Boyne bidding for consolation prize in Towns Plate final
COACH Graeme Eastwood has set his Boyne team a target to win the Provincial Towns Plate to ensure a successful end to his second season in charge.
The Drogheda side completed their Leinster League campaign with a heavy defeat - 60-25 away to Wicklow - but the coach was encouraged by the way his team finished the game - scoring two tries to take their match tally to four and therefore securing a bonus point.
There was confusion in the week leading up to the game about whether Boyne were completely safe from the possibility of relegation, one theory being that they needed one point in Wicklow to make mathematically sure.
However, Eastwood (pictured below right) said that wasn’t the case and the team could travel knowing they would be playing in Division 1A next season.
‘We were always safe,’ he insisted. ‘[After points] it always goes on the number of wins, then draws and then points differential and the draw we had against Enniscorthy was always going to keep us out of sixth spot and we had that confirmed with the [Leinster] Branch.
‘It was a refixture because of the snow and a few of the boys were committed elsewhere and had arranged trips.
‘We were missing Eoghan Duffy, Rory Hennessy, Conor Walsh and Karl Keogh because of injury or illness as well, so it didn’t help that we didn’t have six or seven of our starters, but a couple of our 2nd XV boys got a runout and we scored four cracking tries, two in the last 10 minutes.
‘We’re quite happy with the way we finished. We always knew it was going to be a tough season to get straight back up [to the AIL], with the likes of Enniscorthy being there or thereabouts for the last five or six years.
‘We lost seven games, but five of those were in the first six games of the season. We weren’t at full strengthngth until around Christmas time and since then we’ve wonn four, drawn one and lost two.’
Eastwood insisted thatt Boyne - who finished fifth in the league table - still had plenty to play foror this season, andnd with his contractract having anotherer 12 months to run he is ready to continue into a the helm.
‘The Towns Cup was a target for us, but we didn’t play well in that away to Kilkenny, so our aim is to win the Plate competition. ‘Before the season, if you’d offered us consolidation in the league, the 2nds winning their league and winning the Towns Plate we wowould have regarded gardedregarded tthat as being a succsuccessful season.
‘IIt’s been a lonlong, long year anand the boys hahave put in a lot of hard work sinsince pre-season sonseason started in JuneJune, and so they’re looking forward tto the break. ‘AshbourAshbourne set the third year at tone this season, but if they go up to the All-Ireland League they can’t play in the All-Ireland Junior Cup and we would take that place from them.’
Eastwood hopes to have a number of his absentees back for Saturday’s Plate quarter-final away to County Carlow, which has a 3pm kick-off, while the likes of Graham McQuillan and Michael Briscoe are pushing to retain their places after impressing against Wicklow. Ashbourne Enniscorthy Dundalk Wicklow Boyne Gorey
De la Salle Pal Monkstown P 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 W 11 10 8 6 6 6 5 3 D 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 L SD BP 3 170 12 3 133 6 6 10 7 8 56 8 7 -104 5 8 6 5 9 -99 7 11 -172 2 Pts 56 48 39 32 31 29 27 14
TOP motorcycle racer Aaron Clifford from Duleek is holding his 2018 fundraiser in the Thatch Bar, Donore Road, Drogheda, on Saturday April 7th, starting at 8.30pm, with tickets at €10.
The first prize for pre-paid tickets is a night’s stay in the Glenside Hotel, including an evening meal. DJ ‘Groggy Mac’ will provide the music. Tickets are available via PayPal @ me/CliffordRacing19.
Lotto winners LAST week’s Duleek AFC/ SBG FC lotto numbers were 6, 14, 19, 29 and the €20 winners were M Lyndsey, P Cunningham, Adam Duff, J Cosgrave, H Murphy and A Finglas.
€25 prizes NUMBERS drawn in last week’s Seneschalstown GAA lotto were 8, 10, 18, 20 and €25 went to Caitlin, Senan & Oisin Scanlon; Ollie Geraghty; Megan & Kevin Clarke; Tom Clarke; and Declan Kinsella.
DIVISION 1A