Under 15 Hurlers – Crokes maintain good start to league.

Competition/League: Under 15 Division 1 Round 2

Management Team: Pat Halpin, Daibhi dePaor, Fionan Moriarty, Tom Murphy

Match Result

Crokes 5 - 10 v St Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruagh 0 - 05

Scorers;

Crokes: Naomhan Reardon (2 – 01), Seanie McGrath (1 – 02 (1 - 02 f)), Jamie O’Sullivan (1 – 01), Johnny Brew (0 – 04), Killian Doherty (1 – 00), Alan Carr (0 – 01), Eddie O’Byrne (0 – 01)

On a chilly Sunday morning, the Crokes Under 15 hurlers followed their opening league victory with a well-deserved win over St Oliver Plunketts, on a bumpy Silverpark surface.

Crokes started the match playing down the hill and opened strongly, Naomhan, making his 2006 league debut, slotted the sliotar over the bar after three minutes. Despite Crokes having most of the play, it was Plunketts who scored next with a well taken free in the 9th minute. A minute later Seanie McGrath converted his first free. But again Plunketts drew level when they converted another long range free in the 14th minute. This seemed to wake up Crokes and they started to convert their outfield dominance into scores. Johnny Brew took his first point of the match in the 18th minute, followed by a great Eddie point a minute later. Two minutes later, it was Jamie’s turn to get his name on the score sheet when he scored a great goal. Naomhan, never to be outdone, added a goal to his earlier point in the 25th minute. Before the half time break, Johnny and Seanie added another point each, each side of another Plunketts converted free. At the break Crokes lead by 2 – 06 to 0 – 03. Despite being well up on the scoreboard, Crokes were not having it all their own way on the pitch. Plunketts were very strong up the middle and made Crokes work hard for all their scores.

Crokes started brightly in the second half and effectively killed of the game in the opening 6 minutes. Naomhan got his second goal after two minutes, Johnny added another point a minute later and three minutes later, Seanie added another goal, with a well-taken penalty. To their credit, Plunketts did not give up, battled hard and it took another twelve minutes before Crokes added another Johnny brew point. In the twentieth minute Plunketts added their first point of the half with another long range free. Crokes responded with a great goal from Killian and an Alan Carr point, following a great run from the half-back line. Plunketts added another point from a free before Jamie finished the scoring with a good point. At the final whistle, Crokes had a twenty point advantage over their rivals.

While some of the Croke’s striking was not as good as it could be, it was a good performance on a poor surface and against a dogged Plunketts side. The Crokes midfield provided a solid platform from which Crokes launched attack after attack. Great credit is due to all the backs who did not concede a score from play and never allowed Plunketts to seriously trouble stand in keeper Jude Sweeney.

The next outing is against Cuala on the 2nd April ’06, the last league game before the start of the Championship campaign.

Kilmacud Crokes:

Jude Sweeney, Cian O’Brien, Peter McCague, Jack Doughan, Darren McVeigh, Bill O’Carroll, Alan Carr, Matthew Kinsella, Eddie O’Byrne, Killian Doherty, Jamie O’Sullivan, Sean Murphy, Johnny Brew, Naomhan Reardon, Seanie McGrath.

Subs: Mark O’Dwyer for Seanie McGrath in 40th minute, Louis Whelan for Darren McVeigh in 42nd minute, Philip Denieffe for Jack Doughan in 42nd minute, Brendan Halpin for Sean Murphy in 45th minute

Unavailable: - Barry Mulligan, Eoin Dalton, Jack Kelly, Hugh Byrne, Paul Collins.