CAMOGIE: Last year the club added camogie to the list of sports it has on offer and the Saturday morning camogie training sessions have been well attended from the outset. Progress has been steady and recently history was made when, for the first time, the club fielded an u-12 team. The occasion was a blitz which comprised teams from Éire Óg, Arklow Rock Parnells, Glenealy and Avondale and in which each of the clubs played all of the others. The notice for the event was a little short and many of the Éire Óg regulars had made prior arrangements with the result that our squad was somewhat below full strength. Despite the fact that this was our girls' first experience of competition they were not at all overwhelmed and gave a very good account of themselves.
Siobhán Darcy, Caoimhe Ryan and Florence Fogarty impressed with their tenacious defending while Aisling Goff and Keela Keogh proved themselves to be enterprising and accurate forwards. Emma Darcy, Sophie Keogh, Ella Keane and Adriana Majchrzuk were uncompromising in their pursuit of possession. Because of their inexperience the girls were a little timid in their engagement in the early stages of the blitz. However they gradually toughened up and were soon at home with the physicality of the exchanges.
WEEKLY LOTTO: 8, 16, 20 & 24 were the winning numbers from this week’s club lotto draw. Nobody matched 4 numbers but 4 people, Larry Howard, Paul Simpson, Kevin Keyes and Sile O’Neill matched 3 numbers and take home €50 each. You can be a winner too by buying a ticket at www.eireoggreystones.com
PEIL NA gCAILÍNÍ: Our young lady footballers were also around and about in recent weeks.
The u-12 cailíní travelled to Carnew on Sunday last to take on the locals. This squad of players, unlike those of recent years at this age group, is very much on the young side with only 2 of them progressing to u-14 in 2016. Hence their mentors are pleased when the team puts in a reasonable performance. On Sunday the girls found the 1st half tough going and eventhough they fell well behind they continued to battle gamely. Early in the 2nd half they even raised hopes of a comeback when they notched up 2-1 without reply in a 5 minute period. Unfortunately Carnew awoke to the threat and soon regained the upper hand.
U-16 Last week was a busy week for the u-16s: they had 2 matches, one against St Pats and one against Arklow. Again this is a very young team with only 1 player graduating from its ranks at the end of the season.
The St Pats game was really an excellent game of football and hugely enjoyable as long as your system had a large capacity for excitement. The final score, 4-6 each, was truly reflective of the trend in a game in which each side had, at various times, the opportunity of claiming victory.
Arklow's 6 point winning margin would seem to suggest that the Éire Óg girls were well beaten in this match. However such was not entirely the case as our girls competed quite well and might indeed have won if they had capitalised on their very many chances.
Two of the panel, Rachel Purcell and Eve McTague played on the Wicklow u-16 team which defeated Longford in the Leinster Shield Final at the week-end.
Our Clubman of the Year, Séamus Ahern, is a member of the management of the Wicklow team.
U-14 FOOTBALL: The Éire Óg u-14s who were promoted from Div 3 at the end of last season find themselves struggling at the higher level. Last week they travelled to Blessington and lost by 6 or 7 points. It is a problem with promotion at juvenile level that many of the better players who brought the team to the higher grade will have moved on to the next age level for the following season so that the team playing at the higher grade will often be much weaker than the team which was instrumental in bringing them there.
Training for the girls continues on Thursday evenings at 6.30 pm.
JUNIOR FOOTBALL: One heard on the grapevine, (the team's humility prevents it from broadcasting the fact!), that our juniors defeated Knockananna in the 1st round of the championship in Arklow on Saturday evening. Comhgáirdeachas leo.
