U16s impressive against Whitehall

The U16s recorded a big win against Whitehall in Silverpark on Saturday 22 September 2012.

On a sunny late September afternoon, visitors to Silverpark were treated to a fine display of U16 hurling. Crokes opened brightly with a point by Alex Considine. Whitehall then settled quickly and scored 1-03 without reply within ten minutes. Paul Comerford then scored the first of his 3 points, before full-forward Sean Keating embarked on a scoring spree, 2-02 in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, in defence, Eamon Allen had switched to mark Sean Grey and dominating their exchanges, thereby drawing much of the sting from the Whitehall attack. The defensive unit has had a number of enforced changes in recent matches, due to injury but, after the initial onslaught, restricted Whitehall to 3 points from frees for the remainder of the first half. The supply of ball from defence and midfield to the forwards increased, both in quality and quantity, throughout the half and their hard work was rewarded with 2 long-range points from Paul Comerford and a virtuoso display of clinical finishing by full-forward Sean Keating, who was bursting through for a certain fourth goal when he was felled by a very high tackle. Having taken a moment to recover Sean drilled the resultant penalty to the back of the net. Eamon Allen completed the first half tally with a fine long range point, to bring the score at half-time Kilmacud Crokes 4-08,  Whitehall Colmcille 1-06.

The second half continued in similar fashion, each member of the Crokes team continued to work tirelessly. The defence restricted their opponents to 5 points, while the forwards combined to add a further 2-08. Sean Keating finished the game with a remarkable tally of 5-10, of which 4-07 were scored from play but in the post-match discussion Sean was first to acknowledge the quality of ball supplied to him throughout the game. Of the team total, 5-13 was scored from play, a great return on any day.

Squad: T Murphy, E Keane, C O’ Shea, M O’ Rourke, P Herlihy, E Allen (0-1), D Dagg, F O’ Reilly, S Crowe, D Butler, P Comerford (0-3), A Ahern (0-1), C Gowing (1-00), S Keating (5-10), A Considine (0-0)1, S Veale, L Tucker, R Murphy, C Keane, M McCallion, D Coakley, M Crowley.

Report by Frances Herlihy

Photos by Steven Dagg and Edel Uí Ghallchobhair