Blog

There are many people who make the grade of Junior b sound even worse by calling it Junior ‘d’. This in fact is doing our lads a dis-service and they proved it with a brilliant second half display last night to reach the district final on a scoreline of 1-15 to 0-07, despite trailing by two at half time. This is the first year i can remember the third team actually having collective training sessions other than those in the Harrow. Our lads have been training twice a week for a good while now, and they are seeing the benefits of it now. Sure its not that long ago when county teams didn’t even train twice a week.

I wasn’t at the game myself but i was told by many that our lads hurled the sh*te out of the Rapps in the second half. We had three additions to our team from the drawn game, Paul Farrington, James O Loughlin and Micheal Somers and surely they must have made a difference. The other semi final is on Thursday night between Ballyhogue and Rathnure. Our lads must be brimming with confidence now and will certainly not fear either team.

Team: 1. Larry Carty 2. Martin Sweeney 3. Declan Kelly 4. Anthony Dempsey 5. Padraig Stafford 6. Barry Miller 7. Michael Stafford 8. Diarmaid Breen 9. James O Loughlin 10. Peadar Leacy 11. Michael Ivory 12. Adrian O Dowd 13. Morgan Rowsome 14. Paul Farrington 15. Michéal Somers  Subs: John Murphy for Micheal Somers, Conor Doyle for Morgan Rowsome .

The junior ‘a’ hurling team showed heart, fight, determination and desire on their way to winning this match on a scoreline of 1-13 to 1-12 to reach the county semi final. In stark contrast to the previous days display our lads came back from being six points down to record the win. Points from James Gahan in particular in the first half meant that despite conceding a few sloppy scores we were only five points down at half time, which was a good scoreline considering how bad we hurled. Despite Glynn making the gap six points our lads fought hard and got our just rewards with a goal from John Ivory, which was added to with points from Ed Rowsome, John O Loughlin and Bryan Dwyer. When the final whistle sounded, for the second time this weekend Damien Fenlon celebrated like the All Ireland was won, which goes to show the passion that the team has. It is not decided who our next opponents will be but one thing for sure is our junior team will fight until the end.

Team: Morgan Gahan, Mick Nolan, Daire Turner, Sean Doran, Sean McCabe, Chris Daly, Mick Sweeney, Damien Fenlon, Laurence Murphy, Patrick Walsh, Bryan Dwyer, Ed Rowsome, John Ivory, John O Loughlin, James Gahan Subs: Denis Walsh for Laurence Murphy, Laurence Murphy for Patrick Walsh.

Scores: Ed Rowsome 0-05 (0-04 frees), John Ivory 1-02, James Gahan 0-03, Bryan Dwyer 0-01, Patrick Walsh 0-01, John O Loughlin 0-01

The intermediate hurlers lost to Marshalstown yesterday by 3-17 to 3-09 in monamolin. We started poorly, and got progressively worse until a flurry of scores at the end made the scoreline look slightly less painful than it was in reality. Matthew Dunne was one of the very few in the first half who performed well, and deserved the two points he scored, for all the work he did. Despite our poor showing the half time score was 1-06 to 2-06 in favour of Marshalstown, with our goal being scored by Stephen Murphy. The second half started in terrible fashion from our point of view, when we conceded the first three scores of the game and then another srappy goal. The four subs made an impact when they came on and we managed to score two late goals and a few points but in truth Marshalstown were so much better than us on the day. Final score 3-17 to 3-09.

Team: 1. Sean Murphy 2. Ray O Brien 3. Brian O Loughlin 4. Paul Gahan 5. Mark Walsh 6. Tommy Breen 7. Dean Fenlon 8. Niall O Reilly 9. Bertie Gahan 10. Colm O Loughlin 11. Matthew Dunne 12. Niall O Loughlin 13. Marty Kelly 14. John Breen 15. Stephen Murphy

Subs: David Breen for Bertie Gahan, Paddy Breen for Tommy Breen, Peter Mernagh for Niall O Loughlin, Conall Nolan for Niall O Reilly

Scores: David Breen 1-01, Marty Kelly 1-01, Stephen Murphy 1-00, Peter Mernagh 0-02, Matthew Dunne 0-02, Niall O Loughlin 0-02, Dean Fenlon 0-01.

For the second week in a row in Patricks Park, the dedicated and loyal supporters of Monageer/ Boolavogue were treated to a hugely exciting, junior b match. Last week it was the footballers who were the talk of the parish, and tonight it was the turn of the hurlers. Trailing by 1-05 to 2-08, with only minutes to go we pulled it out of the fire again with a great late goal by Tomas O Leary, and three well taken points to leave the final score 2-08 to 2-08. There is definately something to be said for junior b under lights and if the GAA need any evidence of it then the last two weeks will prove it. Despite Damien Fenlon acting like a lunatic on the sideline our lads managed to keep their heads when the shit hit the fan. A display of high fielding similar to that of Ken McGrath was provided by Diarmaid Breen, but his striking would be considered poor, even at under 12 level. He would get my man of the match award though. Robert Rowsome has made nearly as many comebacks as Frank Sinatra at this stage and once again he was needed near the end to shore up the defence. A period of consulation with, and cursing at the referee ended in establishing that there was no extra time to be played at the end of this memorable draw.

Team: 1. Larry Carty 2. Martin Sweeney 3. Declan Kelly 4. Anthony Dempsey 5. Padraig Stafford 6. Barry Miller 7. Diarmaid Breen 8. Michéal Stafford 9. Peadar Lacey 10. Adrian O Dowd 11. Michael Ivory 12. Morgan Rowsome 13. Adrian O Loughlin 14. Ciaran Fenlon 15. John Murphy Subs: Tomas O Leary for John Murphy, Robert Rowsome for Adrian O Loughlin

Scores: Michael Ivory 1-03, Tomas O Leary 1-00, Morgan Rowsome 0-03, Adrian O Dowd 0-02