Championship endeavours are over for another season for the White’s Cross Junior
Footballers and Hurlers. Given that White’s Cross GAA had not fielded an adult
hurling team at any level since the year 2000 until this year, and had not fielded a
Junior A hurling side since the early 1990’s, the very fact that our Junior hurlers
would appear to be on-course to maintain their status in the A-grade for 2013 is an
achievement in-of-itself. The current league table shows this team in a mid-table
position.
However higher aspirations were in place for the Junior A footballers, who have
been a leading force in the division for the best part of the last 10 years, having won
4 divisional championship crowns between 2006 and 2010. Having seen off the
challenge of Bishopstown in their opening round encounter earlier in the summer,
they were pitted against more southside opponents in the quarter final – Douglas.
Despite the fact that we had defeated Douglas in the league earlier in the season,
White’s Cross certainly were up against it going into the game with a number of
key players unavailable: Cian Smith (emigrated); Murt Kelleher & Paul O Sullivan
(long-term injuries); Sean Gorman (honeymoon); Bryan O Sullivan (holidays). To
compound it there was great uncertainty over the availability of James Cooney and
Eoin Murnane, who were both after serious operations, and only returned to light
training in the immediate run-up to the game. Indeed, both of these players are to be
complimented for making themselves available for selection on the night. Thus the
strength in-depth of this panel was always going to be tested in this encounter.
Compounding this was the fact that we were up against formidable opponents who
were intent on seeking revenge for a series of championship defeats to White’s Cross
– in fact the last time Douglas had beaten White’s Cross in this championship was in
2004 (after a quarter-final replay) when they went onto win the competition outright.
In this particular encounter the Douglas lads proved particularly dominant in defence
and at midfield and were full-value on the night for their seven-point margin of
victory. They have since followed up this win with an equally-impressive victory
over Nemo Rangers, and now await the winners of St. Finbarrs v Brian Dillons / St.
Nicks in the championship final
Thus the sole interest of our A footballers is the league and McSwiney Cup –
currently they are in pole position in the former and seeking ten-in-a-row in the latter!
With just two games remaining against Brian Dillons and Na Piarsaigh, White’s Cross
look good for a semi-final spot.