U10's on the road!

St. Mary’s Hurling Club (Clonmel) Tournament. Saturday 24th August 2013

Fantastic day's hurling at St Mary's Club in Clonmel, Tipperary.  Our U10 boys did us proud as they reached the A final and narrowly lost to Sixmilebridge of Clare in a great match.

The tournament was organised as 4 groups of 4 pools, with 8 semi-finals and 4 finals. The format was 11-a-side with 10 minutes per half in each match.

Squad: Robert Breen, Patrick Corbett, Darren Crowley, Darragh Geraghty, Darragh Harrison, Kieran Maguire, Christopher McCann, Hugh Moran, Jordan Mynes, Brendan O Connell, Mark O Reilly, Jack Power, Cal Rohan, Patrick Van Zuydam, Luke Ward.

Pool games:

Game 1: Kilmacud 2-03, Clarinbridge, Galway 2-01

Kilmacud started really well and were on top in most positions on the field.  Kilmacud led by 2-1 to 0-0 at halftime.  We started well at beginning of second half but then the tide changed.  Kilmacud allowed Clarinbridge to get more ball and then were under more pressure.  We conceded 2 goals in about a 3 minute period but then raised our game to hurl a little better in the last few minutes and we scored the final point of the game to ensure a win.

Game 2: Kilmacud 4-04, Na Piarsaigh, Limerick 0-02

A much tougher game than the final scoreboard read.  Na Piarsaigh led by 2 points to 1 at half time.  Kilmacud did have lots of the ball for much of the game but found scoring difficult in the 1st half and also the Na Piarsaigh goalkeeper made a few fantastic saves.  Two early goals at the start of the 2nd half had the effect of relaxing the Kilmacud boys who scored reasonably freely through the last few minutes of the game.

Game 3: Kilmacud  3-07, O’Loughlin Gaels, Kilkenny 0-01

Our lads were well on top in this game from the start and led by 1-4 to 0-0 at halftime. We got 2 early goals in the 2nd half which ended the game as a contest.  On the downside, we lost our shape a bit during this game as many players wanted to move forward to try and score. Nonetheless, this was another great performance by our lads and having won all our pool games, meant that we now knew we were moving onto a semi-final against the top placed team in one of the other groups.

Semi-Final; Kilmacud  7-02, Mount Sion, Waterford  2-02

Best game of hurling by Kilmacud although we fell to a very quick 2-1 deficit at the start.  Mount Sion had an excellent midfielder who caused havoc for us at the start of the game.  Crokes then began to marshal him better and soon were hitting a lot of excellent ball to the full forward line who had took full advantage of it for the remainder of half.  Crokes led by  4-2 to 2-1 at half time.

We started well again at start of 2nd half and scored a few goals before Mount Sion got the final score of the game.

Final; Kilmacud 2-00, Sixmilebridge, Clare  2-04

A bridge too far!  The final brought us face-to-face with Sixmilebridge from Clare who we had coincidentally enough had the pleasure of hosting in Glenalbyn the week before in a friendly while they were en-route to the Clare-Limerick semi-final in Croke Park. There had been close games between the teams that day with wins and losses on both sides so we knew we had our work cut out for us going into this final.

Kimacud Crokes started the slower of the two teams, possibly due to a shorter break since our semi-final and Sixmilebridge capitalised with some great points.  Crokes then got into the game and threatened with goals that were only averted with great blocking by the Sixmilebridge goalie and his defenders. Crokes got a goal with the last strike of the 1st half to leave the minimum between the sides - Sixmilebridge 0-4  Kilmacud 1-0. 

With the effects of a full day’s hurling starting to tell, we started slowly again at beginning of 2nd half and Sixmilebridge got 2 quick goals that put them in commanding position.  However, within a minute Crokes responded with a goal of our own and also made the Sixmilebridge keeper make a fantastic save as we piled on the pressure.  Crokes dominated from that point until the end with a number of frees and 65's but no further scores were added and so sadly we had to admit defeat to the worthy winners on the day from Clare.

Great credit to the Crokes boys who showed we can compete with the best of teams around the country and for whom there will hopefully be many final wins in the future.

Hosts

We were really well looked after on the day. St. Mary’s put on an excellent tournament with fantastic food and drink for all who travelled on the day. There were really excellent displays of hurling right around the pitch and a great atmosphere as a result. We were delighted to be asked and delighted we attended.