COUNTY FOOTBALLERS Congratulations to our county footballers on their defeat of Offaly and to our own Darren Hayden who scored the insurance goal.
JUNIOR A FOOTBALL Our Junior As took to the field against St Pats in Ashford on Sunday morning in their 1st outing in the championship and unfortunately came up short. Not at all surprising when one considers that promotions to the seniors had stripped the squad of 5 or 6 of its more talented players and that the dual players were unavailable because of the senior hurlers' championship game against Glenealy the following evening.
From the throw-in St Pats showed their intent and a shell-shocked Éire Óg were left chasing shadows. By the quarter hour mark the Wicklow town men had accumulated 8 points while Greystones had failed to score. At this point the trend of the game changed somewhat when a Pats' player was issued with a black card. The flow of the ball in to our goal area was also staunched about this time when the stout hearted and dependable Paul Doherty was moved to centre-back. For the remainder of the 1st half and for most of the 2nd Greystones more or less held its own and even with a bit of luck might have done a' Galway' or better.
The straitened circumstances of the team were reflected in the fact that the combined ages of the full-forward line soared well beyond the century when the only Éire Óg sub was called into action!
Johnny Groome, a man with a penchant for the dramatic, scored a goal 10 minutes into the 2nd half when Greystones were under pressure. Having burst his way in from centre field he lost control within the large parallelogram and began to stumble while at the same time pleading 'penalty ref'. However he had not placed all his eggs in this basket and, though still stumbling, stretched out a leg to kick the ball to the back of the net.
The Deeney brothers were seen to good effect throughout the game – the elder brother John an intelligent reader of the game nipped many a dangerous St Pats move in the bud while Niall was constantly involved in the action up front.
U 12 HURLERS A sun-kissed verdant sward tonsured to sliothar amicability greeted the u-12 hurlers of Greystones and Kilcoole as they trooped onto the Éire Óg pitch on Monday night for their u-12 blitz. The players were obviously inspired by this hurling-friendly milieu as both teams served up an excellent exhibition of iomáint particularly in the area of point scoring.
At underage, especially from 14 down, there are considerable disparities (these happily tend to attenuate with age) in the physique and skill levels of players and we all have seen how one or two precociously developed individuals can swing a match against a team with overall superior players.
On Monday this advantage lay with Éire Óg and was largely responsible for their defeating by a few goals and points a gritty and spirited Kilcoole team. This was Na Clocha Liatha's first win of the season.
Our team was Oisín Shanahan, Sean McCormack (who got 2 fine points when moved to the forwards), Neil Burke, Colm Shortt (a rock at the back), Daniel Healy, Stephen Salmon, Neil Browne (manager's choice as man of the match), Thade Shanahan, Luke Dorgan, Joe Prendergast (who played through the pain barrier and contributed 2 excellent goals), Rory Barry (making his hurling debut), Glen Halligan and Eiméad Gulliver.
Well done to Kilcoole on a good sporting game, and in particular to the young girl in the Kilcoole forwards who in the first half scored the best point of the night from distance. Well done and thanks also to referee Eugene Doherty.
U-12 GIRLS The u-12 girls played their penultimate league match in Barndarrig on Thursday last. Their final game is against Carnew during the week. With the advantage of the slope in the 1st half Éire Óg had run up an unassailable lead by the break and in the end ran out comfortable winners. In the corresponding fixture last year the boot was on the other foot.
Andrea Hanlon and AislingDuggan were the pick of a parsimonious defence while Megan Maguire and Niamh Hanrahan dominated in the centre. Ciara O'Neill, Eva Magennety (3-0), Ella Horgan and Jane Merrin starred in the forwards