Intermediate Footballers defeated in County Final

Despite a spirited performance Carrigaline Intermediate Footballers were defeated by Ilen Rovers in the County Final played at Pairc Ui Rinn last Sunday. Ilen were strong favourites for this game and took the game to Carrig from the start, despite the fact that we played with the wind in the first half.

Ilen had the first score of the game in the first minute and were attacking in waves from the outset. Our back line held up well and Marc Doody had us on level terms after seven minutes. Ilen continued to throw the ball around with great speed and raced into a 4 point to 1 lead after twenty minutes. Eoin O’Sullivan converted a free in the 24th. Minute but Ilen had two more points to leave the half time score Carrigaline 0-2 Ilen Rovers 0-6.

Carrig selectors introduced John Mullaney and Alan O’Keeffe at half time and the second half performance was much improved on the first half. With Nicholas Murphy winngin a lot of possession in midfield and Ger Cooney and Geoff Dillon on top in the half back line there was a lot more possession going into the forward line. However despite getting on top right from the restart it was Ilen who got the early scores points in the 4th and 5th minutes. Two points in the seventh minute from Eoin O’Sullivan (free) and Ollie Conlon had the margin back to four. Ilen found scores much easier to come by and had two points in the 13th and 15th minutes.

Carrig introduced Eoin Barry half way through the half and he made an impression when introduced. However we were lucky not to fall further behind when Mathew O’Sullivan saved bravely to prevent a goal Ilen added two more points to be leading by 8 entering the last 8 minutes.

Carrig rallied and points by Ken O’Keeffe, Peter and Nicholas Murphy reduced the deficit to 5. It could have been even better as Peter Murphy was deprived of a goal by an interception by one of the Ilen backs and we failed to convert the resultant 45. Ilen finished the stronger with three points in injury time to leave the final score Ilen Rovers 0-15, Carrigaline 0-7.

The defence played very well again and went through the campaign without conceding a goal. Disappointment in the end but few would have predicted that we would get to the final at the beginning of the season and it is important that we build on that for next season. A big thank you to the selectors and all the players for the effort that they put in during the year.

Team: Mathew O’Sullivan, Kieran Blake, Neally Hayes, Killian Forbes, Geoff Dillon, Tom Burke, Ger Cooney, Nicholas Murphy (0-1), Padraig O’Driscoll, Ken O’Keeffe (0-1), Eoin Murphy, Eoin O’Sullivan (0-2), Ollie Conlon (0-1), Peter Murphy (0-1), Marc Doody (0-1). Subs Used: John Mullaney, Alan O’Keeffe and Eoin Barry

UNDERAGE REPORT
Carrigaline beats off opposition for victory.
Fe 13 South East Hurling Final
Carrigaline 1-8
Valley Rovers 1-2
Last Sunday morning the U13’s travelled to Ballinspittle for the final of the U13 Championship. Carrigaline made a fairly slow start and soon found themselves a goal and a point down. The back line were kept very busy and with Daniel Bagnell and Brian Twomey, Valleys found it very hard to score. Stephen Gorman was excellent in goal bringing off two superb saves in the first half for Carrig. Brian Dorgan and James O’Shea kept battling gamely in the half-back line throughout.
Carrigaline slowly clawed away at the Valley’s lead, and a point from Simon O’Brien opened Carrig’s account, followed by two more from Adrian Lynch, leaving only one point between the sides coming up to half time. Eoin Conway, at wing forward was causing a big problem for the Valleys back line and having being fouled, Adrian tied the score with a very well struck free. Carrigaline had been playing with a very strong breeze in the first half and the score line at half time was 1-1 to 0–4. Gary Naughton had to come off shortly before half time and a reshuffle of the team ensued.
The second half started with Carrigaline well on the top, but found it impossible to score. It took Carrigaline 16 minutes to score the lead point by the brilliant Jason O’Leary. This seemed to spur Carrig on. Soon afterwards, Redvers McGrath latched onto a loose ball and finished it to the back of the net. Mark Canty and Mark O’Mahony also made the Valley goalkeeper make two excellent saves. David O’Regan also tried hard on the day, as did Shane Noonan. Gary Naughton having recovered also togged on a point and two more points by Simon O’Brien made the game safe for Carrig. Tony O’Connor, Paul Furlong, Jonathan Bermingham, Cathel O’Herlihy, Timmy Byrne, James Crowley also contributed to a well deserved win. At the final whistle a relieved Carrigaline celebrated a great win. The Carrig captain, Daniel Bagnell, thanked Eddie Byrne, Tom Jones and Kevin O’Brien and also Valleys, for what was an excellent game. This was our final hurling competition match for this year. We now change to football for a couple of weeks.
Panel: Stephen Gorma, Brian Twomey,Daniel Bagnell, Shane Noonan, James O’Shea, Gary Naughton, Brian Dorgan Tony O’Connor, Jason O’Leary,Eoin Conway, Simon O’Brien, Cathel. O’Herlihy, Mark O’Mahony, David O’Regan, Adrian Lynch, Redverse McGrath, Timmy Bryne, Jonathan Bermingham, Paul Furlong, James Crowley, Mark Canty, Jamie Corcoran, Gearoid Harrington, Cian Barry, David Drake, Kaelan Spillane and Michael O’Donovan.

