Éire Óg Greystones
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Weekly Notes - 16th July 2008

County Players

Congratulations to our county hurlers and lady footballers who both recorded noteworthy victories at the week-end. The hurlers defeated Westmeath, last year’s winners of the competition, in the Christy Ring Cup while the ladies defeated Louth in the final of the Leinster Junior Championship – they travel to Belfast on Sunday to play Antrim in the 1st round of the All-Ireland Championship. We in Éire Óg are proud to have had representatives on both panels. Stephen “Chester” Kelly played for the duration of the hurling and Billy Cuddihy was on the subs’ bench. Three of our girls, Caoilfhionn Deeney, Lorna Fusciardi and Laurie Ahern played very significant roles in bringing the Leinster trophy back to Cill Mhantáin. Emily Hanney who would have been a strong contender for a place on the team was, unfortunately, unavailable through injury. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Louth were the superior team in the 1st half and were definitely not flattered to be only one point ahead – 0-11 to 3-1(4 scores) – at the interval. Laurie, a lady with a great eye for the goal opportunity and the skill to take advantage of it, contributed two of the goals. Caoilfhionn really came into her own in the last 20 minutes and was key to Wicklow’s prominence during this period. Her fielding was spectacular and was described to me as being such as to put many of her male counterparts in the club to shame! Lorna never relented in her endeavours throughout the game and played an important part in blunting the Louth efforts in their periods of dominance

Intermediate Football

“Pulsating encounter” was the evocative description which caught one’s eye in the News Digest of a paper recently. One immediately had visions of a game throbbing with excitement, end to end movement, closely contested individual exchanges and an alternating score pattern but on reading the account one found that the reality was other – a stop-start encounter with a stoppage (infringement) every 2 minutes. Our drawn game against Aughrim in Aughrim on Tuesday would, one feels, largely merit this ‘pulsating’ description; it should even be extended to include controversy among its throbbings. For controversial it was. The game ended in a drama of Hitchcockian proportions. Éire Óg had just equalised. A “disputed” sideline, 30 m out from the Aughrim goal, which was incontrovertibly Éire Óg’s was signalled in favour of Aughrim by the local linesman. Post-match, Paul Hayden was philosophical about this act of dishonesty saying “it merited the linesman a couple of minutes of hassle from the Éire Óg support, but saved him weeks of criticism from his own”. Then a few minutes later, time essentially up, ball-going-nowhere situation in the centre of the field, and ideal time to blow the final whistle. But no, the ref somehow managed to find evidence for an Aughrim free. Our backs repulsed the attack, the ball found Darren Hayden on the left wing, again about 30m out; Darren in full flight, a score almost inevitable. The final whistle. Éire Óg’s frustration knew no bounds.

U12 Hurling

It is hard now to recall the misery that was Kilcoole on Saturday week for the u-12 hurling game against the locals. Spectators were forced to seek shelter beneath wind-tossed umbrellas, and the pale pinched faces of the subs attested to a scarcely bearable thermal discomfort. The start of the game was delayed due to a referee no-show – it is surely a bit of an indictment of our sportsmanship that league games at this level cannot be entrusted to a referee from one of the sides involved. Éire Óg mentor, Kieran O’Riordan, took on the duties of arbitrator, despite the fact that, in the absence of fellow mentor Ronan Delahunty in China on a scouting trip, team management would suffer. Notwithstanding these conflicting demands, Kieran ordered the match with Solomon-like disinterest.

Playing against the wind Éíre Óg were a point down at the break. In the second half the team upped its performance considerably and the goal counter began to click at a steady rate while, at the other end, the defence was parsimonious in its concession of scores. Result – a well deserved victory for Éire Óg. The goals came from Harry Haffonen, James and Mark Delahunty, Seán Lawless and Seán Murray, a delightfully skilful hurler. Conor Randles played a major role in the victory. He was in inspiration to his teammates in his wholehearted commitment and in the fortitude with which he bore the scars of battle. Ciara Patrick worked beaverlike at corner forward, Niall O’Farrell was a very solid full-back and goalie Jordan O’Riordan made a spectacular full-length save at a vital juncture.

Comhbhrón

The club extends its sincerest sympathies to the family of Paul Keane on the death of his father Jimmy. Jimmy was grandfather of Peter and Daniel Keane who play for the club. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.