Graigue Ballycallan - U10's do well
Great venue, great hosts and a warm sunny morning. Hurling doesn’t get much better than this!
TEAM 1 report - Roddy Breen
The team lined out as follows
Sam McMahon, Eric McMahon, Darragh Harrison, Patrick Van Zuydem, Jacques de Patouil, Colm Crean, Christopher McCann
Game 1 KMD 6-4 Graigue Ballycallan 5-1
The Crokes team were joined by Aaron and Ryan from Graigue Ballycallan to even up the numbers. The game started with a period of ground hurling. Kilmacud started very well from the throw in with Patrick and Colm working well in midfield to get the ball up Christopher and Sam in the forwards. Christopher and Patrick had some shots on goal but could not raise a score. Sam worked hard tracking into the square looking to get on to rebounds. Jacques and Darragh were very solid in defence against a very big full forward line, getting out first to the ball and letting very little through. Eric had little to do in goal bar a couple of excellent puck outs. When the game went to air hurling, Crokes started to dominate. Patrick and Christopher got some lovely points from out the field and Colm got a goal from a shot from midfield. Our lads started to tire a bit and Ballycallan got on top in midfield. Their forwards started getting time on the ball and punished us with some good scores. Crokes got to grips with this in the second half with a few positional switches. Darragh got on top of his man at full back and steadied the ship. The second half was fairly even with Crokes running out narrow winners.
Game 2 Kilmacud 5-0 Graigue Ballycallan 0-0
The boys improved their performance for this game. Again scores were hard to come by early on mainly down to heroics by the Graigue Ballycallan keeper who saved certain goals from Patrick, Christopher and Sam. Colm then moved up to the forwards and got a couple of nice scores. All Sam’s hard work paid off with a goal of his own. Darragh and Jacques both got scores from midfield. Eric got some good clearances up field from the backs. In the end Crokes were comfortable winners
Best from Crokes was their ability to make opportunities and take scores from play, hooking and blocking to win the ball back and passing to players in better positions. There were some great individual skills on display, special mention to Christopher for a lovely catch from a puck out while being well marked by his man.
Team 2 report - Adrian Crean
2 great games against GB.
Team: Ciaran Sweeney; Hugh Leyden; Patrick Corbett; Luke Ward; Harry O’Sullivan; Darren Crowley; Robert Breen
Game 1 – KC 4-6; GB 1-0
A great team performance in the first game against GB. The first 5 minutes was ground hurling only and as we were playing on a lovely surface for ground hurling this really helped show the boys the distance they could achieve with a good ground stroke. Ciaran, Hugh and Robert all took a turn in goals during the game and all were excellent. Great puckouts out the wings and dealt well with any ball that came into them.
In defence Patrick was rock solid with some great passes out the field on right and left setting up attacks and scores. Hugh and Ciaran when in defence were also brilliant at their tackling and some great ground hurling clearing the ball out to our midfielders.
Harry and Luke in midfield worked hard throughout supporting the forwards and defence as needed. Some great striking on left and right and looking up and picking out the forwards.
Darren and Robert got some great scores up front and were ably supported by Hugh and Ciaran when they switched into the forwards.
Score of the game was a great team move with Patrick and Hugh tackling to win possession at the back, then Patrick supplying a great downfield pass to Robert on the wing who sent a beautiful pass on the ground across to Darren who put the ball over the bar.
Game 2 – KC 3-5; GB 2-1
Another great performance with some great tackling right throughout the field. The boys were moving all the time and supporting one another – striking the ball and running to support. The quality of the passing (off left and right sides) in this game was super with the boys making good use of a handpass when in trouble and also looking up to pick out their man for a pass. Also it was great to see the boys using their 4 steps to create a bit of space for themselves before striking. We also saw some good examples of the essential skills of hooking, blocking and overhead catching right through the field. It’s great to see the skills that the boys have been practising in training and at home being used so well in matches.
