Minors overcome St Judes

Minors hurlers overcome St Judes in last league game of the season.  On Monday night the Minor A's faced a strong St Judes side in the last regular game of the 2009 league.  Unfortunately a six point defeat to Naomh Fionbarra the previous Friday night effectively knocked Crokes out of the running for the league final, unless in the unlikely event that either Ballyboden or St Vincents dropped two points in their last game.  Unfortunately due to the lack of numbers we were forced to give a walkover to Ballyboden in the Minor B's last game.

Crokes started with the aid of the slight breeze but with the sun shining straight down into our defender's eyes.  In a very tight first have, it was St Judes who opened their account with a point after 3 minutes.  Seanie equalised 4 minutes later with a well taken free.  A well taken goal by Eoghan O'Dwyer saw Crokes take the lead, but three unanswered points by St Judes over the next 13 minutes saw St Judes draw level.  Another converted free from Seanie saw Crokes retake the lead, however with a minute remaining in the half, a Judes goal stunned the Crokes crowd and gave the opposition a two point lead.  A converted free from Seanie and a good point by Matthew saw the sides level at the half time whistle.  A tight first half, with both defences on top, but Crokes were squandering a lot of their possession in front of goals.    

The second half started as the first half had, a converted free from Judes in the opening minute saw Judes regain the lead.  Crokes responded well and their pressure was rewarded with two converted frees from Seanie before another free from St Judes in the tenth minute saw them go level again.  Another converted free saw Crokes creep into the lead again, but two minutes later Crokes conceded another soft goal to hand the lead back to St Judes.  Two minutes later Judes extended their lead to three points with another point from a converted 65'.  However this was to be their last score, mainly due to the strong Crokes defence and some wayward free taking.  Crokes were on top for the last quarter and slowly eat into the Judes lead with another point from Seanie and a point from Jonathan until Alex equalised with a great point with three minutes to go.  Two minutes later Seanie regained the lead for Crokes with a point and in the last minute he completed his and Croke's scoring for the day with another point, to seal the victory and finish off with a nine point tally, (6 points from play).  The final score was 1-12 to 2-07 in favour of Crokes.

Overall, it was a tough physical sporting game, without a dirty stroke pulled in the whole 60 minutes, it was a very satisfying performance from all the lads.

Line up: -

Eoin Dalton, Brendan Halpin, Cillian Doherty, Cian O'Brien, Mark O'Dwyer, Jack Doughan, Hugh Byrne, Eddie O'Byrne, Sean Murphy, Keith Hogarty, Naomhan O'Reardon, Eoghan O'Dwyer (1-00), Jonathan Hayes (0-01), Matthew Kinsella (0-01), Sean McGrath (0-09, 0-06 f), subs at half time: - Alex Pilkington (0.01) for Keith, Niko for Eoghan O'Dwyer, Darren Lawlor for Eddie, Not used: - Sean Garvey, Brian McHenry, David Ward