ÉIRE ÓG GREYSTONES
On Friday evening, the evening of the Arklow Bay Hotel Div. 1 home game against Avondale, one was greeted at the grounds by the inspiring sight of a hugely overflowing car park and the sound of many young children enjoying themselves.
One soon discovered that it was also the occasion of the hosting by the club of a Bray People Go Games blitz which involved a multitude of games taking place simultaneously over our two pitches. A scene to raise the spirits of anyone with an interest in the future of the G.A.A. in the east of the county.
Unfortunately, the feel-good sensation engendered among Éire Óg followers by the sight of so many young children playing and enjoying our games was deflated a short time later with our Seniors two-point defeat to Avondale who, to that date, had not garnered a single league point.
On a happier note, our Juniors continued their winning run in the Murphy’s Hotel (Tinahely) Football League with a convincing victory over Enniskerry on Wednesday night.
Baltinglass has, for as long as one can remember, been one of the leading football clubs within the county and indeed not so very long ago attained the status of All-Ireland club champions.
So we in Na Clocha Liatha have always regarded them as a touchstone against which to measure the progress of the various football teams within the club. On this criterion, football – particularly at under-15 and under-11 levels – is showing great strides.
On Wednesday (14th), our under-11 game was away to Baltinglass. An intimidating prospect on two fronts for these young lads: a round trip of in excess of 100km (mid-week logistical problems for parents and mentors) and the formidable reputation of their hosts.
In the event, the former proved to be quite frustrating as there were many traffic hold-ups on the way agus is ar éigin that the convoy of cars arrived in time.
It was straight into action for the players but nil desperandum and they took the whole thing in their stride. Indeed, overall between the two 11-a-side games it was unexpectedly Éire Óg who dictated matters.
In the first game, among the forwards Piaras Healy, Joshua Barry and Sam Cunningham were on fire and made great use of the plentiful supply of ball from Daniel Connerty, Robbie Owens and Robert Moore. Liam Finn, Nathan Donnelly, Charlie Fox and James O’Dowd were the backbone of a Scrooge-like defence
Cross-fertilisation between sports was in evidence in an attention-grabbing Éire Óg score. Piaras was in the process of sending a goalbound shot from the edge of the square when it was knocked from his grasp but he quick-wittedly back-heeled the ball to the net.
The second game was a much more closely-fought affair and the visiting lads were forced to pull out all the stops to gain victory. Éire Óg trailed for a long period around mid-way in the second half and a Balto win looked to be on the cards.
However, our lads fought back with courage and determination and emerged with a wellearned victory.
The team worked very well as a unit and succeeded in putting together many intelligent pitch-length movements.
In this matter, the wonderful understanding between Cathal Kirby, Daniel Burns, Eoghan Duddy, Tomás O’Connell, Darragh Shanahan and Jack Caffrey was particularly evident. The game was played in a good spirit but with that healthy physicality that is very much part of the sport’s attraction.
Laois, while not having a great standing at present in the Gaelic football world, would still have been judged as short-odds favourite in their All-Ireland Round 1A qualifier against Wicklow in Aughrim. The 1st half proceedings did little to disabuse of this assessment.
Anaemic and nervous - seen in a kick-out mistake by the goalie and in the widespread handling errors more akin to those of junior football – probably best describe the Garden County’s performance over the first 35 minutes. On this evidence one could only see the 1-8 to 0-3 gap at the break in favour of the visitors widening to an abyss before the end. The 1st half trend did unfortunately continue into the 2nd period to the point where Cill Mhantáin were 2-16 to 0-10 behind.
At this juncture Wicklow threw off the shackles, inspired to no little an extent by the take-no-prisoners approach of half-time substitute John McGrath, and proceeded to give it the proverbial lash.
This change of tactic put the opposition on the backfoot and in particular had its backs at sixes and sevens with the result that Laois were left clinging precariously to a two-point lead at the final whistle.
Éire Óg had two representatives on the team, captain Stephen Kelly and half-back Darren Hayden.
Both played effectively and consistently over the 70 minutes. Stephen’s all-round defensive play was outstanding and thwarted the scoring ambitions on many occasions.
His piece de resistance, however, was his insightful and uncanningly accurate diagonal 35m cross-field pass to an in-running John McGrath whodulysentitoverthebar.
The indefatigable Darren was seen now in defence, now in attack, using his superb ball-carrying skill to good advantage.
Two instances in particular spring to mind, the first saw him prevent a certain Laois goal with a brave accurately-tuned block and the second saw him denied a goal when his well-struck shot was brilliantly saved by the goalkeeper.
FIXTURES Saturday July 8 at 6.00pm Arklow Bay Hotel Football Div. 1, Rathnew v Éire Óg. At Avondale, Tuesday, July 11, at 8.00pm: Boom Platform Hire Junior A Football C’ship Group 1, Round 1 Baltinglass v Éire Óg.