Aghada GAA Juvenile News

Hi folks, hope this newsletter finds you well, we are all daring to hope for brighter days ahead this summer. Our schools coaching ventured down to Rostellan last Thursday, under the watchful eyes of coordinators Pat O’ Connell, Paula Dunne and transition year student coaches. Unfortunately the weather was not too kind as the rain fell in buckets but this still didn’t dampen the spirits of our junior infants, senior infants and 1st class children from the 3 schools in our parish. They were just glad to be there, no masks no social distancing while running, playing, and having fun without fear. It is of course the case that everyone deserves a good summer ahead, whether we can actually achieve that is another matter, but maybe it’s a case of one small win at a time and the 3 schools will be down in the field again this Thursday, this time in football and hopefully the weather will be kinder and even if it is not, there will still be something special about just running around chasing a ball, after all it is most definitely a vast improvement on recent years.

U14 P2 Hurling Championship

Aghada 1-13 Carrigaline 4-14

They say a good start is half the battle and unfortunately, we handed the initiative to Carrigaline and gave ourselves a mountain to climb with a sloppy opening ten minutes that had us chasing down a big lead as we conceded 3 early goals. The score read 0-2 to 3-5 after the early exchanges and a few shrewd tactical changes had the desired effect with Carrigaline failing to score again for the remainder of the half as we racked up 8 points to put us back in contention. Half forward Jack Mulcahy was central to this shooting some sublime points from play and frees, centre forward Jack Dorney hit a brace and excellent points from Jackson Kearns and Adam Lewis left the half-time score 0-10 to 3-5. Cillian Scanlon and Cian Moore were hurling with authority and Sam McAlister was his usual swashbuckling best as we looked to wrestle back control of the game, but Carrigaline were not for turning and they kept the scoreboard ticking over with some impressive points. We were then handed a lifeline when Jack Mulcahy dispatched a well struck 21 yard free to the net and just when it looked like we might pull it out of the fire we were hit with a sucker punch as a long-range delivery ended up in the back of our net and that was that as the flames of the comeback were quenched. No fault of our lads here as they came up against a very good side and we were shorn the services of the influential Tom Walsh and after the extra time winning heroics in the last round against Erin’s Own, we have shown we are well able to perform at this level.

Team & scorers John Dorney, Eoghan Walsh, Cormac Crowley, Cillian Byrne, Cian Moore, Cillian Scanlon, Sam Douglas, Josh McCarthy, Sam McAlister, Cillian Byrne, Jack Dorney 0-3 Jack Mulcahy 1- 8 Adam Lewis 0-1 Jackson Kearns 0-1 Alex Buckley Subs used Austin Schoeman, Sam Morgan.

Our u13 hurlers were on the road early as they travelled to Mayfield last Saturday morning to take on the home side. The management team will be very happy with the team’s performance as every player on the panel from 1 to 21 played their part in making the early morning start a profitable one. With Rian O’ Brien Higgins in goal in commanding form and the full back line in front of him not giving an inch with Dylan Kearns and Finbarr Alcock holding the corners and superbly led by full back Sam Morgan we set out our stall that we were in no mood for conceding scores. The half back line of Kaylan Cunningham, Jake Morrissey and Cormac Cashman were the launching pad with fine distribution giving a plentiful supply of ball to our inside forwards of Dara O’ Brien, John Dorney and Eoin O’ Donoghue who made full use of it with clever movement. One of those balls was caught superbly by John who billowed the net and a couple of fine scores from Dara and David Murphy had us leading 1-4 to 0-2 at half time. We continued to pile on the pressure in the second half with Donncha Walsh and Conor Charles dominant around the middle and the half forwards David, Shay Rooney, and Matthew Condon excelling. Further scores from David, Matthew and Jake had us in the ascendancy along with Marcus O’ Loughlin, Rossa White, Eoin Kirrane, Harry Burgoyne and Sam Aherne all making telling contributions before Robbie Oosthuizen with a nice finish and the Coup de Grace from David who cut in from the wing to plant the ball in the back of the net giving us a comfortable win in the end after a tough encounter from the battling Mayfield side. Final score 2-9 v 0-6.

Our u12 footballers paid a heavy price for not taking their chances when they presented themselves as we got pipped at the post by a gallant Lisgoold side who fought back and only led for the first time in the match with the last score of the game in a lively contest on our forest field on Monday night. We started in whirlwind fashion with midfielder Jack Kelleher superbly finishing to the net after a quick passing team move. Centre forward David Murphy popped over some nice scores from play and frees and we looked to be in control of the game. Lisgoold to their credit were making the most of their chances and capitalised after Cathal Lowney brought off a superb reflex save only to be outdone by the follow up as the ball found its way to the net. Centre back Donncha Walsh fielded a great ball and offloaded to Jack who found Sam Aherne and he made no mistake with a peach of a goal as we led at half time 2-4 to 1-3. Not long into the second half and we scored our third goal when a pinpoint free from David was fielded by Rian O’ Brien Higgins and he turned sharply to shoot home to further embellish the lead and at this juncture you would not have thought we would be losing the game but with Lisgoolds never say die attitude and our wastefulness in front of goal we found ourselves a point down when the final whistle sounded 3-7 v 2-11. Heartbreak for our lads who will feel hard done by and at the same time will learn from the defeat and make them more determined to find a way to see out games better into the future, Team & scorers Cathal Lowney, Cormac Cashman, Finbarr Alcock, Dylan Kearns, Donncha Walsh, Eoin Kirrane, Jack Kelleher 1-1, Darragh Crowley, Marcus O Loughlin, David Murphy 0-5, Trystan Pomphret, Harry Burgoyne, Sam Aherne 1-0, Dara O’ Brien, Rian O’ Brien Higgins 1-1, Tim O’ Hanlon, Max O’ Reilly.