Fe 15 City Hurling
Carrigaline 3-12
St. Finbarrs 1-02
Carrigaline Fe 15 qualified for the Fe 15 City Championship Semi-final, with a win over St. Finbarrs last Sunday morning in Carrigaline. This team had no match for the past few weeks, but they put in a superb performance for this game. Our forwards played well on the day. Joe Moran, centre back and J. Cowhig, corner back were the pick of the defenders. Shane Barry, in goal brought off some superb saves. From a good team effort, Carrig ran out the easy winners.
The all import points were recorded by Steven Corcoran 0-2, Tony Murphy 0-2, Mitchell Cuddihy 0-1, Cian 0-1, Ivan Ward 0-1, John Bray 0-1.
Carrigaline will play Na Piarsaigh in the semi-final next Sunday, Nov.9th at 12.30 in Redmond.

UNDERAGE REPORTS
Fe l4 Football League Final.

The final of the Ul4 Football league between Carrigaline and Ballinhassig was played in Crosshaven last Sunday morning. The game was played on the well prepared Camden pitch in glorious weather conditions. This was a game that Carrigaline were eagerly looking forward to, as when the teams last met in the semi-final of the championship, Ballinhassig emerged victorious over a very depleted Carrigaline team.

The game began at a frenetic pace with Carrigaline stamping their authority on this game from the throw-in. They created a solid platform in midfield, where Robert Foley and Eoin O’Sullivan worked very hard and won a lot of possession, and also a rearranged half-backline, which saw Andrew O’Sullivan move to centre-back, where he completely snuffed out the threat of the opposing centre-forward and went on to completely dominate in this sector. With a plentiful supply of possession, the forwards began to click and knocked over two points from play in the 7th and l3th minutes from a full forward Niall Coakley, and two well taken opportunist goals in the l2th and l4th minutes from corner forward Simon O’Brien, to a single point for Ballinhassig. As the half proceeded, Carrigaline continued to play an attractive brand of open attacking football, which yielded some excellent scores from outstanding wing forward Tony Murphy (0-02), and corner-forward Gary Naughton (0-02), and chief scorer Niall Coakley (frees 0-03), play (1-02).

Half-time score Carrigaline 4–09, Ballinhassig 0-01

Carrigaline brought on five substitutes early in the second half and scored ten points to Ballinhassig’s 2-02. This was an outstanding team performance and an encouraging end to the season.

Final score Carrigaline 4-19, Ballinhassig 2-03

Panel: James O’Reilly, Brendan Cashman, Killian Kavanagh, Mark Williamson, Conor Hurley, Brian Giltinan, Andrew O’Sullivan, Eoin O’Sullivan (0-01), Robert Foley, Tony Murphy (0-05), David O’Regan, Michael O’Sullivan, Gary Naughton (0-03), Niall Coakley (frees 0-05, play 1-03), Simon O’Brien (2-00), Kevin Ahern (0-01), Cian O’Sullivan, (0-01), Kevin Buckley, Stephen Power, Alan Webb, Jamie O’Sullivan, Eoin Harrington, David Manley.

