Report by John Cuddihy
On Saturday 13th of September, following a late switch of venue to the James Stephen’s complex on the Kells road, GBC under 14 team took on Conahy Shamrocks in glorious sunshine. The exchanges were fairly even in the opening half, with Killian Egan commanding the centre back position while his counterpart for Conahy did likewise.
Aaron Brenan pointed three frees before Conahy goaled after ten minutes to leave the score Conahy 1-1, GBC 0-3. Simon O’Dwyer added a nice point, before Paddy Brennan cleverly doubled on a good delivery to rattle the net. Aaron Brennan’s hard work and persistence paid off when he goaled just before half time and Oisín Egan sent a long range shot sailing between the posts. While GBC went in at half time ahead by 2-6 to 1-5, one couldn’t help thinking that they had a better performance in them in the second half.
The half time pep talk did the trick, as GBC upped their game from the throw in. Adam O’Brien, Kevin Ging and Alex McCluskey tightened up in the full back line and the midfield pairing of Oisín Egan and Finn Lanigan began to dominate. Eoin Delahunty and Eamonn Corcoran on the wings delivered good quality ball to the forwards. Paddy Brenan and Simon O’Dwyer banged in another two good goals and points from Scott Lawlor, Aaron Brennnan, Killian Egan, Paddy Brennan and Oisín Egan (2), saw GBC through to a county semi-final. The full team turned in a good performance, particularly in the second half and were deserving winners.
This team have a good chance of progressing in this championship if they can keep it tight in defence and work hard over the full sixty minutes.
The full-time score was GBC 4-12, Conahy Shamrocks 2-7.
Team: Jason O’Brien, Kevin Ging, Adam O’Brien, Alex McCluskey, Eoin Delahunty, Killian Egan, Eamonn Corcoran, Finn Lanigan, Oisín Egan, Daniel Lawlor, Aaron Brennan, Alan Wall, Paddy Brennan, Stephen Keoghan, Simon O’Dwyer
Subs: Brendan Dunne, Scott Lawlor, John Muldowney, Stephen Robinson, Lee Ronan, Jack Walton, Mark Brennan