Southern Gaels Hurling club notes
July 21, 2014Brownstown 3-16 Southern Gaels 1-11
Southern Gaels paid a heavy price for a slow start and found themselves 1-8 to 0-2 down at the end of the first quarter. Ross Daly, Johnny Fitzpatrick and Niall Leonard were in top form for the north Westmeath side as they raced into an early lead. Gaels did settle somewhat with four points from Tony O'Keeffe but the Brownstown midfield and half forward line piled on the pressure and scored another 1-6 before the break with a Daniel Dugdale goal and a number of points from Leonard.
Gaels made a dramatic improvement in the second half as Trevor Farrell moved to center-field and Duncan and Mac Eochaidh played well in defense. With twenty five minutes of the half gone Brownstown had only managed one point from a free. However, Gaels failed to turn their dominance into enough scores and a return of 1-6 was not enough to threaten Brownstown. Again Tony O'Keeffe accounted for five points with Garvey adding the other and the lively M J Kelly adding the goal.
Gaels have started poorly in all their championship games leaving a mountain to climb in the second half. If they can sort this they will be serious contenders but are running out of games to do so and with Fr Dalton's next up they need to get it right for that game.
Team; Paddy Grace, Patrick Flynn, Eoghan Cronin, Trevor Farrell, Sean Carey, Kieran Duncan (Capt), Jamie Anders, Sean Kilgarriff, Jason Ryan, Dermot Carey, Ronan Farrell, Tony O'Keeffe (0-9, 6f), Adrian Garvey (0-2), M.J. Kelly (1-0) and Darragh Kelly.
Subs: Ciaran Mac Eochaidh (S Carey), Colin Larkin (R Farrell), Cathal Mc Givern (Ryan) and Jonathan Keogh (D Carey)
Thank you to all who supported our Church Gate collection for juvenile hurling last Sunday with great generosity.
Club Draw
The Club 200 Draw is now up for subscription. There is €650 in prizes each month. Tickets are €120 a year by cash or direct debit. Tickets can be purchased from any club member and there is a limit of 200 members.
Under 8's Croke Park Theatre Of Dreams
Is Croke Park Comparable to a Theatre of Dreams? For Southern Gaels Under 8's to get the privilege to tour and play at GAA HQ it can surpass many a dream and it certainly lived up to its theatrics.
A great contingent of 20 players travelled from Athlone, taking in a playful pit stop in the Phoenix park in glorious sunshine. Then it was down to business as the players arrived in Croke Park with a tour of the Media Area, Dressing Rooms and Warm up area before being photographed and unleashed to roars from the tunnel onto the hallowed sod. Straight into the action were Lee Turley, Gearoid McCarthy and Cian Gilhooly holding firm our defence from an early onslaught. Daithi O Leochain and Nathan Corcoran felt the early injury blows from Galmoy, but recovered quickly to get stuck in. It was Ruairí O Duibhir and Cathal Hardiman who next rose to the challenge and ensured we cleared our lines and sent the ball into attack. The brave Liam O'Flaherty raced onto any loose ball, sending it into the inside forwards of Sean O'Neill and Cillian McGowan to try and score. It was Cillian Mc who drew first blood with a rasper of a shot, unstoppable and we were one up. Unfortunately we leaked 3 in succession before Cillian Geary stepped up his performance to bring us to parity with 2 superbly taken goals. It was tied 3 a piece at the interval. Then with a totally new set of players to start the second half, Cormac Murphy and Harry Healy marshalled the defence and were unlucky to leak one. Tj Turley and Shane Wheatley competed for everything and commanded the middle of the field, leaving Sean Cosgrove and Leon Macken up front, nearly scoring on a few occasions. Eoin McCormack also took the game by the scruff of the neck with some possession dominance. Kyle Mahon's puck outs were sublime and we were very unlucky not to score from a few. If there was ever a goal keeping performance to be talked about in Croker, it certainly has to be that of Nathan Corcoran. He coolly blocked, stopped, controlled and cleared anything that came near, preventing a few certain goals. He was on fire. With a barrage of shots and possession late on, it took Cormac Bradley's persistence and accuracy to get us an equaliser at 4 goals apiece.
Is majestic a term used often in GAA? Not too often, but it has to be commented that Cillian Geary graced that hallowed sod and performed majestically all over, defending well, taking his scores and reading the game to out manoeuvre the opposition. Nicknamed "Killer", his relentless pursuit of the winning score was breath taking for all vociferous spectators, before he finally managed to get the winning score over the crossbar in a great acrobatic move to send us home as 1 point winners of a very finely balanced contest.
Great Thanks must go to the Bainisteoir; Gearóid O Duibhir, Tommy Murphy and Martin Geary for organising and preparing the players for such an entertaining battle and a truly memorable day, that will live long in the players and parents memories. A Croke Park Medal was then presented to each player as they walked the Hogan Stand Steps to lift a cup and celebrate the occasion. The future is certainly bright to build on.
2 sets of Summer Coaching sessions are planned for Under 8 to 13: August 11-13 and August 25-27: 9.30 to 13:00, Páirc Chiaráin
Under Age Training 5-14 years: Tuesdays 6.30-7.30 and Fridays 6.00-7.00, Páirc Chiaráin Tweet
