IOMÁINT Last week Éire Óg played host to a Kellogg's Hurling Cúl Camp and one is pleased to report that it proved a very enjoyable experience for all concerned. This was evidenced in the up-beat mood which prevailed among both children and mentors in the immediate aftermath.
The weather on Friday placed a severe curtailment on outdoor activities but thanks to the availability of the hall and the ingenuity of the mentors the children were kept happily engaged with camán and sliothar for the duration of the session.
Despite the hurling camp having to compete with a plethora of other sports camps it succeeded in attracting nigh on 100 participants which for hurling, a minority sport in these environs, is no mean achievement. On the other hand it is not at all that surprising as these camps have gained a reputation for excellence to the extent, one might say, that Róisín Ingle in her column in the Irish Times speaks of dropping her children to the local GAA camp.
Buachaill an Champa was Luke Dorgan – no great wonder really considering his connection with Christy Ring country and the frequency with which he is to be seen with camán in hand. Mickey Hatton was the boy adjudged to have shown the greatest improvement in his iomáint during the camp.
The corresponding awards for the girls were earned respectively by Amy Webster and Ava McGowan.
Many GAA people wonder what purpose, apart from helping to fill a recreational gap for primary school children, these camps serve. What is the long term value to the Cumann, they ask? Recent weeks have shown, that with its very limited resources, the GAA has absolutely no chance of competing with the glamour-hyping which international sports enjoy in attempting to attract the youth to its ranks. For sport and entertainment, however, as was clearly shown during the World Cup, Gaelic games are more than able to hold their own with any of these others. Yet you will never get much discussion among the cognoscenti in sport in this country at the wonder that the game of hurling with its very limited player base can produce such spectacular and heroic contests as those between Wexford and Clare, and Wexford and Waterford. The only hope that our games will thrive lies with the sweat and tears of those working at the coal-face. The Cúl Camps play a role in this in that they help to acquaint children and parents from non-GAA backgrounds with these wonderful products of Irish genius.
SENIOR HURLING Of Tuesday evening when our hurlers travelled to Arklow to play Avondale in the Senior Championship it can unfortunately be said 'there will be times like this”. Éire Óg suffered a defeat about which we can have no complaints but which was much more comprehensive than the efforts of our lads merited.
Nothing seemed to go right for Greystones during the game, a fact which was epitomised in two goalmouth incidents. 10 minutes from the final whistle when Éire Óg tails were up after a goal from a free by Michael Walsh, one of our forwards cleverly directed an incoming ball towards an empty net but somehow it perversely found its way past the outside of the post. And then with a few minutes to go the ball from an Avondale free struck the upright and dropped directly into the hand of a strategically placed Avondale forward. A goal! Further our freetakers were very much off form on the day while in contrast the Avondale player assigned to this duty was unerring from all angles and distances.
Éire Óg started well and led 2 points to nil after 5 minutes. But then a moment of naivete gave the opposition a huge confidence boost. A ball floated in from the right corner, found a Parnell's forward in isolated splendour in the opposite corner of the square who duly conveyed it to the back of the net. 2 more Avondale goals followed shortly after and at that stage the dice was more or less cast. Thereafter it was just a case of the seasiders battling to retain respectability on the scoreboard. To this end no one worked harder than Kristian Flynn at centre-forward and Anto Byrne at centre-field. Peter Keane put in a huge and effective effort in his unaccustomed role at No. 9. Ger White and Billy Cuddihy gave solid performances in the half-back line while James Cranley and Michael Walsh were the pick of the forwards.
Injuries and other factors resulted in the pilfering of the already overstretched resources of the junior team so the coaxing out of retirement of former players begins.
Hurling, of all games, requires zero tolerance refereeing and eventhough we may have felt hard done by on one or two occasions we have to compliment referee John Keenan on a job well done. A propos: the GAA has for health and safety reasons made the interference with the face guard a total no-no. One was reliably informed that at a recent match a player whose guard was being tugged called 'red card' to the ref. The ref's reply was the dubious “No! Not when it occurs in a melee”!!
