Junior hurlers crowned league champs

Posted November 15, 2015

Our junior hurlers finished their league campaign in style by being crowned league champions.

With both ourselves and Cuala going very well in the junior hurling league from early on, the last fixture of the Season between both sides was always likely to be a competition decider. And so it came to pass. Last Sunday afternoon already buoyed up by the victory of our seniors earlier, the squad headed for Dalkey on a mission. The mission was to capture the league title. A win or draw would see us crowned champions.

Despite being played in dreadful conditions and on a very wet pitch, the game was extremely competitive and the standard of hurling was high. We played with the wind in the first half and it was score for score for the first 20 minutes. Then, Mark Fitzgibbon produced what turned out to be a decisive moment. A long ball was driven into the Cuala goalmouth. Mark grabbed it turned and drove a bullet of a shot past the keeper. The score at half time was 1.6 to 6 in our favour and we had to face the breeze in the second half. This breeze enabled the Cuala keeper to puck the ball virtually the whole length of the field thus keeping continuous pressure on our defenders. The rain continued to fall as the pitch deteriorated but our lads kept going and fought for every ball as if their lives depended on it. Despite being outdone in the possession stats for the last 10 minutes, we held on to emerge victorious by 1 point. Afterwards, county board official Ollie Ryan presented the trophy to a delighted team captain Ciarán Ó’Mórdha.

Great credit is due to the lads for not just winning the league but for remaining unbeaten in the competition throughout the year. A very special word of appreciation also to the management team of Tony Larkin, Jack Hughes and Aidan Punch. This was a magnificent achievement when you consider that this team almost disappeared 2 years ago. We are already looking forward to next year.