Close encounter of the third kind!

Our Fe 12 team played St.Finbarrs, in a replay of a replay, for a place in the semi final of the City Championship.

The match was played in magnificent autumnal sunshine in Douglas GAA.

Carrigaline were playing against a strong wind in the first half. The Carrig lads took control from the start of the game and were outplaying the Barr’s in most parts of the pitch for the first 5 minutes. We opened with a great goal from Kaelan Spillane. However, the Barr’s were very quick to reply with a goal of their own and everyone was thinking “here we go again”. There was a lot of tension around the packed sidelines and we were all ready for another cliff hanger. Eoin Brennan gathered the ball, beat two players and passed the ball to Kaelan Spillane who coverted a great point for Carrig. Kaelan added another two points before half time and Eoin Kavanagh scored another fabulous goal. Our lads were very much on top and looked like they were going to sail home when at half time they were 2-3 to 1-0 ahead.

However, we all remembered the comebacks from the Barr’s in the previous two games. They were also playing with the aid of the wind in the second half. It was tense stuff. Carrig lads were defending superbly in the half back line and our forwards were trying valiantly to get that winning score. Everyone was waiting for the comeback from the Barr’s. However, it never materialised. Eoin Brennan scored a superb point 15 minutes into the second half and it was all over when Ronan McCarthy scored a goal reminiscent of the Irish try scored by Gerry “Ginger” Mc Loughlin against England in the 1980’s to win Ireland the triple Crown. Ronan never gave up and continued to follow up the ball until it was safely over the goal line – a super goal. Michael O’Donovan added a point from a classically taken free from the half way line. The Barr’s could only reply with a single point in the second half and our lads ran out deserved winners in the end.

Stephen Gorman in goal was awesome. Michael O’Donovan, Sean Timmins and Michael Dwane played magnificent defensive hurling throughout. David Drake at centre field covered enormous ground and played some great hurling. Wayne Bruton and Oisin Finn played tremendous attacking hurling, but the performance of the day was equally shared by Cian Barry and Sean Conlon who played out of their skins. They didn’t put a foot wrong for the whole match. Well-Done Lads.

The lads now go on to play Na Piarsaigh in the semi final. Best of luck lad.

Fe 11 Southeast Football Championship
On Monday, October 11th, Carrigaline U11’s played away to Sliabh Rua in the Championship. The game was played in a good atmosphere in what turned out to be a great match. With Sliabh Rua coming into the game with a great reputation, they started well, but their first score did not come until the 8th minute. Sliabh Rua never lost the lead and Carrig had to work had to get their scores. Carrig’s defence played very well and Steven O’Flynn’s brilliant display in goal kept Sliabh Rua frustrated. That is when Daragh McCarthy started to show his full potential and began to control the game for Carrigaline, both coming out of defence and into attack giving some great passes to Cian O’Flynn and Richand Ahern, who set up Carrigs scores and at half time it was 1-2 to 0-4 in Carrig’s favour.
On the resumption, Carrig started well and Daragh McCarthy played a major part in deciding as to how Carrig were to attack. This display was not only noticed by Carrig’s mentors, but by Sliabh Rua’s as well, and they decided to go man to man on Daragh with their best player. Sliabh Rua came back into the game and they earned a well deserved draw.
Final score; Carrigaline 2-5, Sliabh Rua 1-8

Fe 11 Football
Last Friday Oct. 17th, Carrigaline under11’s played away to Ballinhassig under the spot lights. As this was Carrigs last game of the season, all players in the squad received at least one half of the game. The game promised to be a brilliant display of football by both teams and enjoyed immensely by all parents who attended. Ballinhassig ended up winning by four points. Carrigaline mentors would like to thank all parents for their help and support throughout the year, which was very much appreciated.
This team has made steady progress and will resume in the New Year around next February. Carrigaline’s Fe 11 mentors: Anthony Conway and Michael O’Flynn.