After an encouraging start to the year with a convincing win against Mayfield for our Premier Juniors, it was the turn of our Junior Footballers and Division 3 Junior Hurlers to make a winning start to the year.
Glenville 0-06 Russell Rovers 0-12
On Friday March 10th we commenced our Football league campaign under lights in Fouhys Park, Glenville. After a number of years where we’ve struggled with the big ball, it was of great pleasure to watch a Rovers team give it everything, and leave with a very well deserved two league points in the bag.
A good start is half the work and this certainly proved the case as Ross Walsh brought his shooting boots to hit 3 points inside the first 10 minutes, including a sublime effort from his weaker left. With a well taken point from Donnacha O’Donovan, this left Rovers with a 4-2 lead. Glenville found their rhythm with a couple of exceptional points from their centre forward, as Rovers found it tough to get out from defense. That was until a great break up the field from James Kennefick led to some fine interplay from the McGrath brothers, with Eoin scoring from range. Rovers were able to pressure the resulting kick out with Ross Walsh showing class once again with an overhead effort that had to be seen to be believed.
The lads were able to settle for half time leading 8-5 where the management team of Noel O’Brien, Donal Fitzgerald and Kevin Ivers provided words of encouragement.
In what was a high scoring first half, tired minds and bodies meant that scores were harder to get in the second half as Rovers soaked up more pressure from Glenville in the second half, even resulting in a 10 minute sin black card for Paul Lane. However there was no getting through to Stephen Cronin’s goals for Glenville as any threat was repelled by Cormac Aherne, Aidan Beausang and Sean Devanney in the full back line, as well as a strong outing from Tom Morrison who clearly knows a thing or two about cutting out danger from his days on the rugby pitch. In fact Glenville only managed 1 point in the second half. As Glenville pushed this opened up space at the other end, where Jack McGrath found the target, and Ross Walsh added to a final personal tally of 8 points, 7 of which from play.
Alan Lenihan replaced debutant Kevin Roche for the second half and the ever green Kevin Walsh played an important roles from the bench for the final 10 minutes. A mighty effort all round with Cobh, Midleton and Lisgoold to come in the league.
Team: Stephen Cronin, Aidan Beausang, Cormac Aherne, Sean Devanney, Tom Morrison, Paul Lane, Fintan Murray, James Kennefick, Kiaran Aherne, Donnacha O’Donovan (0-1), Jack McGrath (0-2), Eoin McGrath (0-1), Kevin Roche, Ross Walsh (0-8), Jack Beausang. Subs: Alan Lenihan, Kevin Walsh
Erins Own 0-13 Russell Rovers 0-14
With league points already in the bag by our Premier Junior hurlers and Junior B footballers, our Junior C hurlers did not let the show down in wet and drizzly conditions in Caherlag on Sunday March 12th, when they had a well-deserved and hard-fought win over the home side by the narrowest of margins.
Eoghan Devanney and Shane O’Donovan made their first starts in adult hurling after both impressing in their debuts as subs during the premier junior match against Mayfield a week earlier, while Kevin Roche has the privilege of making his adult Football and Hurling debut in the same weekend. Each player can be well pleased with their performance.
Also, great to see Alan Linehan back in hurling action after his sojourn away.
Trailing by 0-9 to 0-5 at half-time, things weren’t looking great but a good pep talk by Kevin Moynihan at the break upped the ante in the second half. Every single player from corner-back to corner-forward put their shoulders to the wheel and fought like tigers for possession. Cormac Aherne was our leading marksman with 0-8 (0-6f), along with a great performance by Shane O’Neill (0-3), Eoin McGrath (0-1), Shane O’Donovan (0-1) and Kiaran Aherne (0-1) to eke out a victory that looked unlikely at half-time.
Veteran Chris Scanlon deputised for the unavailable Stephen Cronin in goal and made no mistake with a “safety first” approach, especially under dangerous dropping balls.
Well done to all who turned up in Caherlag on a bad afternoon when there were other sporting distractions on TV.
Team: Chris Scanlon; Alan Linehan, Eoghan Devanney, Donnacha O’Donovan; Tom Morrison, Fintan Murray, Sean Devanney; Shane O’Donovan, Sam Walsh; Kiaran Aherne, Cormac Aherne, Shane O’Neill; Eoin McGrath, Jack Beausang, Kevin Roche.
Subs: Kieran Ivers, Brian Daly and Cormac Deverey (all used).
Our next fixture in this league is versus Sarsfields on Saturday March 18th in Shanagarry (time to be confirmed), followed by our Premier Junior hurlers versus Aghada in Rostellan on Sunday March 19th at 11.30am.
Many thanks to Redmond Walsh for his support with Match Reports.
