The Crecora Manister Under 10 squad played in the na Piarsaigh organised annual Tommy Burtchaell Tournament on Saturday October 14th, 2017 at the na Piarsaigh GAA grounds.
Game 1 : Kilnadema, Co. Leitrim
We played our first game against Kilnadema from Co. Leitrim and playing against a strong wind in the first half, we struggled to get to grips with the power and hurling skills of Kilnadema and trailed at half time by ten points. On the change of ends, Crecora Manister took the game to their opponents and narrowed the deficit to four points at the full time whistle. All the players responded well to the coaches half time talk and the encouragement from the parents on the side-line.
Game 2 : Blarney, Co. Cork
Our second game saw our players continue the excellent progress from previous games and while playing against a strong breeze, we trailed Blarney on a scoreline of 1-2 to 1-1. The Crecora goal being scored by Niall Conheady from a powerful close in free. The second half showed the Crecora/Manister boys take the game to their opponents and some superb play from the inside forward line of Jack Lane, Daniel Woods and Brian Maher, supported by the excellent hurling of Cian Dillon, Evan O’Byrne and Matthew McInerney in the half forward saw us take the lead with a minute to play on the scorline of 2-4 to 2-2. The last minutes were nail biting but the superb defending by Daryl Hedderman, Tommy Gore, Mark O’Keeffe, David Holmes, Oisin Foster, Brendan Hassett ,Cillian Ryan, and goalkeeper Harry Buckley, supplemented by the free scoring Niall Conheady and Liam Mulqueen in midfield ensured we held on to win on a scoreline of 2-6 – 2-4.
Game 3 : Na Piarsaigh, Limerick
Our third and final group game saw our players continue the good performance in the previous games and on this occasion we began by playing with the wind and scored three early goals from Evan O’Byrne, Brian Maher and Niall Conheady and several long range points from Cian Dillon and Matthew McInerney. Daryl Hedderman and Mark O’Keeffe dominated the Na Piarsaigh forwards and Oisin Foster and David Holmes played some lovely diagonal balls into our foward and this resulted in Crecora/Manister leading at half time by 3-5 to 1-2. The opposition came at us strongly in the second half and the performances by Liam Mulqueen, Jack Lane, Tommy Gore and Daniel Woods in defence, Cillian Ryan and Brendan Hassett in midfield and Harry Buckley in goals saw us hold on for a comfortable win at full time on a scoreline of 5-7 to 3-6.
Feature of this game was the hat-trick scored by the ever-improving Evan O’Byrne.
Game 4: Cappamore, Limerick.
Our final game saw us meet the second placed team in Group 2, Cappamore.
This game was much more physical than the previous group games and it was no place for the faint hearted. After a slow start, we began to come to terms with the direct running of this Cappamore side and we went in at half time level at 1-1 apiece.
The second half developed into a no- nonsense battle and a late injury to the inspirational Niall Conheady affected the performance of the Crecora/Manister boys. Cappamore scored a crucial late goal to lead by 2-2 to 1-3, and despite a heroic effort from all the players, we ran out of time despite three late attempts at the Cappamore goal.
In summary, the excellent performances from all the Crecora Manister players augurs well for the future of this squad. The coaches urged all the players to continue working on their skills over the winter period in order to continue the huge progress by this group since April this year.
Thanks to all our boys for their massive effort in the four games, some great commitment and skill shown.
And thanks to all the parents for your support on the day at the tournament and throughout the year.
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