Report by Martin Delahunty
Graigue Ballycallan U12 boys competed in the Jim Comerford Conahy tournament over the last 2 weekends. They were drawn in a group of 4 and played games against Bennettsbridge, Blacks and Whites and O’Loughlin Gaels. The boys put together 3 outstanding performances on the morning and beat all 3 teams convincingly. What impressed the coaches most was the first touch, great interlinking and hugely impressive finishing skills of all players. This meant that our boys topped their group and headed back to Conahy on Sunday to play Lisdowney in the semi final.
The boys unfortunately started slowly and struggled to settle into the game. Lisdowney took an early lead but eventually we started winning a few balls in midfield and Oisín Egan struck 1 goal and 2 points to leave us just 3 behind at half time and well in the game.
The second half started out with Lisdowney getting a goal from a soft free but typical of our boys they never put the head down and were rewarded with a great goal from John Muldowney after some very clever play from the outstanding Oisín Egan. This score left the boys just 2 points down with 10 mins to go and beginning to get a good grip on the game. Unfortunately things went badly from here when the Conahy official made an outrageous decision to send off our centre back for an apparent striking offence. This decision was appealed by all but Conahy’s version of “Barry Kelly” with a little help from the Lisdowney officials stood defiant and our boys had to finish out with a man down and try valiantly as they did they could not peg back the scores that were needed and lost out by 4 points. The day was finished off with a game against St. Martin’s, which our boys won comprehensively and a special mention having to go to Man of the Match Andrew McGrath, who scored 1-5 from play as was easily the best player on the field. All that ball work up against the gable end of “The Pound” is surely paying off.
Panel – Jack Walton, Kevin Ging, JJ Ryan, Eoin Delahunty, Jack Cleere, Brendan Dunne, Paddy Brennan, Tom Brennan, Scott Lawlor, Mark Brennan, Jack Butler, John Muldowney,
Oisín Egan, Shane Comerford, Stephan Robinson, Andew McGrath, Craig Lawlor and Dan Cahill.
Well Done Boys