Junior A's beat O'Tooles

The Junior A team played O'Tooles in the league on Sunday morning. It was a lovely morning for the match, which was played on a meadow in St Anne's Park.

Playing with the breeze we were quickly out of the blocks, with a fine point from Shane, which was quickly followed by another by Joe. O'Tooles opened their scoring with a point and then burst through for a goal. They attacked again to score another point and go three ahead. We dug in and started battling back, with Conor landing a lovely point from the sideline before tacking on a couple of frees. Our backs started to dominate their men in every position and drive great ball into the forwards. Niall Mulligan lead the charge from the middle of the field, with a great point following a pass from Darren. Then from a pass from Peter, Matthew burst through the middle just before half time to score a point, to leave the teams equal. It was Crokes 0-09 to 1-06 at half time.

We traded points with Jonathan scoring for us. Then we started to pull ahead, with points from Daibhi DePaor and Mark Lynskey, who were both very effective when they came in as subs. Conor scored a goal from a long range free to put daylight between us. O'Tooles started going for goals but Fergus, Barrai and James were equal to everything thrown at them. James Murphy, making his junior A debut with Neil Gorey, was excellent all day. The final score came from Mark, following a lovely pass from Neil.

The final score was Kilmacud Crokes 1-17, O'Tooles 1-09

Team: Richie Tighe, Fergus Monnelly, James O'Keeffe, Barrai Brennan, Darren McVeigh, Stephen Beale, James Murphy, Niall Mulligan, Matthew Geraghty, Conor Caulfield,  Joe Walsh, Shane Canny, Peter Clinton, Paddy Rath, Jonathan Hayes,

Subs: Daibhi de Paor, for Paddy Rath, Mark Lynskey for Shane Canny, Neil Gorey for Peter Clinton, Damien McSweeney for Jonathan Hayes

Scorers: Conor Caulfield 1-09 (1-06 frees); Mark Lynskey 0-02; Shane Canny, Joe Walsh, Matthew Geraghty, Niall Mulligan, Jonathan Hayes, Daibhi De Paor, 1 point each

Report by Kieran Dowling