U16s overcome Nmh Fionnbarra in hard fought match to become Dublin Champions
Date of Match: 12th October 2007
Versus: Naomh Fionnbarra Venue: Parnell Park
Competition: Under 16 Division 1 Championship Final
Management Team: Pat Halpin, Tom Murphy, Daibhi dePaor, Gearóid O’Riain, Kevin Coakley
Match Result
Kilmacud Crokes 2 - 09 v Naomh Fionnbarra 1-10
Scorers;
Crokes: Seanie McGrath (1-04 (4 f)), Dylan Mulligan (1-01), Darren McVeigh (0-01 (65’)), Eoin Dalton (0-01), Mark O’Dwyer (0-01), Sean Murphy (0 – 01)
Match Report/ Match Highlights:
Under 16 Hurlers – Overcome Naomh Fionnbarra in tight, hard fought match to become Under 16 Dublin Champions
On a balmy Friday evening in mid October, Crokes lined out against Naomh Fionnbarra for the Final of this year’s Under 16 Championship. It was a repeat of last years Under 15 Championship final, and this time the final was played under lights in Parnell Park.
From the start it was a tight encounter with both sides playing strong committed hurling. Unfortunately in the opening seconds of the game, Matt had to come off, he aggravated an injury he received in school during the week, and Peter replaced him. Finbarrs opened the scoring with a long range free in the fourth minute, but Crokes equalized a minute later when captain Seanie popped over his first free of the evening. Straight from the puck out, Finbarrs won possession, worked the ball up the pitch and scored their first point from play. Two minutes later, Crokes won a 65 meter free after some good pressure by the full forward line and Darren duly converted it to level the game again. Four minutes later, it was Finbarrs again who went into the lead, with another point and it took Crokes five minutes before they managed to equalize with an Eoin Dalton point out on the left wing. But it was Finbarrs again who went into the lead, when two minutes later they scored another point. In the nineteenth minute, following a long clearance from Darren, the ball broke from Naomhan’s challenge to Dylan who slotted the ball into the back of the net to give Crokes the lead for the first time in the match. However within three minutes Finbarrs were level again after two good points (one a converted free). Crokes fought back and with twenty five minutes gone in the half were again two points up, after a converted Seanie free and a well taken point from Murph. A minute later, Dingo, the Finbarrs wing forward, won a ball in midfield and after a surging run struck a low ball into the back of the net to regain a one point lead for Finbarrs. The rest of the half, including 6 minutes injury time, was scoreless a both sides battled hard, but the backs on both sides were giving little space or time to their opponents. At the half time whistle, Finbarrs held a narrow one point lead, the score was 1-06 top 1-05 in their favour. Avery tight first half, with the scores leveling four times during the period, it was all to play for in the second half. The lads themselves took control of the half time talk and after an inspiring “rant” by Bill, for which both Eoin and Naomhan wished they had worn their rain coats, the lads were geared up for another hard 30 minutes.
The scoring rate in the second half was an even lower than in the first. It was Crokes who opened the score with another converted free from Seanie to level the score. Seven minutes later, Finbarrs snuck into the lead again, also with a converted free. Straight from the puck out, Murph won the ball, passed it into Dylan, who slotted it over the bar to level the scores yet again. Two minutes, after a foul on Eoin Dalton, Seanie converted another free with his usual unnerving accuracy to regain the lead for Crokes. The lead was to last only two minutes, Finbarrs converted a free and a 65 meter free in the sixteenth and eighteenth minutes to regain the lead once again for the Cabra side, the tide seemed to be turning in Finbarrs favour. However, as in the first half, the nineteenth minute proved to be crucial for Crokes, a long sideline cut from Darren found Seanie inside his man and he buried the ball into the back of the net to regain a two point lead which they would not relinkguish. Four minutes later, Mark extended the Crokes lead to three points with a great point after a run from midfield. The last seven minutes of normal time saw Finbarrs defend like Trojans and rebuff attack after attack and similarly the Crokes backs fought back the blue horde as Finbarrs surged forward looking for that illusive goal that would bring them back into the game. With the clock two minutes into injury time, Finbarrs scored another point to leave Crokes with a two point margin and a final two nail biting minutes of injury time was played before the referee blue the final whistle and Crokes were the Champions with a narrow two point win. The final scoreline read 2- 09 to 1 - 10.
Overall it was a great game of hurling, some marvelous score taking on both sides and played in a competitive but fair spirit. It was a real disciplined team performance by Crokes. The match was level a total of seven times during game. In the second half, the Crokes backs limited Finbarrs to one point from play, the other 3 points came from two converted frees and one 65 meter free. While the man of the match award went justifiably to Gerry Dodderill, the Finbarrs center back, a number of the Crokes players (in particular any of the backs) could easily have come away with that award. In the last three years, this panel of players have won the Under 14, Under 15 and Under 16 Championship titles along with a couple of league titles and an All Ireland Feile title, great credit is due to their competitive spirit and their great attitude to training and learning the skills of the game. Thanks to Niall Corcoran and Paraic McDonald for all their help both on the night and during the year in preparing the team.
Commiserations to Gerry Hogarty and the Under 16 B’s who were narrowly beaten by Scoil Ui Chonnaill in their Final on Saturday the 13th October ‘07. Crokes were a goal down at half time, after Keith Hogarty, Karl Russell and Fiachra Lynn had each scored a point. In the second half, Keith added two points and Karl another but despite keeping Scoil scoreless for thirty minutes of the half were unable to get the necessary goal to kill off Scoil and Scoil scored a late goal and point well into injury time to secure a four point victory for the Northsiders.
Kilmacud Crokes:
Barry Mulligan, Jack Doughan, Paul Collins, Jack Kelly, Louis Whelan, Matthew Kinsella, Darren McVeigh, Killian Doherty, Mark O’Dwyer, Dylan Mulligan, Jude Sweeney, Sean Murphy, Eoin Dalton, Naomhan O Reardon, Seanie McGrath.
Subs: Peter MacCague for Matthew Kinsella (2 minutes), Hugh Byrne for Jude Sweeney (55 minutes), Cian O’Brien, Gary Melican, James O’Keeffe, Johnny Brew, Sean Garvey.
Unavailable: - Bill O’Carroll, Alan Carr & Eddie O’Byrne.
Report by Pat Halpin