| U12 Hurlers - May 15 2010 |
 |
 |
| Written by Ger Kirwan |
|
On Saturday May 15th both U12 teams played in their respective semi-finals in the Cup competition. Team 1 travelled to Clondalkin to play Round Towers and team 2 travelled to Bushy Park to play St. Kevin’s.
Team 1 secured their place in the semi-final by virtue of marvellous win over St. Vincent’s in a play-off the previous Wednesday evening. The team played some attractive hurling that evening and if they could reproduce a similar performance against Round Towers, a place in the final would be theirs. Unfortunately, this wasn’t to be as they lost on a score of 3-3 to 0-7.
St. Kevin’s topped their group in the other side of the draw by winning all their games and were hot favourites to win this game. Olaf’s were dealt a cruel blow before the start of the game when Chloe O’Ceallaigh had to withdraw from the starting team due a hand injury that she picked up a few days earlier. Emotions were running high when manager Stephen Stapleton announced that Chloe would be unable to start. Stephen used this upset as a motivating factor by asking the team to up their performance and go out and give their all and try and win the game for Chloe. And give their all they certainly did. They didn’t let their opponent’s reputation bother them one bit and they got stuck in from the start. They were on top for the first 10 minutes and Eric Stapleton got on the score sheet for the fifth game in a row with an excellent goal.
This score shook Kevin’s and they tried to bully their way back into the game but the backs of Ryan Murphy, Conor Kirwan, James Keogh, Matthew Deering and Jack Dalton took everything that was thrown at them and concentrated on playing the ball and never lost their focus throughout the game. Goalkeeper David Pollard was in top form and pulled off some wonderful saves throughout the game. An unlucky bounce of the ball mid way through the first half saw Kevin’s get back on level terms and they pressed on from there to leave the half time score at Kevin’s 3-2 Olaf’s 1-0.
Undeterred by the late scores, the team came out even more determined than ever in the second half to try and secure a place in the final. The mid-field pairing of Tristin Kennedy and Sean O’Brien fought for every ball and a marvellous pass from Sean found Cian DeBurca who smashed the ball to the back of the Kevin’s net. Sean covered every inch of the pitch during the second half. He made some marvellous blocks, clearances and hand-passes right through the game and was the worthy winner of “Man of the Match”. The forwards of Matthew O’Ceallaigh, Oscar Bent, Declan Murphy, Stephanie Deasy, Cian Coughlan, and Richard Sheil all plugged away. Despite her injury, Chloe made an appearance and helped the attack but we were unable to claw back enough scores. In the end Kevin’s won by 3-8 to 2-0.
While everybody was disappointed to lose, not one player could be disappointed with their display. They gave their all but in the end just came up short. The league will be starting in a few weeks time and if this panel can reproduce a performance like this in each of their league games, they will be serious contenders for league honours.
The panel on the day was: David Pollard, Ryan Murphy, Conor Kirwan, James Keogh, Matthew Deering, Jack Dalton, Tristin Kennedy, Sean O’Brien, Cian DeBurca, Matthew O’Ceallaigh, Eric Stapleton, Oscar Bent, Declan Murphy, Stephanie Deasy, Cian Coughlan and Chloe O’Ceallaigh.
|
