Juvenile Hurling & Football Notes wk39

Aghada GAA Juvenile News
Hi folks, seasons greetings the Santa Squad were out in full force last Friday, as the popular man with the big white beard and red suit visited Rostellan last Friday. The organisation was superb, and all the boys and girls enjoyed a drive-through experience and a big thankyou to Irving Oil who drove Santa in style in one of their fire engines, as the reindeers are having a well deserved rest before their big journey on Christmas Eve and also to John Wall and the Santa squad who made it such an enjoyable evening for the children before they headed home in high spirits for the Late Late Toy Show that officially heralds the start of the festive season. This will be the last juvenile weekly note of 2022 as we all look forward with anticipation to 2023 and it starts all over again, we will as usual be holding our annual Tony Ahern Memorial long puck on St Stephens morning, keep an eye on social media and updates from our secretary Willie Wallace for more information closer to the event. They say half the fun in going out – is getting ready and choosing what to wear. The best part of a holiday can be the planning as getting there can sometimes be more fun than being there, each one of us is unique, each one of us is special and there is a place in life for every one of us, the long hours spent, the commitment, the sacrifices, the expectation, enjoy the journey.
U16 Premier 1 Hurling Championship Final Aghada 3-9 Sarsfields 7-18 Sometimes you just have to put your hands up and say you were beaten by the better team, and we can have no complaints on that score, as although we were on the end of a heavy defeat the lads accepted it graciously and vowed to come back even stronger. Having earned the right to compete at this level having won the premier 2 title at u14 level the lads have competed excellently and taken some notable scalps over the last few years, but on this occasion found this cracking Sars team a bridge too far to overcome, who were going for their third county in a row. They say a good start is half the battle and unfortunately for us we did not get the start we craved as our opponents hit the back of our net 4 times with as many attacks, our full back line were constantly fighting fires and our goalkeeper James O’ Donnell could not be faulted as the high shots at goal held up in the wind and dropped in no mans land only for the Sars attackers to react quickest and punish us at every opportunity, one of those attackers Barry O’ Flynn was a real thorn in our side and is a name we will all be hearing a lot more of in the inter county scene in the years ahead. Once we settled, we went on to play some good hurling and had some fantastic scores of our own. Midfielder James Hurley opened our account with a pair of impressive frees from difficult distances and angles and then Calum Roberts collected a side-line ball, made some space to rifle over our third. We then got a bit of hope as corner forward Jude Devoy collected a fine delivery from our other midfielder David Wallace and turned sharply to find the net. We were now competing all over the pitch and when Tomás Condon was fouled going through on goal, centre forward Hugh Mulcahy was unlucky to see his rocket of a shot clip the crossbar and go over rather than under. We finished the half with 2 more excellent points the first from Tomás after good work from James H and then impressive half back Colm O’ Donoghue used his searing pace to good effect scorching through for a quality score and with David Wallace, Robert Dean and Ronan Devoy putting in solid performances we headed for the interval 1-6 to 4-5 in arrears, although turning to face the strong wind. For Sars it was a case of keeping the scoreboard ticking over to close out victory and for us it was a case of trying to find away back into the game and great credit to our lads who kept going until the end. James H scored a rocket of a goal and a fine point from play before going on a strong run to bring the best out of the keeper, but James Motherway was the one to react quickest to plant the ball in the back of the net with a ferocious ground stroke. We had further points from the impressive Tomás and Colm O’ Donoghue after another searing run into the heart of the defence, yet it was Sars who held all the aces to run out deserving winners. The exposure to this level of high-quality hurling is sure to stand us in good stead for the years ahead and they will have more exciting games in the group stage to whet the appetite at u17 level next year and although they don’t have silverware to show for their efforts, they are all winners in our eyes.
Team & scorers James O’ Donnell, Seán O Callaghan, Seán O’ Sullivan, Evan Crowley, Ronan Devoy, Robert Dean, Colm O’ Donoghue 0-2, James Hurley 1-3 0-1f, David Wallace, Samuel O’ Driscoll, Hugh Mulcahy 0-1 pen, James Motherway 1-0, Jude Devoy 1-0, Tomás Condon 0-2, Calum Roberts 0-1 subs used Jack Linehan, Isaac Oosthuizen, Conor Baxx, Colm White.
Well done to Niamh Callanan who won 250 euro in the recent Rebel Bounty draw, we are delighted for Niamh who does trojan work for the juvenile section. Happy spending Niamh.
No fixtures but if you still want to see some quality hurling then head down to Rostellan on Sunday morning as the Cork senior hurling team will be training on our forest pitch, the official time is 10am however players will be arriving from 9, so if the girls and boys want to meet some Cork hurling stars and get a hurley or jersey signed then now is your chance!
Slán go fóill
Ár nDhicheall Go Deo
Áth Fhada Abú