never heard of a goalkeeper accounting for nearly half of his team’s scores in a championship game so either the forwards in the club would want to up their game, or the management will have to find another goalkeeper equally as prolific as the one who’s just left the country.
They’re not likely to find one, however, because it is believed that Power is the first goalkeeper to achieve such a feat in a championship match since… well since Power himself netted three goals playing for Cork Vocational Schools against Tipperary in 2005 while he was a student of Fermoy Vocational School.
We wouldn’t be getting too comfortable in the States if we were Power; he might be getting a call from home summoning him to return in the very near future.
Ciaran Lenehan makes David Beckham an offer he can’t refuse
Across the water today meanwhile, the football world was, for some reason, stunned by the omission of a past his best 37-year old from a squad for a half-important football tournament.
In fairness, David Beckham took the news of his exclusion from the Great Britain Olympic team fairly well, but we’re a bit suspicious of his intentions to be the team’s primary cheerleader when the games come to his hometown later this summer.
He’ll never say it publicly, but Becks will probably be anxious to get as far away as possible from London once the football starts and until it becomes an Olympic sport (it should be, we’d win gold every time), there’s nothing as far removed from the Games as cutting silage in the fields of the Royal County of an August evening.
We doubt whether Becks has much farming experience, but if he’s looking for distractions in a few weeks’ time, Meath footballer Ciaran Lenehan revealed on Twitter earlier today that he is more than happy to help him out.
How his fancy hair and colourful tattoos will be greeted on the farm in Meath remains to be seen, but many hands make light work after all.
