ÉIRE ÓG GREYSTONES
Our Senior and Junior footballers would welcome your support in their championship games at the weekend. Juniors play St. Pats in Rathnew on Saturday, July 29, at 7 p.m. and the Seniors take on Avondale in Pearse’s Park, Arklow on Sunday 30th at 11 a.m. (confirm times).
IOMÁINT - One is still wiping the sweat off one’s brow, it was hard work pushing our senior hurlers over the line in Aughrim on Sunday evening in their third game in the league stages of the championship.
Their opponents were Carnew. It was a must-win game for the Éire Óg lads if they were to stay in the race for a place in the playoff stages. But oh! how difficult did they make the task for themselves.
Éire Óg won by a single point in an all-point game, 0-11 to 0-10. Save for the last vital minutes Na Clocha Liatha were behind on the scoreboard (a magnificent long-distance point from a free by Anto Byrne brought the score to level terms about seven minutes from the end) and this was in no small way due to the team’s penchant for giving away often needless frees. In both halves they had conceded two scoreable frees in the first two minutes after the throw-in.
A strange feature of the game – although it changed a little towards the end – was that for both teams a sideline puck was more often a liability rather than a help as, in general, its delivery was either poor or went directly to opponents’ hands.
The game ended in a welter of drama. It was well into injury time with the score standing at 011-to 0-10, Carnew are awarded a free about 30 m. out on the right hand side very near the sideline.
The free taker had established his accuracy during the game so a score seemed almost certain.
The ball is driven hard and accurately towards the Éire goal but fortunately low enough for Dan O’ Neill to reach it and bat it away. Final whistle, buíochas le Dia.
PEIL NA MBAN faoi 16: Between holidays, Gaeltacht, commitments to the adult team and, not least, injuries, it has not been easy for the mentors to field teams.
Numbers at training have not been hugely encouraging and Séamus and Michael have often left at the end of sessions pessimistically asking “will we have a team for the next outing?”
Thankfully, to date, the answer has been in the positive and one might add quite successful.
Recently these cailíní travelled to Newtown to take on table-topping locals in the league and came away with a 3-11 to 3-7 win from a very exciting encounter. The contest aptly fell into the category of a ‘game of two halves’.
Éire Óg dominated the first period and were in the apparently unassailable position of being 3-11 to 1-2 ahead at the break.
However all changed, changed utterly in the second half with the hosts very much in control after the resumption and outscoring our gcailíní 2-5 to 0-4 before the final whistle.
One can imagine the nail biting that went on in the Clocha Liatha camp as it watched its half-time lead being whittled away and having all the appearance of disappearing before the end. Thanks to some heroic last-ditch defending this did not happen.
Scorers: Ellie O’Neill (2-5), Kerry-Anne Hamilton (0-6), Eva Roche who played at centre-back contributed a goal, Katie Lawless (02), Eva Magennety and Ella Horgan (0-1) each.
Allana Ní Sheáin stepped up from u-14 to make a huge contribution to this win with an outstanding display in goals and Gemma Kiely gave quite a performance against her old team.
It was up to Laragh for the team’s next match which was against Valleymount. This game had little of the tension and competitiveness of that against Newtown and Éire Óg had a comfortable win over the depleted Blessington-lakeside team.
The adult team, a work very much in progress, was at home to AGB (Arklow) ladies in their second match in the league stages of the championship.
In their previous game they had been well beaten by St. Pats, the pace-setting team in the division in which Éire Óg is plying its trade, so they were hoping to give a bounce-back performance against AGB.
In the event this they did, and in a game in which they just as easily could have won they lost 3-11 to 1-14.
PEIL-BUACHAILLÍ: Our under--11 footballers recently played An Tóchar in the two-team format of that age-group’s league. The teams were:
Team 1: Seamus Darcy, Cathal Kirby, Daniel Burns, James O’ Dowd, Tom Meyler, Sean Meyler Jack Caffrey, Darragh Shanahan, Evin Donnelly, Tom O Mahony, Cathal Byrne, Michael Lamson, Finn Baxter, Daniel Burns, Charlie Grogan.
Team 2: Gavin Lincoln, Robbie Owens, Healy, Nathan Donnell an, Sam Cunningham, Robert Moore, Daniel Connerty, Charlie Fox, Liam Finn, Alec Bartek, Hugh O’Carroll, Liam Booth, Matthew Casey, Thomas Darcy, Dillon Kelly.
These squads were boosted, as per the rules, by the ad hoc promotion of Liam Booth, Thomas Darcy, Michael Lamson and Dillon Kelly from Division 3. These younger lads proved themselves well capable of holding their own at this higher level. Many of the players in these teams are developing into fine intelligent footballers and the club is hoping they will stay with it for the long haul. Stand-out feature of the games was the exceptional goal-keeping of Gavin Lincoln and Séamus Darcy.