U14 Championship: 4-8 v Delvin 3-7, April 9.

It's the Love of the Game that hopefully keeps all kids hurling, and this was the perfect match-maker to setup a romance for life. Passion, Intensity, Devotion, Excitement & Energy were the sentiments to the fore from the small panel of 16 players that were available for the trek to this North Westmeath encounter on Delvin's home turf. The pitch was perfect with a strong breeze and sunshine the only conditions to contend with but they were in our favour for the first half and we took full advantage with Johnny taking the opening score from the throw in followed by a free from Cian. Then Conn held one of their puckouts & brilliantly bounced passed a ball to Cian in support who struck lovely to give us a 3 point lead. In the backline Zach was bravely winning more than he should and as always, cleared them well, while Josh was similarly battling up front and taking on their big man. Delvin replied with a free before Johnny won another tussle and pointed followed by a long ball into the box for Paul to pounce on, take on his man and aggressively by pass him to strike the ball low to the corner to put us firmly ahead. Then came their purple patch as they rallied against our dominance and struck back with a few points followed by 2 late goals in the first half for them to draw level with us a Half Time. We knew we should of been ahead, but such is the composure of this group, they discussed the mistakes of the first half and knew they'd right them in the second half. Truly they did that by everyone putting their bodies on the line. Calum was everywhere and delivered some great puckouts. Conn had his best game in a Gaels Jersey by aggressively attacking the ball as never before. Oisín was in combat mode and fulfilled his duties diligently to give us a platform to perform and allow Johnny take off so majestically and run riot with some wonderful scores. Diarmaid was unreal solid with his best moment protecting a ball, getting over it to secure possession tempting the opposition to foul him and that they did. Another of the hardest working backs was Luke, who's tight marking ability is exemplary and it took him to track one of their best forwards to keep him scoreless when he looked so menacing, that was a game changer when it was most needed as Delvin upped the intensity and took a 3 point lead with 10 minutes to go. But the Great Gaels had other ideas and composure. Cian was inspired now for victory and struck a close in free to put us two behind. Then Cian magnificently goaled a 25 yard blaster of a free to put us one ahead. We never looked back as everyone knew what had to be done to see out the triumph. Michael was immense and so brave at centre back especially as he took a tough off the ball blow to win us a vital free. That long range free saw some tough battling by Dano to send the ball to the back post where a hungry energetic Cormac was waiting to catch a beauty and strike firmly to skim the post on the nearside of the keeper to put us 4 ahead. At the other end our Keeper Cillian was on top form especially from high dropping balls only conceding raspers. Alex also came on as a sub and was bravely straight into the action to cut out their main threat. Delvin were not to lie down and aggressively attacked us, but Cian vitally dispossessed a shot from the square before they had one last chance but Ryan stood tallest and bravest. Ryan got in so close to stop them by putting his body in on a shot to take a tough strike to the shoulder to see out the win as the ref blew the final whistle to great scenes of jubilation to win such a tight encounter and fall further in love with the Game of the Gods……..

Heroes on the Night: Cillian Geary, Diarmaid Murtagh, Calum Devaney, Ryan Fallon, Luke O'Connell, Michael Dolan, Zach Meegan, Cian Geary (1-3), Johnny Martin (1-5), Oisín Flynn, Dano McMonagle, Conn O'Hara, Cormac Bradley (1-0), Josh Keane, Paul Hogan (1-0), Alex Devaney

 

Intermediate Championship: Southern Gaels 0-8  Cullion 6-21
The opening quarter of this championship group game proved competitive but thereafter there was only one team in control. The sides swapped three early points with Sean Dowd slotting over two frees and Noel Morgan from play as Gaels kept in touch with the Mullingar based side. However, Cullion turned on some style for the remainder of the half and hit a string of points mainly from play and three goals to wrap up the game by half time. Gaels worked hard in the opening quarter of the second half and were again competitive with Dowd again accurate with two frees as his side applied some pressure on the Cullion defence.  But again they fell away and Cullion proved vastly superior in the scoring stakes. Gaels added two late points from Dowd and Morgan but it did nothing to change the outcome.  Others to show well for the Athlone side were M.J. Kelly, Kevin Dolan and Martin Geary. Team: Pat Flynn, Eoin Meaney, Kevin Dolan, Fergus Gronenendijk, Ronan Farrell, Kieran Duncan, Dermot Treacy, Sean Carey, Sean Dowd (0-6f), Peter Muldoon, M.J. Kelly, Colin Larkin, Martin Geary, Noel Morgan (0-2) and Tony O'Keeffe. Sub: Tristan Cooper for Geary 45 min.

All-Ireland Football Ticket Draw: 
Annual Sale of Draw Tickets for 2 Seats at Football All-Ireland. €2 for one entry, €5 for 3 entries. Tickets will be distributed to all players, so please support us and you could be going to Croker for a cracker and unique pairing of Galway v Limerick. Draw to be held at our Bowling Night August 31st.

Bowling Fundraiser: 
We will host fundraiser on Friday August 31st 19.00-22.00, in the Planet, Athlone. Food included and Play Area open to kids. Bookings to: 0872253350.

County Representation
It was a busy weekend for Westmeath County underage Hurling and we had the following players on those teams: U16 v Offaly: Eamon Martin. U15 v Kildare: Chulainn Dowd, Cian McCarthy. U14 v Galway: Cian Geary.

 

Tweet

Most Read Stories