STRICTLY COME ÉIRE OG GREYSTONES LAUNCH NIGHT: We are holding a launch night for our Strictly Come Éire Óg, Greystones event in the Hot Spot (above the Beach House) on Thursday 7th May at 9pm. The dancers will be introduced and tickets to the big event will be on sale too.
SENIOR FOOTBALL: Sunday 19th Éire Óg senior footballers travelled to Dunlavin to play the locals at 11.30am in Division 1A of the Campus Football League. The journey proved a fruitful one as they claimed the spoils on the scoreline 3-13 to 1-06. It is some time since our lads have totted up a score of such magnitude. That this was a team performance par excellence is reflected in the scoreline – a forward division with their shooting boots on and avaricious for scores and a tight-marking and niggardly defence.
Full forward Daniel Webb had one of Van Morrison's “days like this”, he contributed a very impressive 3-1 on the scoreboard. A scoring spree of this type does not occur too often. A very pleasing aspect of the scoring, however, was that 7 other players contributed to the scoresheet viz. Craig Smullen, Dave Behan (0-4), Leon Browne, Willie O'Hagan, Pearse Kelly, Jamie McDonald (0-2) and Seán Lawless (0-2).
There was further satisfaction in that the 15 who took to the field showed 7 changes from that which played against Newtown in the championship. However its degree has to be tempered by the fact that we are only talking about Div 1A of the league.
Jack Tanner at full back and Darren Hayden constituted a solid backbone of a very effective defence. They were ably assisted by Dominic O'Reilly. The brief note on the game which one received from the iphone of John Wynne carried a riposte to the reservations expressed in last week's notes with respect to the sweeper system. It claimed that it worked well on this occasion. Maybe it did but one would say that, in general, its efficacy is open to question.
There is no doubt but that the County Fixtures Coiste has a difficult task in arranging the schedule for hurling and football within the Condae. However one feels that insufficient consideration is given to the arranging of games between teams residing at the extremities of the county. Thus the senior footballers had to travel the breadth of the condae to take on Dunlavin at 11.30am on Sunday, a time not exactly in accord with the social life of modern youth. But that was not at all as inconvenient as it will be having to travel to Carnew at 7.30pm – a journey of well over an hour on a Tuesday night as Na Clocha Liatha is expected to do in its next fixture. (Carnew's junior hurlers are called upon to make the reverse journey on a Wednesday night). Contrast this with Donard/The Glen's visit to Éire Óg which had been timetabled for the very civilised time of 6.00pm on a Saturday afternoon.
IOMÁINT The junior hurlers played their 1st match of the league on Wednesday night in Arklow. Their opponents were A.R.P. It was a beautiful evening stolen from mid-summer but the setting sun made it difficult for the keeper in the west-facing goal. The Éire Óg management had hoped that the no-holds-barred in-house game involving seniors, juniors and minors on the previous Monday evening would have brought the players up to speed for the game but as it turned out this was far from the case. What transpired was a typical error-strewn early season contest which could not claim to have done anything to have in any way enhanced the image of iomáint. Cinnte, cluiche nach raibh thar moladh beirte a bhí ann. The games tempo was not aided by an over-liberal use of the feadóg..
In hindsight Éire Óg paid dearly in not having made its early dominance tell on the scoreboard. Nevertheless Greystones were 2-3 to 0-6 ahead at the interval. The 1st goal came from the camán of big Jack Commons while the combination of Hughie O'Neill and the low sun accounted for the other. Our 3 points were scored from frees by Martin Joyce. Except for an excellent point from minor Mikey Ryan, the 2nd half was eminently forgettable – all the other scores in this period came from set pieces. Every cloud has a silver lining and on this occasion manifested itself in the performance of Daniel Salmon at full-back and in the successful bedding-in at this level of minors Mikey Ryan, Ben Nolan and Thomas Ryder.
