Craobh Chiarain V Raheny (Group 1) V Raheny (Group 2)
Raheny Green Report By: Kieran Doherty Mentors: Kieran Doherty, Paul Nolan and John Strain Squad: Luke Morgan, Mathew Dowdall, Joseph Doherty, John Broderick, Jamie Nolan, Max Osborne, Dylan Strain, Joe Bonnar and Tiernan O’Brien  With Craobh Chairain refusing to reduce their numbers, reinforcements arrived in the form of Conor Watters to ensure a fair contest. Conor's introduction, especially with his fine puck outs allowed Raheny to concentrate more on attack. Fine striking from Max Osborne, Dylan Strain and Tiernan O'Brien kept the game in the balance right to the end. Jamie Nolan pounced on a mistake by the opposition keeper to score Raheny's only goal of the game, but unfortunately Craobh Chairain also scored a goal in the second half and so ran out winners by 2 goals to one. The training game with the red team was well contested. The reds surged into a 3 goal lead but the ever dependable Max Osborne scored 2 goals to reduce the lead. The game ended 3-2 before the greens could get an equaliser. Raheny Red Report by: Kevin Fitzpatrick Mentors: Kevin Fitzpatrick Squad: Martin Bishop, Dan O'Grady, Sean Quinn, Cian Rossi, Adam Robinson, Ordhran Carmody, Ultan Fitzpatrick, Mathew Grant, Rian Priseman and Cathal Shovlin.  The Raheny Red team put on
an excellent display of hurling skills against a very good Craobh Chiarain
side.The boys opened well with a great
early goal scored by Matthew Grant. The
boys were linking up really well with lots of quick strikes of the ball on the
run, a skill we have been working on in training. Dan, Ultan and Rian worked very hard in the
midfield to penetrate a very well-defended Craobh Chiarain back line. The
forward line of Cathal and Matthew threatened the goal continuously throughout the
game. At the back Ordhran, Cian, Adam
and Sean showed great team spirit and defence skills. The boys did not win the match in the end but
the performance showed that there will be many victories in the games ahead.
Raheny Orange Report By: Niall Watters Mentors: Niall Watters, Tony Lawless & Joanne Kerrisk Squad: Colin McAweeney, Conor Watters, Adam Roberts, Matt Lawless, Ciaran Kerrisk, Brian Murray, Conor Watters, Sean Quinn, Sam Mitchell and Joseph Doherty.  Group 2 were scheduled to play Naomh Fionnbarra at home, however, St. Anne's was called unplayable on Friday morning. With some quick phone calls, a new arrangement was arrived at. Both Groups (1 & 2) of the Raheny under 8s would travel to Croabh Chiarain's senior pitch, off the N32, as the original Craobh game in Maypark was also called off due to an unplayable pitch. Raheny oranges first match was a training match against Raheny blue, while Group 1's Red and Green teams played Craobh Chiarain competition. This game was an even affair as we would expect, but the oranges came out on top 2v1 with goals by Matt Lawless and Conor Watters. This game proved a great warm up for the follow on game against Craobh. The Craobh team had just come off a narrow victory over Raheny greens, and the match was again a close affair. This was perhaps the best hurling performance by the Raheny Orange team to date. For the match, we were joined by Sean Quinn in midfield and Joseph Doherty in defence to match the opposition numbers. Both of these lads added some steel and stealth to an already outstanding performance. Raheny scored one goal in each half from the hurl of Ciaran Kerrisk. Craobh scored a great '65' in the first half. This match was a battle to the end and there were a number of stand out performances: Adam Roberts was nearly scoring from huge puck outs throughout; Joseph Doherty and Jack Codd were immense, staying in position, in defence throughout the game; Sean Quinn, Conor Watters, and Brian Murray tackled, worked and put some great passes together in midfield; and up front, Matt Lawless, Colin McAweeney and Sam Mitchell proved a thorn in the side of very solid Croabh defence. It was a wonderful hurling performance, showing maturity from such young lads, against a very strong team. Raheny Blue Report By: Padraig Kent Mentors: Padraig Kent, Conor Pitts & Tony O'Grady . Squad: Dan O'Grady, James Pitts, Ryan Kent, Evan Wynne, Luke Kelly, Johnny Baldwin and Cormac Baldwin.  The blue crew were diverted to Craobh Ciarán’s home turf when St Annes was deemed unplayable. With the Red’s and Greens already in action against the Craobh, the blues played a warm up against the Oranges. It was wonderful to see Oscar run out again with his team mates and he made an instant impression in goal with some fine saves and great strikes later in the back line. Ryan Kent was also on form in this game with strong tackles and knocking down some fine puc outs from the opposition. Our only goal in this encounter came from a fine strike from Johnny Baldwin. Cormac took a nasty knock but bravely took up position between the sticks while he recovered in time for the 2nd game against the Craobh. The oranges won out by two to one but it should be remembered that 3 of our men were on duty with the Red team.
For our 2nd encounter, we got Dan and Mathew back while Rian remained on loan. This was a really difficult game for the Blue team however I believe it was a great experience. This Craobh unit displayed some unusual tactics with their back line pushing right up to midfield when the slioter was in the final quarter of the our territory. Once the Sliotar was in our goal area, I counted 6 Craobh players attacking the goal mouth simultaneously. Aside from this our back line held firm and certainly the score did not reflect the competitive spirit of the encounter. There were fine strikes on goal from Cormac Mathew and Luke. There were excellent tackles from James, Evan and Johnny, while the work rate of Dan and Ryan was nothing short of excellent. Certainly there were more positives in this game for Raheny than negatives and the experience will stand to the blue crew as the season progresses. |
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