U10s pip Emeralds, 29 Apr 07
The U10 hurlers left the glorious sunshine of Glenalbyn on the road for Thurles for the NHL final between Killkenny and Waterford on Sunday 29 April 2007. The plan was to match up against Emeralds of Urlingford in Johnstown en route. As we approached Johnstown the skies turned grey and the rain came. Our lads didn’t know quite what to make of it, as pretty much all hurling since mid March has been played in dry and sunny conditions! Niall Butler put the team through their paces with a few warm up drills while the opposition got themselves together. The team was called in for the teamsheet announcement and their last orders. Stephen O’Dwyer started in goal as most of the supporters retreated to their cars to take cover from the rain. Crokes started the match in fine style putting on some early pressure whit quick ball in from midfielders Fergal Whitely and Calum Pearson to the full forward line of Conor Murnane, Alex Considine and Cillian Fleming. Emeralds reacted with some lively play of their own. Cathal Keane at full back for Crokes snuffed out many Emerald’s chances and cleared his lines. A goalmouth scramble at the other end resulted in a Crokes’ goal with Conor Murnane finishing to the net. The incident also saw Cillian Fleming leave the field for attention and Conall Keane taking up the corner forward berth.
The Crokes half back line of Johnny Maher, Tom Fox and Chris Kealy began to get the better of their markers and a Tom Fox control and quick strike led to another Crokes score. Brian Grogan at centre half forward became quite a handful for the opposition with a couple of runs which resulted in a point and a free from which he also pointed. Another goal from Conor Murnane added to one from Alex Considine meant that at the half time mark Crokes came in leading 3-2 to 2-3.
The second half opened with Emeralds piling on pressure, which resulted in a well taken goal. Martin Connor and Mattie Hogan then started to make their presence felt. This left a little more room for Brian Grogan and he broke through for another Crokes’ Goal. He added another point for a fine personal tally of 1-4. It wasn’t all one-way traffic though and Emeralds scored some fine points. In fact it is fair to say that Emeralds finished the game more strongly than Crokes and Crokes were quite happy when the final whistle blew leaving them with the minimum advantage of a scoreline of 4-5 to 3-7.
After our match we traveled in convoy, led by Ian Grogan – the man with local knowledge – across back roads and laneways and managed to get to Semple Stadium practically without even going into Thurles! Unfortunately for Ian and the other local in our party (Niall Butler) Kilkenny were defeated by Waterford in a very exciting match. As for the rest of us, well we were happy in the ABKK camp!!