Camán to Croker Under 12 Trip

Camán to Croker Trip Report (Under 12s) 6th April 2013

Thanks to the stellar penmanship of Pat Fenlon who submitted the entry, Kilmacud Crokes won a place in this year’s U12 Camán to Croker festival on 6th April 2013. This gave us the chance to send 15 girls to Croke Park to play in a cluster blitz of three 12-a-side games. The day itself was one of the first really beautiful warm sunny spring days after what has been a terribly long cold winter. Perfect weather for camogie.

Before the matches got underway, our girls were treated to a tour of the fabulous facilities of Croke Park and it’s museum. Lots of interesting bits of history picked up along the way including a few funny alternative answers from some of the budding comedians in the tour group.

After this it was time for action. Players, mentors and supporters alike all got quite a buzz out of walking out the tunnel under the Cusack stand to take up a place on our allocated quarter of the pitch.

Our first match was against Clarinbridge. Our girls started fastest and had put up a point on the scoreboard before the Galway visitors seemed to know they were in a match. This really got things moving and Clarinbridge put in some great work to really push our girls to perform. In the goal Aoife Taylor succeeded in keeping a clean sheet throughout the match thanks in part to some great defensive running from Aoife Neville and some fantastic catches in the air from Laura Maguire. Up front Hannah Proudfoot and Caoimhe O’Shea took turns at making sure that the ball delivered up towards the half forward line kept moving towards the opponents goal. As the 12 minutes raced by, Anna Geraghty took her opportunity to bag her first goal of the day with a beautiful strike after a fantastic pass along the ground from Anna Foster. We tacked on one more point before the final whistle went leaving us with a Final score: KC 1-2, Clarinbridge 0-0.

Our next match was against Rathluirc (Charleville) from Cork. After having had a bit of break between our first match and this one, our girls took a couple of minutes to get fully back up to speed but when they did they once again began to demonstrate all the progress they have made on the skills front over the last couple of years. Stephanie Galvin was fantastic as goalie at delivering long pucks right up to our half forward line. She had a good few opportunities to do so as Rathluirc drove a fair few balls over the end line left and right of our goal. They were unlucky to only have a single point to show for the early possession they had. Sarah Fenlon, as a rock in right full back, put in some great blocks to keep foiling their attacks on goal. By midway through the match and after some dynamic running from Cassie Sultan in midfield we had scored a goal and a point to just put our noses in front. Then Rathluirc got a sideline ball. Kate O’Connor stood up bravely a few yards back from the strike and was rewarded as the ball flew cleanly into her hand from where she pivoted, took three or four quick strides and blasted the ball to the back of the net to effectively end the contest. Final score: KC 2-1, Rathluirc 0-1

Our final match was against St. Martin’s from Wexford. By this stage all the teams were well into their stride which made for a great free flowing game. Helen Barr was magnificent in midfield at winning lots of ball and delivering it up to the forwards ably supported by Niamh Comerford who made some great catches in the air. We were unlucky to concede a goal early in this match when the ball was driven in towards our goal by St. Martins and bounced off the upright; the Kilmacud fans called it saved on the line, the referee called it a goal, and we know which opinion counts. One nil down, with some work to do. In quick reply, Anna Geraghty scored a great goal to draw us level. In the backs Caoimhe McLoughlin was working her socks off to make sure nothing else got through.  Shortly afterwards Anna followed up with another after taking a great pass from Sadhbh Quinlan. As the match drew towards a close, Kate snagged a final late goal to seal the victory. Final score: KC 3-0, St. Martins 1-0.

And sadly that brought an end to our matches for the day. We finished up by taking all the girls to Milano’s for a well deserved pizza and some ice cream.

Each and every one of the wins was made that bit easier by the fantastic support we had on the day from the girl’s team-mates who had travelled into Croke Park to support the team despite the disappointment of not securing a place through the lottery selection. Thanks to Dearbhla Kernan, Sophie Spollen, Rebecca O’Keefe, Eabha Kehoe, Muireann O’Carroll and special thanks to Eabha Coleman who came along with her broken leg to support the team in Milano’s. Thanks too to all the parents for coming along in such numbers to cheer on the team on what was a great day for all concerned.

And finally, to view a video of our first match against Clarinbridge: click here.

Match Report: John Maguire