U14 Division 1 championship final Report Cathal McAllister.

Aghada 5-4 Croke Rovers 5-5

We made the long journey to Araglen last Monday night to play Croke Rovers in the North/East Division 1 championship final. Our journey started off in Cork, passing through Co Waterford and playing the game in Co Tipperary hard to believe. This was the proverbial game of 2 halves with Crokes the dominant team in the 1st half and our lads dominating the 2nd. We started well enough but weren’t converting our chances when they came. From the first attacking movement a one two between Sam McAllister and Cian Moore put Alex Buckley through on goal and he was unlucky to see his shot go narrowly wide. This let off for Crokes shook them into life and they thundered into the game, and they struck the back of the net in the 5th minute of play and shortly after they had a 2nd goal after a mix up in defence let them in, we managed to pull a goal back when Josh McCarthy broke through the defence to shoot our 1st major. The game at this stage had a physical edge to it with a lot of stuff being let go and unfortunately, we lost the influential Cillian Scanlon who had to leave the game through injury. Cian kicked a point on the 20th minute as Crokes replied with another goal and Cormac Crowley pulled off a top class save to deny them another to leave the score at the short whistle 1-1 to 3-5 and a mountain to climb. Being ten points down it was going to take some effort from our lads to get back into the game and in fairness to them all they grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and chipped away at the lead with everyone of them putting their shoulder to the wheel. Cian pointed on the resumption but once again we were rocked when Crokes struck for their 4th major. With Ronan Musgrave, Jackson Kearns, Eoghan Walsh and Adam Lewis starting to get a grip on the Crokes forwards, we began to move the ball through the lines a lot better. Max Daly was upended in the square and Jack Mulcahy expertly converted the resulting penalty. This was quickly followed up by a goal from Max and we were now taking control of the game. Cian kicked 2 further points and the gap was closing only to be once again facing an uphill battle as Crokes struck goal number 5, undeterred we continued to press forward and from the resultant kick out the hard-working Cillian Burke put Jack Dorney through, and the game was back in the melting pot with the gap down to 4 points and 3 minutes left to play. Intelligent inter link play between Aesa Murphy and Will O’ Mahony put Sam in for a bullet of a goal to make it a one-point game. Crokes went on the attack again as Austin Schoeman and Darragh Meaney stood tall to break up the move and a quick ball out of defence would give us one last chance, we were patient in our build up before Tom Walsh was dragged down 45 meters from goal, the resulting free drifted agonisingly wide and the final whistle sounded. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be but the way the lads responded in the second half was a joy to behold.

Panel Cormac Crowley, Ronan Musgrave, Jackson Kearns, Eoghan Walsh, Max Daly, Cillian Scanlon, Adam Lewis, Sam McAllister, Josh McCarthy, Cillian Burke, Tom Walsh, Jack Mulcahy, Alex Buckley, Cian Moore, Jack Dorney, Will O Mahony, Aesa Murphy, Austin Schoeman, Darragh Meaney, Jago Evans.

Our u11 teams enjoyed a fun filled experience at Ballyhass lakes last Saturday while also finding the time to take on Mallow in Hurling and Football challenge games well done to all for the excellent organisation of the day. Our u10s were in Carrigtwohill, our u8s were in Killeagh and our u7s hosted a monster hurling blitz in Rostellan that was very well organised by the host club.

Well done to all who participated in the recent Cork City Sports we really do have an outstanding sporting parish and going by the amount of gold, silver and bronze medals won Athletics is strong in our area.

Its never too late to follow yours dreams as Aiden Kelleher and Davy Creedon continue to excel in the red jersey with the Cork masters football team. This time they played against old rivals Kerry down in Killarney with Aiden scoring a goal and as he said himself a bit of a collector’s item as he has scored plenty of points in his time but not too many goals and Davy controversially had a goal ruled out late on when the kingdom were rattled but then again, we were not surprised as a Cork v Kerry fixture and controversial go hand in hand.

Huge congratulations to Cormac O’ Keeffe on winning a world cup medal at the IMART rugby world cup last weekend. A special occasion for Cormac and his family and to bring home a world cup medal is a monumental achievement in what must be a rarity for this parish.

The club was well represented in the recent Scór na nÓg county final having tremendous success. Clara Frazer was 1st in the solo music section, while the quiz team of Dylan Kearns, Tim O’ Hanlon and Jack Kelleher were 2nd. The Music group also made it to the county final in what was a very successful night for the club, comhghairdeachas agus maith thú.

Fixtures Friday 17th June U13 Division 1 football league Aghada v St Catherine’s 20:00 Rostellan Monday 20th June U12 Hurling league Aghada v Watergrasshill 19:00 Rostellan Tuesday 21st June U14 Hurling league Aghada v Kiltha Og 19:00 Rostellan Wednesday 22nd June U15 premier 2 Hurling league Aghada v St Colman’s 19:00 Away

Slán go fóill. BE SEEN WEAR THE GREEN