Report by Martin Delahunty
Graigue Ballycallan U14s continued their busy spell with a visit from Erins Own to Tom Ryall Park for Round 3 of the Hurling League. Unfortunately mother nature wasn’t kind and the game was played with a biting gale force wind with a downpour of hailstones halfway through to compound the difficult conditions.
However, both teams got stuck in early doors and tried to adapt quickly to the adverse weather. The local boys aided by the stiff breeze were swift to build up an early lead with a goal and 3 points struck from the hurl of the prolific Oisín Egan. Comer began to dig in at the centre of the park and go-to man Jamie Maher put over 3 beautiful strikes from distance to keep his team in the game. Another 3 pointer from the impressive Dan Cahill and a few smart points from Man of the Match Paddy Brennan brought the boys to the break with a half time lead of 3-8 to 3 points.
A nice lead to have but this game was far from over and the mentors were making it aware that the boys needed to keep up the work rate against the ever stronger breeze. And out the Comer boys came with a lightning 2-1 in 6 mins and it was surely game on. But no panic from the Graigue boys with a great individual goal from Oisín and another opportunist goal from Dan settled the nerves to regain a comfortable lead which was enough to see out till the final whistle and the 2 league points were collected on a scoreline of 6-12 to 4-4.
Fair play to both sets of players who fought out this game in horrendous conditions, it made for scrappy hurling at times but was never short on endeavour.
Scorers: Oisín Egan 3-5, Dan Cahill 2-1, Paddy Brennan 0-4, John Muldowney -01, Scott Lawlor 0-2.
Team. Jack Walton, Jack Butler, JJ Ryan, Mark Brennan, Shane Comerford, Eoin Delahunty, Kevin Ging, Paddy Brennan, Brendan Dunne, Dan Cahill, Oisín Egan, Scott Lawlor, Conor Walton, Tom Brennan, John Muldowney.
Used Subs: Billy Egan, Billy Dowling, Oisín Conway, Ciaran Dowling, Liam Walsh.
Subs: Stephen Robinson, Liam Cleere, Craig Lawlor, Eoin Egan.
Busy time for this bunch with Feile 2016 next up on Saturday coming. Best of Luck Boys!!!