The U13 football team 1 travelled to Finglas on Monday June 27^th to play Erin’s Isle in the league.  The majority of this panel are in 6^th class and had end of year graduations etc. to attend during the week so this is why the game was brought forward to June 27^th instead of the originally scheduled June 29^th.

These teams have met twice already this year (in the grading league and in the first round of games in the division 2 league) and on both occasions Olaf’s let a commanding lead slip and saw Isle’s steal both games.  Before leaving the club house the team got together and discussed the game and all were determined that they wouldn’t let Isles beat them three times in one year. 

Olaf’s won the toss and on the advice of team mentor Cathal Soraghan, team captain Conor Kirwan elected to play against the breeze and up the hill in the first half.  Isles started the strongest and were 1-1 up after 5 minutes.  A goal from Conor Brady and a point from Joseph Rafferty brought Olaf’s back level after 9 minutes. The game was evenly matches from then until half time but Isles were more accurate in front of goals and saw them leading at half time by 2-8 to 2-4.  The Olaf’s scores came from Eoin Foley (1-1) and a point each from Joseph Raferty and Conor Brady. 

For the first ten minutes of the second half Olaf’s appeared to be in “holiday mode”. During that time, Isles stretched their lead to 11 points and a third defeat to Isles looked certain for Olaf’s.  It was at this stage that Joseph Rafferty took the game by the scruff of the neck and used his height and strength to great effect to torment the Isles defenders and ended up scored an amazing 1-4 in the last 20 minutes.  This was the tonic the team needed and the whole team started to play with a sense of confidence and urgency.  All players heroically fought for every ball and turned in an amazing performance.  Jack Dalton pulled off some marvellous saves in goals.  The full back line of Matthew Deering, Conor Kirwan and Tom McGurk hassled and harried for every ball as did the half backs of Fiachra O’Sullivan, Eoin Foley and Rory Gallagher.  Sean McDaid fetched some lovely balls and setup up lovely scores while the amount of ground covered by Tom Keane had to be seen to be believed.  Right half forward Glenn Soraghan scored 2 excellent points and set up a lot more scored with his darting runs at the Isles back line. As mentioned earlier, centre-half forward Joseph Rafferty lit the spark that started the revival and left half forward Sean Flynn contributed 1-2.  Conor Brady was his usual dependable self and contributed 1-1.  Cian DeBurca had his hands full with the Isles full back but he very well as did Matthew O’Ceallaigh who set up some scores.  Alex Start was introduced to the forward line and played a mopped up a lot of loose ball. 

The final score was Olaf’s 6-15 Erin’s Isle 6-12.  The panel was Jack Dalton, Matthew Deering, Conor Kirwan, Tom McGurk, Fiachra O’Sullivan Eoin Foley (1-3), Rory Gallagher, Sean McDaid, Tom Keane (1-2), Glenn Soraghan (0-2), Joseph Rafferty (2-5), Sean Flynn (1-2), Conor Brady (1-1), Cian DeBurca, Matthew O’Ceallaigh, Alex Start and Dara Coleman.

An understrength team 2 travelled to play Naomh Barrog on June 28^th.  Like team 1, they too trailed at half time but some strategic moves by team manager Paul Murphy saw them turn in an excellent second half performance and saw them win on a score line of Olaf’s 6-13 Naomh Barrog 5-8.  This was a great team performance but special mention must go to Ryan Murphy, David Breathnach, Tristin Kennedy, Fiachra McLoughlin, Ross Bradshaw, Gavin Soraghan and Cian McDaid.